Head of Iraqi council dies in suicide bomb attack

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide bombing killed the head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council as his car waited at a checkpoint near coalition headquarters Monday, just six weeks before the handover of sovereignty.

Two American soldiers were killed in action Monday in Anbar province west of Baghdad, the military said. The troops were assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, but the military declined to release other details, citing security concerns.

Izzadine Saleem, also known as Abdel-Zahraa Othman, was waiting in a Governing Council convoy at a U.S. checkpoint along a tree-lined street preparing to enter the Green Zone when the bomb was detonated. It apparently had been rigged with artillery shells and hidden inside a red Volkswagen.

Iraqi officials said nine people, including the bomber, were killed and 14 Iraqis and an Egyptian were wounded in Monday's attack. Kimmitt put the death toll at seven. Two U.S. soldiers were slightly wounded.

Iraqi and coalition officials vowed that the power transfer would take place on June 30, as scheduled, despite the attack.

Secretary of State Colin Powell called Saleem an Iraqi patriot. "Terrorist may have taken his life, but they will never be able to kill his dreams or those of the Iraqi people."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iraqis will "continue his work" of building a democratic nation.

Second member to be slain

Saleem, a Shiite Muslim in his 60s, held the rotating presidency of the 25-member Governing Council for May. He was the second council member slain since their appointment last July; Aquila al-Hashimi was mortally wounded by gunmen in September.

Insurgents also have targeted police and army recruitment centers and other Iraqis perceived as owing their positions to the Americans.

The U.S. military said the car bombing was a suicide attack, and Kimmitt said it had the "classic hallmarks" of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant with links to al-Qaida.

However, a previously unknown group, the Arab Resistance Movement, claimed responsibility, saying in a Web site posting that two of its fighters carried out the attack on "the traitor and mercenary" Saleem.

Kimmitt said he did not know if the Arab Resistance Movement was "a cover for the Zarqawi network or if it's an actual organization."

Al-Zarqawi is believed responsible for many of the vehicle bombs in Iraq in recent months and for the beheading last week of U.S. civilian Nicholas Berg.

The Governing Council selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim civil engineer from Mosul, to succeed Saleem. Al-Yawer will lead the council until June 30, when sovereignty will be transferred to a new interim Iraqi government.

Appearing before reporters with several council colleagues, al-Yawer promised the Iraqi leadership would continue "the march toward building a democratic, federal, plural and unified Iraq."

"God willing, the criminal forces will be defeated despite all the pain they are causing to our people and their heroic leaders," he said.

L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, called Saleem's killing a "shocking and tragic loss" and promised that "the terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq" would be defeated.

Saleem's killing stunned a country already reeling from an upsurge in violence. The United States, the United Nations and their Iraqi partners have not agreed on the structure of a new government that is to take office -- nor what powers it will wield.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been consulting with council members and other Iraqis about the makeup of the interim government, and there had been speculation Saleem might get a post.

In a statement, Brahimi condemned the killing "which has taken the life of one of Iraq's most loyal and patriotic citizens ... who worked sincerely and selflessly so that Iraq may regain its sovereignty and strength."