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Sunni chief says Gadhafi's son was behind explosion

The attack in northern Iraq killed 38 people.

BAGHDAD - A son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for last week's devastating explosion in northern Iraq, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qaida said Saturday.

At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded Wednesday when a huge blast destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The next day, a suicide bomber killed the provincial police chief and two other officers as they surveyed the blast site.

Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who also is a police official in Anbar province, said those attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who slipped into the country months ago from Syria.

Naief said the regiment, which is working with al-Qaida in Iraq, was supported by Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, 36, the eldest son of the Libyan leader.

"I am sure of what I am talking about, and it is documented," Naief said, adding that he was "100 percent sure" of the younger Gadhafi's role with the group.

A man who answered the phone at Gadhafi's office in Tripoli said Gadhafi was not immediately available for comment.

Naief said his information about the Seifaddin Regiment and the younger Gadhafi's purported role came from "reliable sources" maintained by his Anbar Awakening Council within the ranks of al-Qaida in Mosul and elsewhere. He said the information was passed to the U.S. military two or three months ago.

"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months," Naief said of the Seifaddin Regiment.

The Anbar Awakening Council is an alliance of Sunni tribes in the western province that turned against al-Qaida and began working with U.S. forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop in violence in Anbar.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment about Naief's claim.

Iran official praises U.S. troop cut in Iraq

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, had qualified praise Saturday for Washington's planned troop drawdown in Iraq, but urged the United States to expedite handing over full control of all affairs - including security - to the Iraqi government.

Mottaki used a public meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and a separate talk with reporters to criticize the United States for its push for new U.N. sanctions against Iran, as well as its Afghan and Iraq policies.

In turn, Zalmay Khalilzad, America's U.N. ambassador, accused Iran of talking stability but fomenting unrest in the Middle East. He rejected Tehran's call for a delay in any new U.N. sanctions to punish it for defying Security Council demands to freeze uranium enrichment.

Middle East instability has been one important focus of the four-day gathering in Davos, and a session with Mottaki and Khalilzad on the same podium drew a full house.

[Last modified January 27, 2008, 02:29:17]