Posted on 05/17/2004 12:30:16 AM PDT by Arkinsaw
Fox News Breaking Alert on website only at this point
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Can we get serious about killing these bastards now?
Lebanon Times Ten, here we come.
link to the article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120090,00.html
He was the first member of the U.S. appointing Governing Council to be assassinated since the group was established last July.
Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member body, was mortally wounded Sept. 20 when gunmen in a pickup truck ambushed her car as she drove near her Baghdad home. She died five days later.
Could this have been more poorly written? When it comes to quality of content, Fox News is a laughingstock.
No.
Interestingly, I saw some anti-US statements expressed from this guy recently... let the tin foil hat speculation commence...
Speed is more important than grammmmmaaarr and spllng.
Head of Iraqi Governing Council Killed
03:44 AM EST - May 17, 2004
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
The head of Iraqi Governing Council was killed Monday in a car bombing near a U.S. checkpoint in central Baghdad, an Iraqi official said.
Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was among four Iraqis killed in the blast, according to Redha Jawad Taki, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite Muslim organization known as SCIRI.
Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, 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 suicide 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.
The bomb destroyed three cars waiting in line to enter the coalition headquarters, which is called the Green Zone, Col. Mike Murray said.
Smoke rose from the site of the blast on the west side of the Tigris River. Firefighters and about 10 ambulances raced to the scene.
A rocket struck the compound of the coalition headquarters on Saturday, wounding one U.S. soldier and one civilian.
He was the second member of the U.S. appointing Governing Council to be assassinated since the group was established last July.
Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member body, was mortally wounded Sept. 20 when gunmen in a pickup truck ambushed her car as she drove near her Baghdad home. She died five days later.
Seems like this outta be breakin' news...
Car bomb kills Iraq Governing Council head
Mon 17 May, 2004 08:47
By Joseph Logan and Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb has killed at least nine people outside the main coalition headquarters in Baghdad, including the head of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, officials say.
Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammad, a Shi'ite council member also known as Izzedin Salim, had been waiting at a checkpoint to enter the sprawling "Green Zone" compound in Baghdad when the bomb went off, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati told Reuters.
"Izzedin Salim was martyred," he said.
Bayati said Salim's car had been the last in a Governing Council convoy which included other council members.
"The other members escaped unharmed. They managed to get through the checkpoint before the explosion. Salim was still waiting to enter. It is too early to say whether the attack specifically targeted the Governing Council convoy," he said.
Salim, who had been the current holder of the rotating Governing Council presidency, was the second of the 25-member Council to be killed. In September gunmen assassinated Aqila al-Hashemi, one of the three women in the council.
U.S. officers said the explosion on Monday had been caused by a car bomb.
The checkpoint had been crowded with civilian cars and minibuses. More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed by the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and covered it in pools of blood.
Doctors wearing masks and rubber gloves pulled burnt bodies from twisted wrecks of minibuses. Shoes and body parts were hurled through the air. A scorched foot hung from barbed wire 30 metres away.
"There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," said Raad Mukhlis, a security guard at a nearby residential compound.
"There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there, and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts and martyrs everywhere."
Salim, from Iraq's Shi'ite majority, was the head of the Islamic Dawa Party in Basra and the editor of several newspapers and magazines. He was one of the nine Council members who each hold the rotating presidency for a month at a time.
On May 6, a suicide bomber killed five Iraqis and an American soldier at an entrance to the Green Zone, a sprawling compound which used to be one of Saddam Hussein's palace complexes and now serves as the headquarters for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
A statement purporting to be from a group headed by leading al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for that attack.
Not to minimize the importance of this story, but the presidency of this council rotates on a monthly basis. This was not necessarily the 'president' who was supposed to be in charge on June 30th..
But hasn't the media assured us that the war against al-Qaeda has absolutely nothing to do with Iraq?
Maybe it's just me but I believe it is in Breaking News.
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.
The horror! Not another chiding!
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