news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3720161.stm
Printable version Baghdad blast kills Iraq leader Smoke seen rising over central Baghdad The blast was seen and heard over a large area 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 waiting in a convoy of several vehicles to enter the compound when the bomb went off. Several other people also died, US officials say, and it is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was deliberately targeted in the blast. Smoke rose high into the sky after the blast which happened at about 0530 GMT The IGC has its offices inside the heavily fortified compound. Mr Salim, a Shia and member of the Daawa Islamic Party, was a writer, philosopher and political activist. He is the second member of the Governing Council to be killed since it was set up last July. Aquila al-Hasimi, one of three women on the council, was shot dead last September. Reacting to the news, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Reuters that Mr Salim's killing would not derail the political process. The killers of Ezzedine Salim are "enemies of the Iraqi people," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday in Brussels. Clashes There was fresh fighting overnight in southern Iraq, as US and Italian forces battled with Shia militiamen. Nine Iraqis were killed in Nasiriya during clashes with Italian troops, hospital officials said. Italian defence officials said one of their soldiers has died from injuries sustained in the fighting. In the holy city of Karbala, where US troops are pitted against fighters loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, five Iraqis died and more than 30 were injured, hospital sources said. US military officials say an American soldier was killed and two injured in a gunbattle in a city south of Baghdad on Sunday. They did not identify the city but said the soldiers were from the Task Force 1st Armoured Division which has been fighting forces loyal to Mr Sadr. Amid the continuing violence, the US is planning to move some of its forces from South Korea to Iraq, South Korean officials say. South Korea's foreign ministry said the two governments were currently discussing the details of such a move. The British press is meanwhile quoting UK government sources as saying British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush are speeding up plans to withdraw troops from Iraq and hand over security roles to the Iraqis.
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