Female Member of Iraq's Governing Council Critically Wounded

Member of Iraq's Governing Council Critically Wounded in Assassination Attempt
By Tarek Al-Issawi Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 20, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen attacked and wounded Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on Iraq's Governing Council and a leading candidate to become the country's representative at the United Nations, in an assassination attempt Saturday outside her home. The shooting was the first attempt to kill a member of the U.S.-appointed council - though insurgents have been targeting other Iraqis seen as working with the country's American occupiers. The leader of a Shiite Muslim movement represented on the council was assassinated last month by a car bomb.

The attack came when men in two new SUVs fired rocket-propelled grenades that missed al-Hashimi's car in front of her home in western Baghdad, members of her security detail said. The attackers then opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles. Three of al-Hashimi's bodyguards were also wounded.

Al-Hashimi was rushed into surgery with abdominal wounds at al-Yarmouk hospital, a doctor there said on condition of anonymity. After surgery, she was transfered in a convoy of American armored vehicles and military ambulances, apparently to the U.S. military hospital at Baghdad International Airport.

"She is fine. She is in stable condition," said Haitham al-Husseini, a senior adviser to fellow council member Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

The brazen, daytime shooting was the first direct attack on the 25-member Governing Council, created by the U.S.-led coalition to put an Iraqi face on the process of rebuilding Iraq. That process has been plagued by a guerrilla-style insurgency blamed on loyalists of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

Ahmad Chalabi, the current council president, said al-Hashimi's attackers "were remnants of the Baathist regime and Saddam's assassins."

"The members of the Governing Council and ministers will not be intimidated by the terrorists," Chalabi said in a statement. "They will continue to do their patriotic duty to move Iraq towards freedom, democracy and sovereignty."

Al-Hashimi, a Shiite Muslim and a longtime diplomat, has emerged as a leading foreign policy figure on the council. She was part of a delegation that addressed the United Nations in July and she was preparing to head again to New York for a General Assembly session on Tuesday where the Iraqi council will attempt to assume Iraq's seat.

If the delegation receives the seat, many diplomats at the world body expect al-Hashimi would be named Iraq's representative.

Chalabi said in his statement that the council delegation would attend Tuesday's assembly session, but did not say whether al-Hashimi would still go.

Al-Hashimi held several Foreign Ministry posts under Saddam Hussein and is the only official from the ousted regime to have been appointed to the the 25-member council.

In Thursday's attack, a neighbor of al-Hashimi's, Khola Ibrahim, said she was in her kitchen when she "heard shooting, very heavy shooting."

Another neighbor, Saba Adel, said al-Hashimi's brother - who acted as one of her bodyguards - knocked on her door crying out "My sister, my sister!"

Adel said she saw another bodyguard lying on the sidewalk wounded in the arm and leg. "He looked in terrible condition," she said.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, said he was "shocked and saddened by this horrific and cowardly act."

"This senseless attack is not just against the person of Aquila al-Hashimi. It is an attack against the people of Iraq and against the common goals we share for the establishment of a fully democratic government," Bremer said in a statement.

Late last month, a Shiite Muslim leader - Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim - was assassinated in a bomb blast in the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad. The attack, widely thought to be the work of Saddam's supporters, killed at least 85 people.

Al-Hakim's Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the biggest anti-Saddam opposition group, is represented on the Governing Council by al-Hakim's brother, Abdel-Aziz.

U.S. troops have been trying to track down pro-Saddam fighters who have launched near-daily attacks on U.S. troops, including an ambush and gunbattle that killed three soldiers and wounded two on Thursday night near Tikrit.

U.S. tanks and armored fighting vehicles rumbled through Tikrit early Saturday in a show of force meant to discourage more attacks and flush out armed resistance.

"We took a tank company and a Bradley (armored vehicle) company," Lt. Col. Steve Russell, the 1st Battalion commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 22nd Infantry Regiment, told The Associated Press. "We wanted to send a message."

Fifty-eight Iraqis were captured after the attacks on Thursday, described as some of the fiercest and best-planned resistance in months. U.S. troops seized a considerable number of weapons from a minivan fleeing the area, the military said.

During Saturday's patrol, tanks swept through residential areas, occasionally dismounting to set up security points, to check cars and people leaving Tikrit after the city's 11 p.m. curfew.

The patrol ended without incident.

"We wanted to make contact with the enemy," Russell said. "If they want, we'll surely oblige him."