Al-Qaida in Iraq Confirms Death of 2 Leaders

Al-Qaida in Iraq has confirmed that two of its leaders were killed one week ago in a joint operation by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

A statement posted Sunday on Islamist websites says Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi were attending a meeting when U.S. and Iraqi troops engaged them in a battle and launched an air strike.

The statement quotes a senior figure in the Islamic State of Iraq militant group as saying the two al-Qaida commanders were steadfast in the pursuit of jihad, or holy war. The militant also urges the group's followers to keep fighting and transform the leaders' blood into "light and fire."

U.S. and Iraqi officials say Masri and Baghdadi were killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid on a hideout near the northern city of Tikrit on April 18.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called the deaths a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaida in Iraq.

Militants carried out a wave of bombings Friday in apparent retaliation for the raid, killing at least 69 people in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the bombings on al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim group. No group has claimed responsibility.

Iraq bombings raise specter of Shiite militia

In offering to help Iraqi security forces to fight insurgents after a wave of deadly bombings in the capital, an anti-American Shiite cleric is sending a clear signal to the government: If you don't protect us, we'll protect ourselves.

Muqtada al-Sadr's statement raised the fearful specter that he might be considering reactivating his once-powerful militia known as the Mahdi Army, a move that would play into al-Qaida in Iraq's efforts to spark sectarian war.

Al-Sadr's aides, however, insisted on Saturday that the cleric wasn't threatening to send armed men onto the streets but was offering to help the government forces, who have been widely criticized for failing to protect the people as U.S. troops pull back.

The move comes as al-Sadr seeks to consolidate political power among Iraq's Shiites after a strong showing by his followers in March 7 parliamentary elections. The cleric, a staunch opponent of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has emerged as a power broker who could play a key role in deciding the country's next leader.

Hours after bombs targeting Shiite mosques around Baghdad killed dozens of worshippers on Friday, al-Sadr urged his followers to remain calm and to do nothing to prompt U.S. forces to remain in Iraq any longer than their planned withdrawal deadline at the end of 2011.

But he added that he was prepared to provide "hundreds of believers" to join the Iraqi army and police to defend "their shrines, mosques, prayers, markets, houses and their towns."

He did not directly mention the Mahdi Army, which fought pitched battles with American forces and was blamed in some of the country's worst sectarian bloodshed before it was routed by U.S.-Iraqi offensives in 2008.

Senior al-Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji said Saturday that the cleric wants to "integrate the believers, and here I mean Mahdi Army people, in the security forces through official ways."

Sadrist lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili also emphasized that al-Sadr's statement was not meant to supplant the Iraqi military.

"This cooperation does not mean that Mahdi army would go back with arms to the streets or participating in any violent act. It is only a call for cooperation with the army and police," he said.

An Iraqi government spokesman did not return calls seeking comment Saturday. But al-Maliki's senior aide Ali al-Adeeb expressed doubt that the government would accept al-Sadr's offer.

"The government might ask the help of individual citizens, not from armed groups," al-Adeeb said. "Such integration might aggravate the situation and provoke the other sect that would demand to do the same."

Violence continued Saturday, as bombs hidden in three plastic bags exploded simultaneously in a billiard hall in a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding 25, according to police and hospital officials.

Al-Sadr, who is widely believed to be based in Iran, has re-emerged as a prominent politician after announcing in 2008 that he was transforming his militia into a social welfare body with a few guerrilla cells to attack U.S. troops if the Pentagon refused to leave Iraq.

His bloc, which was part of a hard-line Shiite religious coalition, won 39 seats in the 325-member parliament, making him a sought-after ally as al-Maliki and secular rival Ayad Allawi jockey for the necessary majority support to govern.

The protracted wrangling has raised fears the political vacuum may allow sectarian violence that peaked after the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra to rekindle. U.S. and Iraqi officials have credited Shiites so far for resisting retaliation.

Al-Sadr's offer may well be a political feint. His relationship with al-Maliki has been bitter at best since 2008 and his followers have frequently criticized the prime minister for failing to prevent bombings.

In offering his help — and expecting it to be rebuffed — al-Sadr can describe the militia as needed protection the next time his followers are attacked, according to Brett McGurk, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. National Security Council official.

That, in turn, is exactly what the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq wants: a loose-trigger Shiite adversary who might be easily goaded into sectarian fighting.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Friday attacks that killed 72, most near Shiite mosques or places of worship, but al-Maliki and other officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq. The bombings were widely seen as payback for the killings last weekend of two top al-Qaida in Iraq leaders — and the smug cries of victory by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

"Government officials should direct their full attention to combating terrorism rather than showing up on television all the time to boast about their achievements," said Baghdad political analyst Hadi Jalo. He called the killings of the terror leaders "of little significance because al-Qaida is always able to produce figures to lead and continue."

For his part, al-Maliki has been put in the uncomfortable position of having to woo al-Sadr and the support of his followers. But al-Maliki also can't afford to give al-Sadr carte blanche, and unleashing the Mahdi Army would be seen as a hostile step against Sunnis.

"We know from the bitter experiences of the past that any further integration of militiamen in the official security forces will definitely have a negative impact," said Mohammed Aqbal, a lawmaker with the Sunni Accordance Front.

On the streets of Baghdad's main Shiite enclave, Sadr City, where weeping crowds marched in funeral processions for victims of Friday's bombings, the idea of remobilizing the Mahdi Army for protection had some support.

"They can provide security. The government cannot," said Najim Abdul Hussein, who works near one of the explosion sites. "There is no stability."

