BAGHDAD - A commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Badr Shiite militia was gunned down in Baghdad Wednesday after a purported message from Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warned the group would be targeted. Rahim Amin was gunned down around midday in Baghdad's southern Dura district, a source at the defense ministry said, adding that he carried a badge on him that identified him as a member of Badr. Yarmuk hospital confirmed Rahim's killing. In an Internet-posted voice message attributed to Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted fugitive who has never made secret his hatred for the country's majority Shiites said he was creating the Omar Brigade to eliminate Badr members. The Iranian-trained militia is the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Both SCIRI's head Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Badr's chief Hadi al-Ameri are senior deputies in parliament from the dominant Shiite bloc. Badr changed its name last year to Badr Organisation from Badr Brigade and claims to be a political party now. Many Sunni Arabs accuse Badr of killing their clerics and former members of ousted leader Saddam Hussein's security apparatus allegedly according to a hit list compiled by the militia.
| OK, Badr, looks like Zarqawi has made the first move. Your turn at bat. |
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