Head of Iraqi council killed in car bomb attack

The head of Iraqi Governing Council was killed today in a car bombing near a US checkpoint in central Baghdad, an Iraqi official said.

Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was among four Iraqis killed in the blast, according to Redha Jawad Taki, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite Muslim organisation.

Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, was a Shiite and leader of the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra.

He was a writer, philosopher and political activist, who served as editor of several newspapers and magazines.

The bomb destroyed three cars waiting in a queue to enter the coalition headquarters, which is called the Green Zone, Colonel Mike Murray said.

Smoke rose from blast on the west side of the Tigris River. Firefighters and about 10 ambulances raced to the scene.

A rocket struck the compound of the coalition headquarters on Saturday, wounding one US soldier and one civilian.

Saleem was the second member of the US appointed Governing Council to be assassinated since the group was established last July.

Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member body, was seriously wounded on September 20 when gunmen in a pickup truck ambushed her car as she drove near her Baghdad home. She died five days later.