U.S. Says It Killed Al Qaeda Mastermind of Golden Dome Mosque Bombing; 13 Killed in Baghdad Blast

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops killed the Al Qaeda in Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the golden dome of a famed sacred Shiite shrine last year and set in motion an unrelenting cycle of sectarian bloodletting, the military said Sunday.

Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, the group’s Salahuddin province emir, was killed in a U.S. operation east of Samarra on Thursday, the military said He also was responsible for the June 13 bombing that toppled the Askariya shrine’s twin minarets, it said. }} more…