Bomb Kills Head of Iraq Governing Council

[MrRant 0]

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad on Monday, dealing a blow to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq (news - web sites) ahead of a handover of sovereignty on June 30.

 

 

Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was the second and highest-ranking member of the U.S.-appointed council to be assassinated. He was among nine Iraqis, including the bomber, who were killed, Iraqi officials said.

 

"Days like today convince us even more so that the transfer must stay on track," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, speaking on CNN.

 

Kimmitt said that terrorist groups were trying to derail the democratization process in Iraq and that a suicide bomber was responsible.

 

As the current council president, a rotating position, Saleem was the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed during the occupation. His death occurred about six weeks before the United States plans to transfer power to Iraqis and underscores the risks facing those perceived as owing their positions to the Americans.

 

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saleem's death should not deter the transfer of power.

 

"What this shows is that the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from the occupiers to the Iraqi people, and these terrorists are enemies of the Iraqi people themselves," Straw said in Brussels, Belgium upon arrival at a European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers meeting. The ministers planned to discuss the latest developments in Iraq.

 

Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, was a Shiite and a leader of the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra. He was a writer, philosopher and political activist, who served as editor of several newspapers and magazines. The position of council head rotates monthly.

 

In a statement, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, called the killing a "shocking and tragic loss."

 

"The terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq have struck a cruel blow with this vile act today," he said. "But they will be defeated...The Iraqi people will ensure that his vision of a democratic, free and prosperous Iraq will become a reality."

 

One Governing Council member, Salama al-Khafaji, said the bombing appeared to be an effort to foment sectarian divisions in Iraq and disrupt the transfer of political power.

 

Another member, Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, blamed the bombing on the same groups that have conducted other attacks, including a bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last year that killed 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

 

The council said it selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul, to replace Saleem. Al-Yawer will serve as head of the U.S.-appointed council until the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.

 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Southern Shuneh, Jordan, Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said the killing of Saleem shows that council members "are the prime targets of these terrorist attacks and those antidemocratic forces who want to deviate this process. And we will not be intimidated and we will continue the path of a new Iraq."

 

Ammar al-Saffar, an official at the Health Ministry, said the dead include five people in Saleem's entourage as well as two members of the Iraqi security forces. Fourteen Iraqis and an Egyptian were injured, he said.

 

Two U.S. soldiers were also slightly injured in the bombing near the coalition headquarters, which is called the Green Zone, Kimmitt said. Three cars waiting in line at the headquarters were destroyed.

 

Abdul Razaq Abdul Karim, a gardener, was on the street near the checkpoint when a convoy with a police escort arrived moments before the blast. A red Volkswagen blew up in front of him.

 

 

 

"All I could see was a ball of fire rising into the air and there were body parts all around. We picked up the pieces and some of them were burned," he said.

 

A resident of the area, Shirin Mohammad, said she was awakened by the blast and heard gunfire. "We were sleeping and we woke from the blast and our windows were blown out," she said.

 

Kimmitt said the bomb might have consisted of a couple of artillery rounds placed in the back of the vehicle, possibly in the trunk.

 

Saleem was in a convoy of five vehicles, and the car carrying the bomb was adjacent to the council chief's car when it exploded, said witness Mohammed Laith. Hospital officials said Saleem's driver and assistant were among those killed.

 

Aquila al-Hashimi, another Shiite and one of three women on the 25-member body, was mortally wounded Sept. 20 when gunmen in a pickup truck ambushed her car as she drove near her Baghdad home. She died five days later.

 

Meanwhile, fighting persisted the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq, where American jets bombed militia positions in the city of Nasiriyah early Monday after fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove Italian forces out of a base there a day earlier. Residents said seven fighters were killed in overnight battles.

 

An Italian soldier on Monday died of wounds suffered during an attack on the base of the Carabinieri paramilitary police the day before in Nasiriyah, the Defense Ministry in Rome said. The soldier was the 20th Italian to die in Iraq, after a suicide truck bomb in Nasiriyah killed 19 on Nov. 12.

 

At least nine other Italian troops were injured in the clashes with armed supporters of al-Sadr, who launched an uprising against the coalition last month and faces an arrest warrant in the killing of a rival moderate cleric last year.

 

Despite the overnight bombing, militiamen were in control of some government buildings in Nasiriyah, and some people looted cars, residents said.

 

On Sunday, Portuguese police were called out to support the Italians, their first action since the force of 128 deployed to Nasiriyah in November, a Portuguese duty officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

U.S. jets also bombed targets in Karbala, and there were clashes in the city, witnesses said. The bodies of six militiamen were seen in the streets on Monday. There were intermittent blasts and gunfire overnight in Najaf, al-Sadr's base of operations.

 

Amid the ongoing violence, the United States is looking to move some of its 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea (news - web sites) to bolster forces in Iraq.

 

"The U.S. government has told us that it needs to select some U.S. troops in South Korea and send them to Iraq to cope with the worsening situation in Iraq," said Kim Sook, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American Bureau.

 

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any shift in troops from South Korea would be part of the next rotation of American troops in Iraq, set to begin late this summer.

 

Tapping into the U.S. military force in Korea would be an historic move by the Pentagon (news - web sites), underscoring the degree to which the military is stretched to provide enough forces for Iraq while meeting its other commitments.

 

Good to see things are going along smoothly.

[Guest Cerebus]

Shit, this may well affect the June 30 transfer. This is not good.

[Highland 0]

Hopefully this won't affect the transfer of power, because if it does then the terrorists will get the feeling that they're winning.