2 Iraq tours, a tailspin _ and a tragic end

Coleman Bean went to Iraq twice, but his father remembers a stark difference in his son's two parting messages.

Before his first tour, his father recalls, his son said if anything happened to him, he wanted to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Before his second, four years later, he said he didn't want that any longer.

"He still was very patriotic, he believed in duty," Greg Bean says. "But he had sort of lost his commitment to what we were doing over there. His first tour ... had changed him."

Bean enlisted in the Army six days before the 9/11 attacks. He parachuted into Iraq in the first chaotic weeks of the war. When he returned a year later, he offered PG-rated, sanitized versions of his experiences.

"We got glimpses," the elder Bean says. "He didn't give us a lot of details."

Only later on, the elder Bean says, did he learn from Coleman's friends and Army buddies that his son was among those who'd witnessed a horrifying bus explosion across the street from a safe house in Iraq where he and other soldiers had holed up. Several Iraqis, including children, burned to death before their eyes.

There also was the shooting death of an Iraqi child riding in a car that inexplicably ran a roadblock. "Several shots were fired," the elder Bean says. "There was no way to know who killed the child."

Bean spent the remainder of his tour in Fort Polk, La., training soldiers about to deploy to Iraq. When his hitch ended in 2005, he came home to New Jersey.

He started displaying classic post-traumatic stress symptoms.

"He had trouble with his temper, he was drinking too much, he had trouble focusing, trouble sleeping," his father says. He worked as a bartender and a bouncer; he also considered college. Nothing clicked.

Bean's worried parents encouraged him to seek help.

In 2007, Bean went to a veterans hospital in New Jersey, which resulted in a PTSD diagnosis and a recommendation he enter a residential program or have outpatient counseling. But his father says when officials realized he was still active duty, they said he was under the Army's care and they couldn't help.

Bean didn't get any treatment and was ordered back for a second tour that summer. He was part of the Individual Ready Reserve, one of thousands of soldiers who no longer report to bases but who may be deployed to fill vacancies.

"He was scared, worried, apprehensive as the time got closer," his father recalls.

He offered his son an out.

"I'm a child of the '60s," the elder Bean says. "I said, 'We'll jump in a car and go to Canada. You don't have to go. We'll do whatever it takes.' He said, 'I signed up for it, I trained for it. I've got to go. ... If I don't, someone else will have to.' In the end, he believed he had an obligation. He sucked it up and went back."

Bean's second tour seemed to go better. He was promoted to sergeant. He helped guard convoys, and though that was dangerous, he was living on a base, a far more secure arrangement than his first deployment.

Bean had a positive attitude when he returned and talked about going back to college. But within months, the same troubling patterns emerged. He started drinking heavily, lost his temper, couldn't sleep and suffered panic attacks.

"We kick ourselves at this point," his father now says. "We probably should have been proactive. But he was a grown man with two combat tours. He didn't have to do exactly what mom and dad said."

It was only later, his father says, that he and his wife discovered confidential counseling programs that are appealing to soldiers who are reluctant to identify themselves and seek help in the federal bureaucracy.

On the first weekend of September 2008, Bean got drunk with friends, wrecked his Jeep Cherokee car and was arrested for driving under the influence. Bean was taken to a hospital, then rode home in a cab.

He had to break into his apartment because he didn't have his keys.

He also broke into his locked gun case.

Bean didn't call anyone or leave a note before he turned the gun on himself.

On Sept. 6, 2008 — seven years and one day after he enlisted — Sgt. Coleman Bean died. He was just 25.

6 killed by blasts in western Baghdad

Iraqi police say six people were killed when three bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded in western Baghdad.

The officials say another 19 people were wounded in the blasts.

The bombings struck late Saturday in an area where young people were playing billiards in a mixed, Sunni-Shiite neighborhood.

The blasts came one day after a series of bombings focused in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad killed more than 70 people, raising fears that insurgent groups are trying to re-ignite sectarian violence.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraq factory explosion kills 5, cause unknown

Police and hospital officials say an explosion at an iron factory on the outskirts of a northern Iraqi city has killed five workers and wounded 15.

Police Chief Abdul-Khaliq Talaat said the cause of the Sunday explosion just outside the city of Irbil was not immediately known.

Irbil is located in Iraq's self-rule Kurdish region about 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

An Irbil hospital worker confirmed the deaths.

 An al-Qaida front group in Iraq declared in a statement posted on the Internet Sunday that its two top figures have been killed.

The statement by the Islamic State of Iraq provided the first confirmation from the terror network of the April 19 claim by the Iraqi and U.S. governments that the two men were killed in a joint operation while hiding at a safe house near the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has described the death Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri as a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaida in Iraq. Their deaths also have provided Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a boost in his efforts to keep his job after his coalition finished second in parliamentary elections held March 7.

Sunday's statement said the death of al-Baghdadi and al-Masri would not affect the group's operations in Iraq after new members have joined the group recently. It also poured lavish praise on the two men.

"After a long journey filled with sacrifices and fighting falsehood and its representatives, two knights have dismounted to join the group of martyrs," the statement said. "We announce that the Muslim nation has lost two of the leaders of jihad, and two of its men, who are only known as heroes on the path of jihad."

The statement was posted two days after bombings mostly targeting Shiite places of worship killed 72 people in Iraq's bloodiest day so far this year. The bombings were seen as an apparent backlash by the Sunni-led insurgency after the slaying of the two al-Qaida leaders.

Nobody claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks, but Iraqi officials were quick to blame al-Qaida, which often targets Shiite mosques and religious processions in a bid to stoke new sectarian bloodshed.

Al-Maliki said the insurgents were fighting back after the deaths of their two leaders.