Bomb Kills Head of Iraqi Governing Council 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.
A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent also exploded recently near a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt confirmed Monday, saying two explosives experts were treated for "minor exposure" but no serious injuries were reported. It was believed to be the first confirmed finding of any of the banned weapons upon which the United States based its case for the war against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). 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. A previously unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement, said in a Web site posting that two of its fighters carried out the operation against "the traitor and mercenary" Saleem. The car bomb had the "classic" hallmarks of terrorist Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, Kimmitt said, but he acknowledged that the group's claim of responsibility meant that U.S. authorities will have to investigate further before determing responsibility. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant with links to al-Qaida, is believed responsible for many of the vehicle bombs in recent months and for the death of U.S. civilian Nicholas Berg, whose decapitation was videotaped and posted on the Web last week. The White House said the drive for democracy in Iraq will not be deterred by Saleem's assassination. "Mr. Saleem died working to build a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq," said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. "The Iraqi people will continue his work and see to it that such a vision becomes a reality. 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. The explosion of the sarin shell was confirmed by the Iraqi Survey Group, a U.S. organization whose task was to search for weapons of mass destruction after Saddam's ouster last year. The artillery shell contained two chemicals that mix to form sarin after the shell is fired. It had been rigged as a bomb and was discovered by a U.S. convoy and exploded before it could be defused. The explosion, which occurred "a couple of days ago," released a very small amount of sarin, Kimmitt said. It was the first time U.S. forces had found an artillery shell containing such chemicals, Kimmitt said. Since the war ended, the U.S.-led coalition has found several caches that tested positive for mustard gas but later turned out to contain missile fuel or other chemicals. Other discoveries turned out to be old caches that already had been tagged by U.N. inspectors and were scheduled for destruction. Kimmitt said he believed that insurgents who rigged the artillery shell as a bomb didn't know it contained the nerve agent. Many of the materials used for roadside bombs are believed to have been looted from arsenals after the regime's collapse. "The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites)," Kimmitt said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) and other world leaders condemned Saleem's killing. Blair, whose country is the second-largest troop contributor in Iraq, said Saleem's assassination underscored the need for countries to remain in the country. "The assassination today ... just underlines how important it is that we stay until the job is done," Blair said during a visit to Turkey. "There will be no cutting and running in Iraq. We will continue until the job is done. That is the only possible response to the terrorism that we can have," Blair said. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, whose country opposed the U.S.-led war, voiced regret and said that Saleem's killing demonstrated the need to reconsider the approach to settling the Iraqi crisis to win greater public support. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, witness Mohammed Laith said. 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. Kimmitt said a "fixed wing aircraft" bombed five vehicles in Nasiriyah on Monday after people were seen loading and unloading weapons. He estimated that 20 people killed. 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. 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. Also Monday, two Russian workers were freed in Iraq after a week as hostages, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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