BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces have arrested a Tunisian who played an "active" role in the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, a Shiite shrine, Iraq's national security adviser announced Wednesday.The bombing triggered a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq.
National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said the Tunisian, Abu Qudama, was seriously wounded after he and 15 other foreign terrorists tried to storm an Iraqi military checkpoint, about 25 miles north of Baghdad. All the others were killed. After he was captured, Abu Qudama "confessed to all the information I've just told you," al-Rubaie said.
Abu Qudama operated under the terrorist cell leader, Haitham al-Badri. Al-Badri was "a known terrorist," a member of Ansar al-Sunna before he joined al Qaeda in Iraq, al-Rubaie said. However, Iraqi authorities "were not aware of his being the mastermind behind the golden mosque explosion" until Abu Qudama's arrest, al-Rubaie said.
"The sole reason behind his action was to drive a wedge between the Shiites and Sunnis and to ignite and trigger a sectarian war in this country," al-Rubaie said, referring to al-Badri.