Unidentified group claims responsibility fir the assassination of Salim, world wide condemnation for the attack
Iraq, Politics, 5/18/2004

An unidentified Iraqi group calling itself the Arab resistance movement - al-Rashid group, claimed responsibility for the assassination of the rotating President of the Interim council in Iraq Ezz eddine Salim also known as Abd al-Zahra Othman, in a booby trapped car explosion that targeted his procession in Baghdad. The governing council announced three-day mourning over the killing.

In a short statement issued on the Iraqi al-Anbar website on the Internet, the movement said that the executors of the attack are Khaled al-Jabbouri and Muhammad Hassan al-Samera'. The statement described the operation as qualitative and owed to wage militant struggle until the liberation of Iraq and Palestine.

The governing council officially eulogized its rotating President Ghazi Ojeil Elawer who assumed the rotating presidency in succession of Salim described his assassination as " coward terrorist act." Elawer vowed to continue the march of restoring back sovereignty to the Iraqis and to build a united and federal Iraq. The governing council decided to treat the chairman of the assassinated council as a state president and to hold an official funeral for him and announced mourning for three days.

For his part, the American administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer condemned the assassination operation and described it as a cowardly act and threatened in a statement to chase those responsible for Salim's killing. He said " Salim's blood will not go waste." Deputy commander of the American occupation forces in Iraq and its spokesman said that the events taking place in Iraq with the last of which the assassination of the chairman of the governing council makes it imperative to transfer the authority to the Iraqis at the time set on June 30th.

Kemet said in statements to CNN news network that the attack was a suicide operation, accusing what he had called terrorist groups in Iraq of attempting to violate the democratic process.

However, reactions continued over the assassination of Ezz Eddine Salim. A high ranking official at the US administration described the incident is a catastrophic loss. The UK deplored the assassination operation. Its foreign office secretary Jack Straw said -- upon attending the meeting of the European Union foreign ministers in Brussels -- the executors of the attack against Ezz Eddine Salim are the enemies of the Iraqi people and are trying to prevent authority transfer.

The French President Jack Chirac expressed his shock over the incident and renewed his call to rapid deployment of the authority to the Iraqis completely.

Russia strongly denounced the assassination of Salim and the deputy foreign minister Yuri Viditov said that the attack reflects the tense situation in Iraq and reveals the need of reconsidering means of a settlement there with more transparency.

In Australia, the prime minister John Howard condemned the assassination of Salim, stressing that his killing shows the reason behind the existence of the Australian forces in Iraq.

The secretary general of the Arab league Amr Moussa expressed his strong condemnation over the attack. He said that the " Iraqi blood should not be shed this way, regardless of the political positions of this official or that."

The attack on the procession of Ezz Eddine Salim took place when he was trying to enter the so-called "green area" in Baghdad.

News reports in Baghdad said that the attack took place in al-Haretheyah quarters near one of the entrances to the region, where headquarters of the occupation leadership. Witnesses said that the blowing up of the booby trapped car also resulted in setting fire ablaze in more than 16 cars.

Iraqi medical sources said that five of Salim's escorts and two policemen were killed and other 14 were injured in the incident. One American military source announced that two soldiers were injured.

Salim's assassination is the second of its kind for a member of the governing council. Unidentified gunmen attacked the procession of the governing council Aqila Hashemi on September 20 near her house in Baghdad. This resulted in strong wounds and her death after five days.

Previous Stories:
  Falluja maintains solidarity with al-Sader, ten Iraqis killed in battles in Baghdad, the south   (5/17/2004)
  Bush, Blair head for Baghdad   (5/17/2004)
  In conference on reform in Kuwait, Zeibari accuses Gulf states of encouraging violence in Iraq   (5/17/2004)

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