Palace intrigue?

Juan Cole picks up on this mystery:

This NYT story about the killing of Ali Khazim al-Hamadani by US and Iraqi troops makes no sense. Khazim is said to have worked as an informer for the US last summer, and had striven to reduce the violence of the Mahdi Army. So did he in the meantime turn on the US and is this payback? Or did he start to know things he wasn't supposed to? The accounts of his death are also contradictory, with the US saying Iraqi troops raided his house and shot him when he picked up a gun to resist them. The Sadr Movement spokesman said he was bayoneted to death (suggesting he was unarmed when killed).

My guess, he started to know things he wasn't supposed to.