US forces said yesterday they had killed the al Qaeda leader who masterminded the bombing that destroyed the twin minarets of the revered Shia Golden Mosque in Samarra in June this year.
An earlier bombing of the mosque in February 2006 triggered a wave of tit-for-tat sectarian violence between majority Shia and minority Sunni Arabs that has killed thousands of people.
The US military said Haitham al-Badri, the al Qaeda leader in Salahuddin province, was killed by US forces on August 2nd.
They said he was responsible for the bombing of the Golden Mosque on June 13th this year that destroyed its minarets and sparked a series of revenge attacks on Sunni mosques.
"During an operation August 2nd east of Samarra, Coalition Forces killed ... Haitham al-Badri, the al-Qaeda in Iraq emir of Salahuddin province. He is also the terrorist mastermind responsible for the Golden Mosque bombing in Samarra on June 13," the US military said in a statement.
The Iraqi government has previously blamed Badri for the mosque attack in February 2006.
They said he was in charge of an al Qaeda unit consisting of two Iraqis, four Saudis and a Tunisian.
That bombing was a turning point for Iraq, lifting the lid on simmering tensions between Shias and Sunni Arabs.