[Marxism] #2 Iraqi Governing Council quisling killed in bomb attack...

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Middle East - AP


Bomb Kills Head of Iraq Governing Council

1 hour, 7 minutes ago

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.


A suicide bomber was responsible, the military said.


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."


A previously unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement,
claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying in a Web site
posting that two of its fighters carried out the operation against "the
traitor and mercenary" Saleem.


The council president's position rotates monthly. Saleem's 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, at a meeting
of European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers.


Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, was a Shiite who
led the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra. He
was a writer, philosopher and political activist, and edited several
newspapers and magazines.


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
the August bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that
killed 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.


The council selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim
civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul, to replace Saleem. Al-
Yawer will lead the council until June 30.


Al-Yawer said the council would continue "the march toward
building a democratic, federal, plural and unified Iraq."


"God willing, the criminal forces will be defeated despite all the pain
they are causing to our people and their heroic leaders," he said.


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."


Council member Ahmad Chalabi said terrorists are using the
insurgent Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, where U.S. Marines
stopped patrols last month and allowed an Iraqi security force to
oversee security, to prepare car bombs like the one that killed
Saleem.





"The terrorists are free to roam around and they have been given
sanctuary in Fallujah," Chalabi said. "The garage is open and car
bombs are coming repeatedly."

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

Two U.S. soldiers also were 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.

"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 ? on his way to a daily council meeting ? 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.

Aquila al-Hashimi, another Shiite and one of three women on the
25-member Governing Council, 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 in 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 from a base there on Sunday. Seven
fighters were killed in overnight battles, residents said.

On Monday, an Italian soldier 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 ? 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 controlled some
government buildings in Nasiriyah, and some people looted cars,
residents said.

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 Monday.

There also 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 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 while trying to provide enough
forces for Iraq and meet its other commitments.

At the World Economic Forum in Jordan, King Abdullah II said
Jordan will not send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, and neither
should any other neighboring nations because it could be too
tempting to use them to improperly influence Iraqi society.

Also Monday, two Russian workers held hostage in Iraq for a week
were freed, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing sources in
the company that employs the men.

The two men, workers for the Interenergoservis company, were
seized May 11 after their vehicle was attacked in Musayyib, about
35 miles south of Baghdad. A third worker was killed in the attack.

The men were working at an electrical power plant.





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