US powerless to prevent assassination

By JUSTIN HUGGLER

BAGHDAD - The assassination of the American-appointed head of the Iraqi Governing Council in central Baghdad yesterday has delivered a stunning blow to the United States administration's policy in Iraq, just weeks before it plans to hand over sovereignty to a new Iraqi government.

Izzedin Salim was killed at the entrance to the green zone, the US headquarters in Baghdad and the most tightly guarded place in Iraq, and US forces were powerless to prevent it.

The Americans also said they finally found a trace of a weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. US forces said a roadside bomb that exploded near an American convoy contained a shell which gave off a small trace of sarin nerve gas, a single drop of which can cause quick, agonising death.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, said he believed the insurgents who rigged the bomb did not know it contained the nerve agent.

To disperse the sarin, it would need to have been fired from an artillery piece. The shell is believed to be a stray relic overlooked when Saddam said he had destroyed his chemical weapons in the Nineties.

There are few more potent symbols of the disaster thatthe occupation is turning into than the burning and twisted wreckage of cars that lay outside the entrance to the green zone yesterday.

More than a year after the fall of Saddam's regime, and 44 days before they plan to hand over sovereignty, the Americans cannot protect the head of their appointed government on the doorstep oftheir headquarters in Baghdad.

It bore all the hallmarks of an assassination. The suicide bombers knew the time Mr Salim would be exposed as his car waited to pass through a series of checkpoints to enter the Green Zone

According to witness accounts, a red Volkswagen was waiting outside the checkpoint, and a driver inside detonated explosives just as Mr Salim's car drove up.

"All I could see was a ball of fire rising into the air and there were body parts all around. We picked up the pieces and some of them were burned," said Abdul Razaq Abdul Karim, a gardener who was on a street nearby.

Some witnesses also spoke of a second car bomb. As well as Mr Salim, seven other Iraqis were killed in the blast and ensuing fire, which was so hot it melted the tarmac of the road. Five of the dead were members of Mr Salim's entourage; the other two were members of the Iraqi security forces. Two American soldiers were wounded, along with 14 Iraqis and one Egyptian.

There was a claim of responsibility from a previously unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement, which said the attack was carried out by its al-Rashid Brigades, and that it killed "the traitor and mercenary Izzedin Salim".

Mr Salim is the highest-ranking Iraqi official to have been killed under the American occupation. It appears almost certain he was targeted because of his role at the head of the council.

The council was set up by the Americans to give a semblance of Iraqi involvement in running the country under occupation, but its powers have been strictly limited.

He, is however, the second council member to be killed.The council is due to be disbanded and replaced with a new appointed government of technocrats, as part of the "handover" of 30 June.

Yesterday's killing appeared to be a warning from the bombers of what awaits the new government. Members of the existing council have been repeatedly denounced as "collaborators" by Iraqis, most recently over their disastrous decision to replace the Iraqi flag with a new design that resembles the Israeli flag.

The council members could not agree on a permanent president, the position is held on a rotating basis by different members for a month each. Mr Salim was only president for May.

He was on his way to the daily meeting of the council inside the Green Zone. Many of the other members were already inside, waiting for the meeting to begin, when they heard that Mr Salim had died outside and suddenly had to tear up their agenda and hold crisis talks instead.

The Green Zone is a huge area of central Baghdad around Saddam's former palaces where the Americans have set up their headquarters. It is cordoned off with immense blast walls of 10-feet-tall concrete blocks.

To get inside, Mr Salim and other council members had to pass through three checkpoints, the first two manned by Iraqi security forces, and the last by American soldiers. All cars and passengers are meticulously checked for weapons or explosives.

But the bombers knew the weak spot: the council members would have to queue up outside while they waited to pass through the first checkpoint. At least two other council members are believed to have been passing through the checkpoints when the bombers struck, but they escaped unharmed.

The timing of the attack suggests that the bombers had inside information. It is the latest in a series of attacks that suggest whoever is behind attacks on US forces and their Iraqi allies has inside information on the movements of even the most senior figures.

There have been several spectacular near-misses, including a missile attack on the hotel where the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, had been staying, and insurgents failed to assassinate the head of US forces in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, in an ambush by minutes.

The Bush administration is already facing accusations that the "handover" will be cosmetic, so that it can claim the occupation of Iraq is over ahead of November's presidential election.

The US says it plans to keep its forces in Iraq, only after 30 June they will be there at the "invitation" of an American-appointed Iraqi government. Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, let the cat out of the bag at the weekend when he said the handover was "so that it no longer looks like an occupation".

Mr Salim was a writer and newspaper editor. He was also a founder member of Dawa, a Shia opposition movement which was banned by Saddam Hussein, who hanged many of its members. In 1978, Mr Salim fled to Kuwait. Ironically, he was accused of involvement in an assassination attempt on the Emir of Kuwait.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq