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| Five Arrested in Iraq Official's Slaying |
| 2004-02-16 |
| Police arrested five Iraqis suspected in the assassination of Aquila al-Hashimi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council who was gunned down last year as she drove from her Baghdad home, the Interior Ministry said Monday. The men were arrested 10 days ago in the city of Amarah, 180 miles southeast of the capital, Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhum Ibrahim told The Associated Press. They were arrested for using drugs but police uncovered "indications" they may have been involved in the al-Hashimi assassination, he said. Police were still investigating the possible connection. Six gunmen in a truck attacked al-Hashimi on Sept. 20 as her convoy drove from her house in Baghdad. The attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at her vehicle but missed, then opened fire with assault rifles. Al-Hashimi, critically wounded in the abdomen, died five days later. She was the highest official in the post-Saddam Hussein administration to be killed in the persistent violence in Iraq since Saddam's fall. The former diplomat was also the only Governing Council member to have served in Saddam's government. Al-Hashimi, a Shiite, was one of three women on the 25-member Governing Council and was seen as a likely future Iraqi envoy to the United Nations. Salama al-Khufaji, a Shiite professor of dentistry at Baghdad University, replaced al-Hashimi on the council, which was put together by U.S. administrators. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |