Officials said Al Badri was key to Al Qaida's strategy to
spark a Sunni-Shi'ite war in Iraq. They said Al Badri, killed in a U.S. air
strike in Banat Al Hassan, had been responsible for identifying key Shi'ite
targets, particularly mosques, in attacks designed to provoke a backlash
against the Sunni community.
The bombing of the Al Askari mosque in Samara in 2006 sparked a huge
Shi'ite backlash that led to the death of thousands of Sunnis, particularly
in the Baghdad area. Shi'ite death squads, usually composed of Iraqi police
officers, raided Sunni neighborhoods for nightly sessions of torture and
killing.
Al Badri was also said to have been the commander of Al Qaida in the
Salah Eddin province. Officials said Al Badri had been tracked by U.S.
aircraft around Samara.
"From the surveillance that was going on, it looked like they were
setting up an ambush," Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a U.S. military spokesman, said.
"So they brought in rotary wing and close air support and there was some
strafing that occurred from helicopters. Al Badri's body was positively
identified by close associates and family members."
The Iraq Army has reported the capture of another leading Al Qaida
operative. An army officer said Talal Al Baazi, the Al Qaida chief in
Tikrit, was captured. No other information was provided.
"We've always felt that, even in a weakened state, Al Qaida is very
dangerous," Fox said. "Our approach to how we handle that is to take down
the car-bomb networks [and] go after these different nodes and cells."
