Moroccan suspect named in 60 Shiite deaths

updated 3:47 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The government accused a Moroccan of being involved in a triple car bombing in September that killed 60 people in a Shiite town in central Iraq and offered a reward for his arrest, while roadside bombs and shootings Tuesday killed eight people.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in central Iraq, raising to at least 93 the number of American service members who died in October, the fourth deadliest month for the troops in the Iraq war.

The government identified the Moroccan suspect as Muhsen Khayber, also known as Abdul Rahim, and said he was allegedly involved in coordinated suicide bombings in Casablanca on May 16, 2003, that killed 32 people. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

Moroccan authorities blamed the Casablanca attack on al-Qaida, and launched a crackdown on fundamentalist suspects, arresting more than 5,000 people at the time.

The Iraqi government’s statement, which did not specify the reward, said Khayber moved to neighboring Syria in early 2004 and helped form cells of foreign terrorists there who agreed to fight in Iraq.

On Sept. 29, three suicide attackers exploded near-simultaneous car bombs in the heart of a bustling, mainly Shiite town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. In addition to the deaths, at least 70 people were injured.

Foreigners blamed for recent suicide bombings
Iraqi officials did not cite any evidence to link Khayber to the Balad attacks but have long maintained that foreign Islamic extremists play a major role in the wave of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in recent months.

The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has purportedly called for attacks on Shiites, whom he considers heretics.

But Spanish authorities believe Khayber was part of a network linked to Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic extremist group based in northern Iraq, which recruited foreign fighters to go to Iraq to battle the U.S.-led coalition.

Arab media reported that Khayber was arrested in Syria in May 2004 and handed over to the Moroccans. Efforts to reach Moroccan authorities to confirm whether Khayber was in custody were unsuccessful.

However, a Moroccan analyst who attended school with Khayber, Abdellah Rami, said he doubted that he was in custody because he still sends money home to his two wives in the Moroccan city of Larache, where he was born in 1970.

“Khayber used to support the killings of Shiites in Pakistan or the killing of Christians, even before Sept. 11,” Rami said. “He became very animated in the discussions, very fanatic.”

U.S. forces recently have identified several suspected al-Qaida militants it has killed or captured in Iraq, often using their aliases.

Victims of IEDs
The U.S. soldier was killed Monday when a bomb exploded near his foot patrol in Haswah, 31 miles south of Baghdad, the military said. The soldier was the seventh American service member killed Monday in three separate attacks in Iraq.

All were victims of homemade bombs, which the military refers to as “improvised explosive devices,” or IEDs.

The deaths raised to at least 2,026 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. military death toll for October is at least 93, the highest monthly total since January, when 106 American service members died — more than 30 of them in a helicopter crash that was ruled an accident.

Only in two other months since the war began has the U.S. military seen a higher toll: in November 2004, when 137 Americans died, and in April 2004, when 135 died.

Four roadside bombs exploded Tuesday — three in Baghdad and one south of the capital — killing two Iraqis and wounding four others, and drive-by shootings killed two police officers and an Iraqi physician, officials said.

Suspected insurgents opened fire on six Iraqi contractors after they left the U.S. air base in Taji where they were working about 12 miles north of Baghdad, killing four of them and seriously wounding the other two, said police Maj. Felah al-Mohammedawi. Militants often threaten to kill any Iraqi civilians who work with U.S. or Iraqi forces.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide attacker detonated explosives hidden beneath his clothes while lunging at a police patrol stuck in traffic, wounding the city’s police commander and his driver, police said.

Court martial for soldier charged with killing superiors
In Kuwait, a U.S. military investigating officer recommended a court-martial for a National Guard soldier charged with killing two of his superiors in Iraq this summer and raised the possibility of a death sentence.

Col. Patrick Reinert said he found “reasonable cause” to believe that Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, N.Y., used an anti-personnel mine and three grenades to kill a captain and a lieutenant in a “personal vendetta.”

It was believed to be first case of a U.S. soldier in Iraq accused of killing his superiors. Martinez’s defense counsel had argued there was no real evidence against their client.

Military commanders have warned that Sunni-led insurgents will step up their attacks before the Dec. 15 election, when Iraqis will choose their first full-term parliament since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

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