U.S. troops killed the al-Qaida in Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the golden dome of a famed sacred Shiite shrine last year and set in motion an unrelenting cycle of sectarian bloodletting, the military said Sunday.

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops killed an al-Qaida leader behind the bombing of twin minarets at Iraq's prized Golden Dome shrine in Samarra, the military said Sunday. Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri was killed in a U.S. operation Thursday east of Samarra, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Identification cards belonging to two missing U.S. soldiers have been found in a house in Samarra, the U.S. military said Saturday. Spc. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty were believed to have been kidnapped last month south of Baghdad.

The identification cards of two American soldiers missing since an attack on their unit in May were found in an al-Qaida safe house north of Baghdad, along with video production equipment, computers and weapons, the U.S. military said Saturday.

An explosion leveled a Sunni mosque Saturday in Basra, residents said, in the second retaliatory attack in as many days for the toppling of minarets at a prized Shiite shrine in Samarra.