United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

The U.S. military is attributing responsibility for a bombing in Baghdad to a Shiite radical who has broken away from Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and who has enriched himself by seizing homes in Baghdad's Hurriya neighborhood that belonged to displaced Sunnis and renting them to Shiite families, the Los Angeles Times reported.[1] -- The death toll from the truck bombing on Tuesday has risen to 63, Ned Parker and Usama Redha said. -- "U.S. and Iraqi forces have chased [Haydar Mehdi Khadum] Fawadi for months and are offering a $50,000 reward for help in his capture," according to Parker and Redha. -- "Mahdi Army members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fawadi had been expelled from their militia about two years ago and had a reputation as a criminal." -- Many Iraqis are "convinced the Americans had carried out the bombing," the Los Angeles Times said. -- A. U.S. spokesperson denominated Fawadi "an all-around bad guy," but a local resident scoffed: "Nobody will believe them. They are the occupiers. It is propaganda,” the New York Times said.[2] -- "A spokesman for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rejected the American version as 'completely away from reality,'” Andrew Kramer reported. -- "Jabir Habeeb Jabir, a mainstream Shiite lawmaker, also questioned the assertion that a Shiite had killed Shiites to provoke revenge killings against Sunnis. 'We never heard of such actions,' he said." -- The Los Angeles Times noted that "The Americans accuse Iran of funding, supplying, and training the 'special groups,' which Tehran denies," and the New York Times said that the U.S. had "identified [Fawadi] as a leader of the Iranian-linked Shiite fighters known as special groups." -- This sort of remark led Iran to protest on Thursday that "The U.S. has given refuge to terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) on one hand and its media are misleading the public opinion by linking Iran to the terrorist bombings in Iraq on the other hand," the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.[3] ...

** The U.S. military asserts that a hard-liner protecting a real estate scheme in the Baghdad district was responsible for Tuesday's attack, which killed 63 people. **

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military Wednesday accused a Shiite Muslim hard-liner 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 Hurriya neighborhood had even blamed Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi, whose guards have been accused of violence in the Iraqi 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 Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia or have broken away. The description, in effect, draws a distinction between the Sadr movement's moderate and more radical elements. The U.S. accuses Iran of funding, supplying, and training the "special groups," which Tehran denies.

Army 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 Fawadi. They said Fawadi's group had seized homes that belong to displaced Sunnis and rented them out to Shiite families. Thousands of Sunnis fled Hurriya beginning in November 2006 at the height of Baghdad's civil war.

"We believe he [Fawadi] ordered the attack to incite violence against Sunnis; that his intent was to disrupt Sunni resettlement in Hurriya in order to maintain extortion of real estate rental income to support his nefarious activities," Stover said. "He killed Iraqi civilians and attempted to incite retaliatory bloodshed."

However, there was some confusion about Fawadi's identity. The military's wanted poster indicated that Fawadi also goes by the name Haidar Khadum Majidi. An Iraqi security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that Fawadi and Majidi are two different people. According to the officer, Fawadi reports to Majidi.

The activities of their fighters had been reduced over the last year because of the U.S. military buildup in Baghdad. A Shiite paramilitary group recruited to guard Hurriya has in part offset their influence. Even so, the officer said, Majidi toured the neighborhood last week in a convoy flanked by motorcycles as a reminder of his fighters' strength.

With the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq after 2003, Majidi, a former vegetable seller, positioned himself as a defender of the Shiites, vowing to kill two Sunni families in revenge for every Shiite family slain, the officer said. Majidi and Fawadi carried out attacks, killing Iraqis and bombing U.S. soldiers, the officer said.

The officer also said both men were still members of the Mahdi Army. However, Mahdi Army members, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fawadi was expelled about two years ago and had a reputation as a criminal. They made no mention of Majidi.

Fawadi had run afoul of Sadr's militia over killings and criminal activity in the Sunni section of Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood, the members said, and they accused him of maintaining ties with Iranian security agents. Sadr announced plans Friday to disarm most of his fighters, in what was seen as his latest effort to discipline and control his sprawling movement.

Meanwhile, some angry residents of Hurriya blamed the U.S. for the bombing and demanded that the Mahdi Army be given back control of the district. "All the time the Mahdi Army was in charge of Hurriya we enjoyed the peace," said a school principal, who declined to identify himself.

