Suicide Car Bomb Kills Iraq Governing Council Chief (latest)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed the head of Iraq's Governing Council Monday, increasing fears that instability will make a new Iraqi government unable to function when U.S. occupiers hand it power in six weeks.

The killing of Izzedin Salim dealt another major blow to the U.S.-led coalition, battling a Shi'ite Muslim insurgency and a growing scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Salim, a Shi'ite who edited several newspapers, was in the last car of a council convoy waiting to enter the "Green Zone" coalition headquarters when the bomb exploded at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing six people.

Governing Council members were clearly among the targets of increased terrorism in Iraq, said Mahmoud Othman, who sits on the U.S.-backed council.

"If the security situation stays as it is, the sovereign government will be weak because the government won't be able to function properly," he said, referring to the formal handover of sovereignty to an interim government on June 30.

But officials said the violence would not derail political preparations for the handover.

And in a sign of parallel military moves, the United States plans to shift about 4,000 U.S. troops from South Korea to Iraq, the Seoul government said Monday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati said the other councilors near the checkpoint at the time escaped unharmed.

"They managed to get through the checkpoint before the explosion. Salim was still waiting to enter," Bayati said.

The second suicide car bomb attack on a Green Zone checkpoint this month may have been aimed at the 25-member council gathering for a meeting.

More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed, including minibuses from which doctors wearing masks and rubber gloves pulled burned bodies. "There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there, and then this massive explosion," said Raad Mukhlis, a security guard at a nearby residential compound. "I saw body parts and martyrs everywhere."

A group led by top al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, suspected of beheading U.S. hostage Nick Berg this month, claimed responsibility for the previous car bomb on May 6.

"This will strengthen our resolve to continue the political process," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Jordan. "This will not derail the process... This will not frighten us."

Security concerns and outrage at the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at a jail west of Baghdad have piled the pressure on the U.S.-led occupiers and threatened President Bush's bid for re-election in November.

His poll ratings have slipped as the U.S. military death toll has risen. At least 571 Americans have been killed in action since the launch of the operation that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April last year.

The Bush administration insists abuse in Abu Ghraib prison, shown in images published around the world, was confined to low-level guards, though the Red Cross said it was systematic.

Citing current and former U.S. intelligence officials, the report said tougher questioning was part of a plan giving prior approval to kill, capture or interrogate terrorist leaders.

The Bush administration derided the report and the Pentagon said the abuses had not been sanctioned.

European Union foreign ministers were set to condemn the abuses, according to a draft text obtained by Reuters. "Such actions are contrary to international law," it said.

REAL POWER Washington is being pressed by allies inside and outside Iraq for a handover of real power when the interim government is installed to steer the country to elections in January.

Italy, with the third largest troop contingent, has been prominent in saying Iraqis must have a real say in military affairs, but Washington insists U.S. commanders will call the shots.

Britain said it planned to step up training of Iraqi forces to allow its own military to leave as soon as feasible.

"The strategy is to allow the Iraqis to take control as soon as possible and to allow us to leave as soon as possible," said a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been under pressure domestically to show he has an Iraq exit strategy.

Domestic pressure on the Italian government was also likely to increase following battles between its troops and the militia of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr overnight.

One Italian soldier was killed and at least 16 were wounded in fighting in the southern town of Nassiriya in recent days.

Fighting between coalition troops and Sadr's Mehdi Army has spread since Friday, when U.S. troops pushed onto sacred ground in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf for the first time to attack militia positions in its ancient cemetery.

U.S. commanders call it a "minor uprising," but it has intensified calls for the coalition to plan its exit.

And in a sign of parallel military moves, the United States plans to shift about 4,000 U.S. troops from South Korea to Iraq, the Seoul government said Monday

Uh-oh. More shades of something akin to Dragon's Fury.

...""If the security situation stays as it is,...""

The Iraqi themselves are of little help in any "Neighborhood Watch" sense. This is how a nation gets dictators--they are too scared to say anything or do anything. The thugs are always in control.

The latest allegations came from the New Yorker magazine, which said abuses resulted from a secret plan approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for tougher interrogation methods in the U.S. "war on terror." Citing current and former U.S. intelligence officials, the report said tougher questioning was part of a plan giving prior approval to kill, capture or interrogate terrorist leaders.

I think the whole world new that we planned interrogation that would be effective whether or not it satisfied the international agreements that arose because of the need to deal with standing armies rather the threats from sleeper cells, terrorists and WMD. No one is denying that we learned some lessons along the way. The most important lesson is that Iraq will be better off as a sovereign state with its own security and related prison systems.

I just hope the majority of the American public knows we are winning this war. The terrorists only have ONE hope of success: make Americans lose faith in the outcome. The mainstream media is already drawing all sorts of parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, but Iraq will only be a failure if we lose heart and allow the terrorists to win. The very people who opposed the war in the first place, went on and on how we'd never reach Baghdad, said everything of value was looted or destroyed after the major battles were over, and declared our handling of POWs to be a total disaster, are now telling us we can't win this war. Don't be surprised by their treachery!

The enemy's tactics are clear--cause Iraqi and American casualties in an attempt to sway public opinion. They are weak and KNOW they cannot defeat us on the battlefield, so they attempt to bloody our noses to make us back down. Please don't lose faith like the 60's flower children who were more interested in "loving" each other than demonstrating true love and commitment to America's friends and allies.

The Iraqi themselves are of little help in any "Neighborhood Watch" sense.

You do of course know that we get most of our intel about those fighting us from Iraqis coming up to soldiers and saying "look over there, there's weapons/fighters in that building".

I just hope the majority of the American public knows we are winning this war. The terrorists only have ONE hope of success: make Americans lose faith in the outcome.

Not according to the "media" we're not. I want too know ALL the news coming from Iraq, bad included. But can't they throw me a bone once in a while?

Valin wrote: "can't they throw me a bone once in a while?"

Probably not. For one thing, that would require them to get out of the hotels in Iraq and actually do some reporting. For another, it isn't good business to tell people we are succeeding, at least, not if you want them glued to their sets. Not to forget, of course, that most of the media doesn't have a clue when it come to the military.

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