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Baghdad blast kills Iraq leader

dh | 18.05.2004 00:15

The leader of the US-backed Governing Council gets killed on the orders of the year-long dead head-hacking Al Qaida Zarqawi
A likely story

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3720161.stm

The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad.
Ezzedine Salim was near a checkpoint outside the compound when the bomb went off, killing him and several others.
It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of the suicide attack.
A US military spokesman said it bore all the hallmarks of attacks carried out by supporters of Jordanian-born al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, condemned the killing and vowed to defeat those responsible.
"The terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq have struck a cruel blow with this vile act," Mr Bremer said in a statement.
But they would be defeated and Mr Salim's vision of a "democratic, free and prosperous Iraq" would become a reality, he said.
The IGC also condemned the killing of their leader.

Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer - a Sunni Muslim from the northern city of Mosul appointed as Mr Salim's successor - said he would continue the march towards freedom and democracy despite the bomb attack.
"This is a terrorist act that will not dissuade the Governing Council from continuing its work to build a federal, united Iraq," he said.

dh