An electrician who also declined to identify himself said he was convinced the Americans had carried out the bombing. He said he saw U.S. soldiers standing in an alley a few minutes before the truck bomb exploded. "The Americans did it, it wasn't special groups or Al Qaeda," he said.

Hamdallah Rikabi, a spokesman for the Sadr movement in west Baghdad, also blamed the Americans. "The people in Hurriya told us that the explosion took place just after the U.S. forces left the scene," Rikabi said. "So we think they are responsible."

B> BAGHDAD -- The American military on Wednesday blamed a Shiite militia leader for detonating a car bomb that killed 63 people in a Shiite district a day earlier, saying he had intended to set off sectarian violence against Sunnis returning to the area as security improved.

Shiite militias drove Sunni residents from the area 18 months ago, when Baghdad was gripped in a cycle of revenge killings that ultimately divided the city between the sects. Enraged residents had blamed either American soldiers, who had been nearby, or Sunni insurgents from Al Deel, the bordering Sunni district. But the United States military blamed Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi, and identified him as a leader of the Iranian-linked Shiite fighters known as special groups.

“We believe he ordered the attack to incite Shiite violence against Sunnis,” Lt. Col. Steven Stover, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, said by e-mail. He said the military had corroborated its information from more than one source. “He’s an all-around bad guy.”

Perhaps to quell potential sectarian vendettas, the American military sent a convoy of Humvees with loudspeakers on their roofs to the area on Wednesday. The convoy traveled slowly down one street around noon, blaring a recorded message in Arabic: “The criminal Haydar Mehdi has committed the bombing. He does not care about your life.”

The convoy stopped at an intersection for a funeral procession of young men carrying a coffin, then resumed its crawl.

Residents and some Shiite politicians were skeptical. Interviewed as the convoy passed, a man who identified himself only as Abu Gaith, or the father of Gaith, scoffed at the message.

“Nobody will believe them,” he said. “They are the occupiers. It is propaganda.”

An Iraqi government statement avoided placing blame, saying only, “This crime will not influence our determination and resolve to defeat the terrorists.”

A spokesman for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rejected the American version as “completely away from reality.”

Jabir Habeeb Jabir, a mainstream Shiite lawmaker, also questioned the assertion that a Shiite had killed Shiites to provoke revenge killings against Sunnis. “We never heard of such actions,” he said.

The car bomb, the most deadly in Baghdad since March, detonated near a group standing on the street drinking tea to celebrate a Shiite holiday, witnesses said. Azhar Sadiq, a survivor, said she had taken her 3-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son to the shopping district because the children had few opportunities to leave the house. She had stopped to drink tea for the celebration when the bomb exploded.

“I hugged my two kids, and my body was full of shrapnel,” she said in an interview at the Kadhimiya Teaching Hospital. “I only realized that in the hospital, because I was focusing on my kids.”

In Kirkuk, in the north, a roadside bomb killed a policeman and wounded three civilians on Wednesday. Farther north in Mosul, a car bomb wounded eight people. Police in Kut, south of Baghdad, seized what they said were 27 Iranian-made improvised explosive devices.

TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini on Thursday accused U.S. media for linking Iran to the terrorist attacks in Iraq.

According to a foreign ministry press release, Hosseini condemned the recent terrorist attack in Baghdad, criticizing certain U.S. media for alleged Iran support for Special Groups in the neighboring country.

"The U.S. has given refuge to terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) on one hand and its media are misleading the public opinion by linking Iran to the terrorist bombings in Iraq on the other hand," Hosseini said.

Such scenarios are part of the U.S. misinformation campaign in Iraq and the allegations by occupiers are baseless and fabricated, he said, adding that the enemies try to tarnish Iranians' constructive and supportive role in the neighboring country which is backing the Iraqi democratic process, government, and nation.

"The desperate efforts are considered only justification for the continued presence of occupied forces in Iraq, but they fail to undermine the firm relations between Iranians and Iraqis," Hosseini said.

U.S. media on Wednesday blamed Special Groups, which, according to U.S. military terminology, refers to Shiite militia extremists funded, trained, and armed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force operatives, for Tuesday's deadly car bombing that targeted a crowded area in the Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah in Baghdad.

The car bombing, which killed 63 and wounded more than 80, was the deadliest in Baghdad since March 6 when a market was hit by bombs, nearly 70 people died and more than a hundred were injured.