Baghdad ? U.S. and Iraqi forces announced Saturday they had killed the mastermind of attacks on Samarra’s famed Golden Mosque, which sparked sectarian violence across the country.

Haytham Badri, who also used the last name Sabi, was killed Thursday when his car caught fire as he fled a U.S. air assault on his home, Iraqi police said. He had been hiding with a group of armed men about 65 miles north of the capital.

Badri’s cousin, who spoke on condition he not be further identified, said in an interview that the dead man’s father and brother identified his body.

Iraqi officials said Badri, field commander in Samarra for al-Qaida in Iraq, was wanted in connection with a February 2006 bombing at the mosque that ignited sectarian violence across Iraq. He also was suspected of orchestrating the killing of Arabiya television correspondent Artwar Bahjat and two co-workers, who were kidnapped while covering the bombing and later shot.