BAGHDAD — The U.S. military accused a Shiite Muslim hard-liner on Wednesday of being responsible for a deadly truck bombing in Baghdad, saying he apparently was trying to provoke a new cycle of sectarian war between Shiites and Sunni Arabs.
The death toll rose to 63 in Tuesday’s blast, which had the hallmarks of an attack by Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq. Residents of the Hurriyah neighborhood had even blamed Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi, whose guards have been accused of past violence in the capital.
But U.S. military officials said they believed the attack had been carried out by a “special group,” their term for fighters who nominally belong to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia or have broken away. The description, in effect, draws a distinction between the al-Sadr movement’s moderate and more radical elements. The Americans accuse Iran of funding, supplying and training the “special groups,” which Iran denies.
Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said the Americans believed the bombing was orchestrated by fighters under the command of Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi. They said al-Fawadi’s group had seized homes that belong to displaced Sunnis and rented them out to Shiite families. An estimated 10,000 Sunni families fled Hurriyah in November 2006 at the height of Baghdad’s civil war.
However, there was some confusion about al-Fawadi’s identity. The military’s wanted poster indicated al-Fawadi also goes by the name Haidar Khadum Majidi. An Iraqi security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that al-Fawadi and Majidi are two different people. According to the officer, al-Fawadi reports to Majidi.
The activities of their fighters had been reduced over the past year because of the U.S. military buildup in Baghdad. Even so, the officer said, Majidi toured the neighborhood last week in a convoy flanked with motorcycles as a reminder of his fighters’ strength.
Meanwhile, angry residents in Hurriyah blamed the Americans for the bombing and demanded the Mahdi Army be given back control of the area.
“All the time the Mahdi Army was in charge of Hurriyah, we enjoyed the peace,” said a school principal who declined to identify himself.
An electrician who also declined to identify himself said he saw American soldiers standing in an alley a few minutes before the explosion.
