The head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad yesterday, dealing a blow to US efforts to stabilize Iraq ahead of a handover of sovereignty on June 30.
Abdel-Zahraa Othman, commonly known as Izzadine Saleem, was the second member of the US-appointed council assassinated so far. He was among nine Iraqis, including the bomber, who were killed, Iraqi officials said.
As council president, a rotating position, Saleem was the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed during the occupation. His death occurred about six weeks before the US 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 EU 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, Paul Bremer, the US 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."
The new head of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, said the council would continue on "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," said al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul who will serve as head of the council until the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis.
Al-Yawer said Saleem was on his way to a daily council meeting, but "unfortunately he didn't make it. We got news he was injured. We tried to continue with our agenda. Then it was announced that he was dead. We had to work on some kind of crisis management."
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