Iraq militant freed in deal?

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi accused of being behind the 2007 killings of five U.S. soldiers has been released by the Iraqi government, according to an Iraqi official.

"According to my personal information, he was released two days ago," the official, Alaa al-Taei, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Tuesday.

The suspect, Qais al-Khazali, is accused of being a leader of a militia, Asa'ib al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous. He is a onetime aide and now rival of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He was transferred from U.S. military custody to Iraqi hands last week.

That transfer came hours before the militia released a British computer expert, Peter Moore, whom it had held for 2 ½ years.

Two of Khazali's followers told the Los Angeles Times his release was part of an exchange that saw a longtime British hostage freed last week.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi government have denied the transfer was part of a deal for Moore. The remains of three of the four men kidnapped with him have been recovered; Iraqi authorities said they were close to a deal for clarity on the fate of the last man.

Khazali, notorious for his past militia activities and his ambitions to challenge al-Sadr as the leading voice of extremist Shiites in Iraq, was delivered to his followers Tuesday morning after police escorted him out of Baghdad's Green Zone government enclave, the two followers said.

The release followed the complicated exchange of Khazali and 450 of his supporters from U.S. to Iraqi custody, which began in June when his brother Laith and a senior aide were given their freedom.

The U.S. military has backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in its effort to bring Khazali inside the political process and has said the League of the Righteous halted its attacks against the Americans last spring.

Khazali had been held since March 2007 in the kidnapping and killing of five U.S. soldiers in the southern city of Karbala in January of that year. His supporters kidnapped the Britons to bargain for his release. At the time, the Americans accused Khazali of working in direct collaboration with Iran's Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guard.

The U.S. military believes Moore was held for at least part of the time in Iran, but a senior Iraqi official said the hostage had likely been held in Iraq for most, if not all, of his captivity.

The official described Khazali's relationship with Iran as one of mutual interest and no different from that existing between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and Tehran.

Despite the Karbala killings, the U.S. military has offered tacit support to Iraq in its intentions to rehabilitate Khazali.

"The way you end these kinds of conflicts, the way you end these kinds of wars ... is by individuals ultimately reconciling. That process is one we have supported and the Iraqi government has supported as well," Gen. David Petraeus said on a visit last week to Baghdad, when asked about Khazali's transfer to Iraqi custody.

Al-Maliki's circle has weighed Khazali, 39, as an alternative to the volatile al-Sadr, according to the Iraqi official. Al-Sadr disappeared from public view more than two years ago and is believed to be studying in Iran.

Khazali boasts the pedigree to challenge al-Sadr because of his history as one of the closest aides to al-Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr, who was slain in 1999. Khazali served as a right-hand man to the younger al-Sadr in the first years after the U.S. invasion in 2003, as the pair built upon the legacy of the father for championing the rights of the Shiite underclass.

Khazali also has been described as a key leader in the al-Sadr movement's fight against U.S. troops in the city of Najaf in the summer of 2004 and later helped lead the Mahdi Army's battle against Sunni rebels.

At the end of 2006, Khazali and al-Sadr bickered over the cleric's decision to implement a freeze on armed operations at the start of the U.S. military troop buildup, according to government officials and al-Sadr supporters. The rupture would only become official after Khazali was arrested.

In addition to Khazali, several senior al-Sadr aides have left the movement to form their own political parties in the last two years. They cite their unhappiness with the current circle around al-Sadr and its lack of direction.

News of the release emerged as a U.S. congressional delegation visited Iraq on Tuesday. The delegation, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, met with al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders and were briefed by Gen. Ray Odierno.

McCain criticized the ruling in the United States that dismissed charges against five former Blackwater security guards who fired on unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007 in a fusillade that left 17 dead. Iraqis were outraged by the ruling.

"We regret the decision," McCain said. "However, we do respect the rule of law. We hope and believe that the ruling will be appealed."