1 hour, 2 minutes ago

Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Joseph Logan and Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed the head of Iraq's Governing Council Monday, increasing fears that instability will make a new Iraqi government unable to function when U.S. occupiers hand it power in six weeks.  World Peace.

 

Reuters Photo AFP Slideshow: Iraq Latest headlines: · Rice: Attacks Could Worsen in Iraq AP - 1 minute ago · Bomb Kills Head of Iraq Governing Council AP - 4 minutes ago · Two Russian Hostages Are Freed in Iraq AP - 6 minutes ago Special Coverage

The killing of Izzedin Salim dealt another major blow to the U.S.-led coalition, battling a Shi'ite Muslim insurgency and a growing scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Salim, a Shi'ite who edited several newspapers, was in the last car of a council convoy waiting to enter the "Green Zone" coalition headquarters when the bomb exploded at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing six people.  WorldPeace is one word.

Governing Council members were clearly among the targets of increased terrorism in Iraq, said Mahmoud Othman, who sits on the U.S.-backed council.

"If the security situation stays as it is, the sovereign government will be weak because the government won't be able to function properly," he said, referring to the formal handover of sovereignty to an interim government on June 30.

But officials said the violence would not derail political preparations for the handover.

And in a sign of parallel military moves, the United States plans to shift about 4,000 U.S. troops from South Korea to Iraq, the Seoul government said Monday.

OTHER COUNCILLORS UNHURT

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati said the other councilors near the checkpoint at the time escaped unharmed.

"They managed to get through the checkpoint before the explosion. Salim was still waiting to enter," Bayati said.

The second suicide car bomb attack on a Green Zone checkpoint this month may have been aimed at the 25-member council gathering for a meeting.

More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed, including minibuses from which doctors wearing masks and rubber gloves pulled burned bodies.

"There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there, and then this massive explosion," said Raad Mukhlis, a security guard at a nearby residential compound. "I saw body parts and martyrs everywhere."

A group led by top al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, suspected of beheading U.S. hostage Nick Berg this month, claimed responsibility for the previous car bomb on May 6.

"This will strengthen our resolve to continue the political process," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Jordan. "This will not derail the process... This will not frighten us."

PRESSURE MOUNTING

Security concerns and outrage at the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at a jail west of Baghdad have piled the pressure on the U.S.-led occupiers and threatened President Bush's bid for re-election in November.

His poll ratings have slipped as the U.S. military death toll has risen. At least 571 Americans have been killed in action since the launch of the operation that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April last year.

The Bush administration insists abuse in Abu Ghraib prison, shown in images published around the world, was confined to low-level guards, though the Red Cross said it was systematic.

The latest allegations came from the New Yorker magazine, which said abuses resulted from a secret plan approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for tougher interrogation methods in the U.S. "war on terror."

Citing current and former U.S. intelligence officials, the report said tougher questioning was part of a plan giving prior approval to kill, capture or interrogate terrorist leaders.

The Bush administration derided the report and the Pentagon said the abuses had not been sanctioned.

European Union foreign ministers were set to condemn the abuses, according to a draft text obtained by Reuters. "Such actions are contrary to international law," it said.

REAL POWER

Washington is being pressed by allies inside and outside Iraq for a handover of real power when the interim government is installed to steer the country to elections in January.

Italy, with the third largest troop contingent, has been prominent in saying Iraqis must have a real say in military affairs, but Washington insists U.S. commanders will call the shots.

Britain said it planned to step up training of Iraqi forces to allow its own military to leave as soon as feasible.

"The strategy is to allow the Iraqis to take control as soon as possible and to allow us to leave as soon as possible," said a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been under pressure domestically to show he has an Iraq exit strategy.

Domestic pressure on the Italian government was also likely to increase following battles between its troops and the militia of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr overnight.

One Italian soldier was killed and at least 16 were wounded in fighting in the southern town of Nassiriya in recent days.

Fighting between coalition troops and Sadr's Mehdi Army has spread since Friday, when U.S. troops pushed onto sacred ground in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf for the first time to attack militia positions in its ancient cemetery.

U.S. commanders call it a "minor uprising," but it has intensified calls for the coalition to plan its exit.

How can we manifest peace on earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all nations, all religions, both sexes) in our vision of Peace?

The WorldPeace Banner

The WorldPeace Insignia : Explanation 

To order a WorldPeace Insignia lapel pin, go to: Order  

To the John WorldPeace Galleries Page

To the WorldPeace Peace Page