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U.S. Deploys a Purpose-Driven Distinction
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"He is not just a fighter, but a social and political leader," said Salam al-Maliki, 40, a Mahdi Army leader in Sadr City. "You can say he is like a tribal chief. He was basically the government security system when there was no government."
Freiji operated command centers next to both of the major hospitals in Sadr City, including a structure in the median of the road next to Sadr Hospital that U.S. military officials nicknamed "Tahseen's trailer," said Maj. Bryan Gibby, the intelligence officer for the brigade, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
The U.S. military struck the site with missiles about 10 a.m. on the morning of May 3. The statement disclosing the attack identified the targets as "criminal elements."
The strike killed or wounded several Mahdi Army commanders, including a top lieutenant to Freiji named Arkan Muhammad Ali al-Hasnawi, Gibby said. Hasnawi, whose death was confirmed by Mahdi Army leaders, was responsible for the kidnapping of eight tribal leaders last October, in addition to multiple rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops, U.S. officials said.
Hasnawi, 35, joined Sadr's militia in 2003 and battled American forces in Najaf in 2004 and Sunni insurgents in recent years, according to Jamal al-Harmoushy, a Mahdi Army commander in the southern city of Kufa. "He was devoted and extremely obedient to Moqtada al-Sadr," Harmoushy said.
U.S. military commanders in Sadr City acknowledged that even leaders of so-called special groups have close ties to mainstream Mahdi Army leaders and top Sadr aides.
"The special groups all have direct communication with OMS," said Capt. Ron Underwood, an intelligence officer with the unit responsible for southeastern Sadr City, using a U.S. military abbreviation for the office of Moqtada al-Sadr.
U.S. military officials said the top special groups leader in Sadr City is Mahdi Khaddam Alawi al-Zirjawi. They said Zirjawi, whose noms de guerre are Abu Ahmad and Abu Rayna, had traveled to Iran several times for training by Iranian agents and by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement backed by Iran.
"In terms of public enemy number one in Sadr City, it's Haji Mahdi," said Gibby, referring to Zirjawi with an honorific signifying that a person has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Gibby said Zirjawi still reports to Sadr. "Sadr has not repudiated him. Haji Mahdi fits in the organization," he said. "I think OMS leaders are comfortable with him."
U.S. officials described a list of top special groups targets who they said had all been trained in Iran, although Mahdi Army leaders said none of them were rogue elements but rather Mahdi Army commanders who report directly to Sadr. The leaders also denied that any of them received funding or assistance from Iran, saying the U.S. military was trying to undermine the Mahdi Army's reputation as a nationalist movement.
There was Baqir al-Saidi, who was responsible for the kidnapping of five British contractors last year, according to U.S. officials. A member of a prominent Shiite family, Saidi had been in Iran as recently as February and had been considering fleeing there in the past few days to evade capture, the officials said.
