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Car Bomb Attack Kills Iraq Governing Council Head
A suicide car bomb killed at least nine people outside the main coalition headquarters in Baghdad Monday, including the head of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, officials said. Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammad, a Shiâite council member also known as Izzedin Salim, had been waiting at a checkpoint to enter the sprawling "Green Zone" compound in Baghdad when the bomb went off, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati told Reuters. "Izzedin Salim was martyred," he said. Salim, from Iraqâs Shiâite majority, was the head of the Islamic Dawa Party in Basra and the editor of several newspapers and magazines. He was one of the nine council members who each hold the rotating presidency for a month at a time. Bayati said Salimâs car had been the last in a convoy which included other council members. "The other members escaped unharmed. They managed to get through the checkpoint before the explosion. Salim was still waiting to enter. It is too early to say whether the attack specifically targeted the Governing Council convoy," he said. Salim, who had been the current holder of the rotating Governing Council presidency, was the second of the 25-member Council to be killed. In September gunmen assassinated Aqila al-Hashemi, one of the three women in the council. U.S. officers said the explosion had been caused by a car bomb. The checkpoint was crowded with civilian cars and minibuses. More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed by the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and covered it in pools of blood. Doctors wearing masks and rubber gloves pulled burned bodies from twisted wrecks of minibuses. Shoes and body parts were hurled through the air. A scorched foot hung from barbed wire 30 yards away. "There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," said Raad Mukhlis, a security guard at a nearby residential compound. "There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there, and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts and martyrs everywhere." Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-17 |
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