Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on Iraq's American-picked Governing Council, died yesterday, five days after she was critically wounded in an assassination attempt. A bomb exploded outside the hotel where an American television network is located, killing a Somali guard and injuring a Canadian sound engineer.
Elsewhere, seven American soldiers were wounded yesterday in the northern city of Mosul when two roadside bombs exploded as their convoy passed. US officials said one Humvee was destroyed and another badly damaged in the attack, which took place about 9am on the western side of the city.
Also yesterday, two suspected Iraqi resistance leaders accused of organizing and financing attacks against US soldiers near Saddam Hussein's birthplace near Tikrit were arrested in raids. Their identities were not released.
Al-Hashimi died about 11:30am, said Gary Thatcher, coalition director of strategic communications. She was ambushed and critically wounded with gunshots to the abdomen by six men in a pickup truck while driving near her home in western Baghdad Saturday as she prepared to attend the UN General Assembly, which opened in New York on Tuesday.
Al-Hashimi will be buried today, and the Governing Council announced a three-day mourning period beginning yesterday.
In a statement the council said al-Hashimi ``fell as a martyr on the path of freedom and democracy to build this great nation. She died at the hands of a clique of infidels and cunning people who only know darkness."
The council said her death would not distract it from rebuilding Iraq.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was ``shocked and saddened" by al-Hashimi's death and that her ``lasting legacy" would be ``a stable and free Iraq."
Paul Bremer, the US administrator for Iraq who currently is in Washington, issued a statement of condolences.
``Today, the people of Iraq have lost a courageous champion and pioneer for the cause of freedom and democracy. On behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority and all its members, I offer my heartfelt condolences to her family, her colleagues at the Governing Council and the people of Iraq," Bremer said.
Earlier yesterday, a bomb exploded a meter from the outside wall of the al-Aike Hotel in south-central Baghdad, killing the Somali night watchman. The US NBC television network had offices in the hotel, and a network sound man was slightly injured.
Iraqi police said the bomb was placed in a hut that housed the hotel generator.
Lieutenant-Colonel Salman Kareem said the bomb killed a Somali guard in his sleep. Damage to the hotel was minimal he said and it was mainly broken glass.
NBC correspondent Jim Avila said there were no signs on the building indicating NBC had quarters there.
A dozen NBC staffers were inside the building when the explosion occurred, and a Canadian soundman, David Moodie, was slightly injured by flying glass.
``I was awake," Moodie said. ``A chest of drawers in the room fell on me. I sleep in the room immediately above the generator, so I guess I was lucky."
Moodie said he suffered one deep cut from flying glass and would require stitches. He said no other NBC employees were hurt.
Al-Hashimi, who was not married and thought to have been in her mid-40s, had been cared for a US military hospital in the compound at Saddam's former Republican Palace in central Baghdad where the US-led coalition has its headquarters.
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