Suicide car bomb kills head of Iraqi Governing Council

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad on Monday, dealing a blow to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq ahead of a handover of sovereignty on June 30.

Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was the second and highest-ranking member of the U.S.-appointed council to be assassinated. He was among nine Iraqis, including the bomber, who were killed, Iraqi officials said.

A suicide bomber bomber was responsible, the military said.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. 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."

A previously unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement, claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying in a Web site posting that two of its fighters carried out the operation against "the traitor and mercenary" Saleem.

The council president's position rotates monthly. Saleem's death occurred about six weeks before the United States 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, at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, was a Shiite who led the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra. He was a writer, philosopher and political activist, and edited several newspapers and magazines.

One Governing Council member, Salama al-Khafaji, said the bombing appeared to be an effort to foment sectarian divisions in Iraq and disrupt the transfer of political power.

Another member, Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, blamed the bombing on the same groups that have conducted other attacks, including the August bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.