Governing council head killed

The president of the Iraqi governing council has been killed by a bomb:

Abdel-Zahraa Othman, more commonly known as Izzadine Saleem, was among four Iraqis killed in the explosion outside coalition headquarters in central Baghdad, council member Nasier al Jaderji said.

Saleem was a Shiite and 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 attack took place amid rising turmoil in Iraq as this country prepares for the United States to transfer power to an Iraqi interim government June 30. It underscores the risks facing those perceived as owing their power to the Americans.

Hamid al-Bayati, spokesman of SCIRI, said Saleem was trying to enter the Green Zone when the blast occurred and "he was killed." Al-Bayati did not know whether the bomb was triggered by a homicide driver or detonated in some other fashion.

Saleem was in a convoy of five vehicles, and the car carrying the bomb was adjacent to the council chief's car when it exploded, witness Mohammed Laith said. He said Saleem's driver and assistant were among those killed. Saleem held the council presidency, which rotates monthly among a selected group of members.

It's almost impossible to describe the sick feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I hear about something like this - a sickness brought on by anger at the bastards who did this, despair about whether things in Iraq are going to get better, and, yes, doubt about whether I was right to support the war in the first place.

The latter subsides when I recall what Saddam was doing before he was overthrown, and what Iraq would look like if coalition troops withdrew. But sowing the seeds of doubt - demoralizing Americans into withdrawing their forces - is almost certainly what the "insurgents" are hoping for as much as anything else. It's the only way they can win.

Update: Labour MP Ann Clwyd, a veteran human-rights campaigner who supported the war, tells of a very different Iraq from what you see in the media. (Melanie Phillips's description of Clwyd's appearance on BBC Radio Four, against a scrupulously impartial BBC interviewer, is worth reading as well.)

Posted by damian at May 17, 2004 05:41 AM