IRAQ: IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL SPEAKS ON SUICIDE BOMBING WHICH KILLED ABDUL ZAHRA OTHMAN MOHAMED ,IZZEDIN SALIM LEADER OF COUNCIL

Record ID: 358674

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL SPEAKS ON SUICIDE BOMBING WHICH KILLED ABDUL ZAHRA OTHMAN MOHAMED ,IZZEDIN SALIM LEADER OF COUNCIL
  • Date: 17th May 2004
  • Summary: (U4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MAY 17, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF SHAYKH GHAZI AL-YAWER, ACTING IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL (IGC) PRESIDENT, ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE 0.18 2. VARIOUS OF MEDIA 0.33 3. SMV, IGC MEMBERS AT PODIUM 0.37 4. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AL-YAWER SAYING: "As Iraq is taking steps forward towards ending occupation, regainin
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA8815ME2KN93CL4SS6R9FZCVKQ
  • Story Text: Iraqi Governing Council speaks out after death of leader in car bomb attack.



    The acting Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) President
    Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawer spoke out on Monday (May 17, 2004) after a
    suicide car bomb in the Iraqi capital killed the governing
    body's leader.

    Al-Yawer said the killing was meant to undermine Iraq's
    process towards regaining its stability and sovereignty.

    "As Iraq is taking steps forward towards ending
    occupation, regaining independence and sovereignty and
    building democracy, today the hands of treachery, crime and
    terror killed the outstanding fighter, son of Basra,
    Izzeddin Salim, the current president of the Governing
    Council," Yawer told a news conference.

    Yawer said that members of the Governing Council are
    determined to continue their march to build the new Iraq.

    "Brothers of the martyr Izzeddin Salim, our people and
    the Governing council will not give up the process, which
    he had dedicated his life to, the process of happiness,
    pride and freedom for the people, the process of building a
    unified federal and democratic Iraq, and forces of crime
    will be defeated, God willing in spite of harm inflicted on
    the people and its great leaders," he added.

    The bomb attack that killed Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammad
    dealt a major blow to the U.S. coalition battling a Shi'ite
    insurgency and a growing prisoner abuse scandal.

    Mohammad, a Shi'ite Muslim also known as Izzedin Salim,
    was in the last car of a Governing Council convoy waiting
    at a checkpoint to enter the "Green Zone" coalition
    headquarters in central Baghdad when the car bomb exploded.

    The attack underlined the vulnerability of the Baghdad
    administration just six weeks before the U.S.-led occupiers
    are set to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis, though
    officials insisted violence would not derail the political
    process.

    At least six people were killed as the blast tore
    through the crush of cars and pedestrians waiting to get
    into the heavily guarded compound of Saddam Hussein's former
    palaces, blowing bodies apart and melting the asphalt.

    It was too soon to say if the attack was aimed
    specifically at the councillors, gathering for a meeting of
    the 25-member body which is headquartered in the Green
    Zone.

    More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed, including
    minibuses from which doctors wearing masks and rubber
    gloves pulled burnt bodies.

    Responsibility for the last suicide car bomb at the
    U.S. administration headquarters on May 6 was claimed by a
    group led by top al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
    suspected of beheading U.S. hostage Nick Berg earlier this
    month.


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