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ar bomb kills Iraqi Governing Council leader
Monday, May 17, 2004 Posted: 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American-led coalition forces in Iraq found sarin gas in an artillery round that was rigged as an improvised explosive device, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Monday.
The device went off before it could be disabled, Kimmitt said, causing a "small dispersal" of the nerve agent. Two members of an explosives ordnance team were treated for minor exposure, he said.
Kimmitt said the artillery round was of an old style that Saddam Hussein's regime had declared it no longer had after the Persian Gulf War. He said it was designed to explode after being fired from an artillery piece and that its effectiveness as an improvised explosive device was "limited."
Kimmitt did not say where the weapon was found nor did he say if it originated in Iraq.
News of the discovery came hours after Iraqi Governing Council President Izzedine Salim was killed by a suicide bomber in central Baghdad, the U.S. Army said.
Salim, who was head of the Islamic Da'wah Movement in the southern city of Basra, was a key moderate on the U.S.-appointed, 25-member council.
The council has selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar, a civil engineer who would have assumed the rotating presidency June 1, to complete Salim's term.
A Sunni Muslim from Mosul, al-Yawar will serve until the handover of sovereignty June 30 to an interim Iraqi government.
"We will not retreat from the march to which he devoted all of his life, the march toward freedom for our people, the march toward building a democratic and a unified Iraq," al-Yawar said.
"All those criminals should be ashamed of all they have done, which will increase the suffering of our people and extend the occupation."
Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. special envoy to Iraq, condemned the killing, which he said "has taken the life of one of Iraq's most loyal and patriotic citizens, a man who made every sacrifice for his country, who worked sincerely and selflessly so that Iraq may regain its sovereignty and strength."
Da'wah party member Adnan Ali said Salim's death was "a very, very sad day for the Iraqis and for Iraq."
"We have lost a great member who had donated a long time of his life for serving Iraq and the Iraqis," Ali said.
The attack on Salim took place Monday morning near Baghdad's "Green Zone" -- home to the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters. The blast killed seven Iraqis and wounded five Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.
It damaged at least a dozen vehicles near a coalition checkpoint, leaving a crater 5 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Salim's car was in line at the checkpoint at the time of the attack.
Kimmitt said it appeared artillery rounds were packed into the back of the attacker's car.
Thick black smoke billowed over central Baghdad shortly after the blast. Fire equipment, ambulances, Iraqi police and American soldiers raced to the scene.
A senior coalition military official said the bombing had the hallmarks of an attack by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- an al Qaeda associate who has been tied to numerous attacks in Iraq. The official noted that al-Zarqawi-style attacks are typically a spectacular, symbolic suicide bombing.
Ali said he thinks it is likely that the attack on Salim, also known as Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammed, was not a coincidence.
"I think it is more likely that he was targeted as he has been warned for the last couple of months," he said. "This is a very dangerous [check]point, and they can target any [governing council] member who leaves from the residence and enters into the Green Zone."
A Shiite Muslim, Salim was the editor of numerous newspapers and magazines. He is the second governing council member to have been killed in an attack.
Aquila al-Hashimi died in September from wounds suffered in an ambush near her Baghdad home. Also a Shiite, she was the leading candidate to become Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations.
"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," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "These terrorists are the enemies of the Iraqi people themselves." (Full story)
Kimmitt said the handover of sovereignty must remain on schedule.
"Days like today convinced us even more so that this must stay on track -- absolutely affirms that the process of handing over sovereignty to the people of Iraqi must happen," he said.
Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi called on the militias of Iraq's political parties to step up and protect the country and its people in the wake of the suicide bomb attack.
Chalabi, at one time a favorite of the U.S. Defense Department, said the coalition is not providing adequate security.
"The Iraqi Governing Council must take action. We have Iraqi forces who struggled and fought Saddam. They are now available and ready to provide security."
"The power to Destroy the planet, is insignifigant to the power of the Air Force----Mudd Vader
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