Group claims assassination

2004-05-17 15:26

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - A previously unknown group claimed responsibility on Monday for killing the Iraqi Governing Council president, saying in a website posting that two of its fighters carried out the operation against "the traitor and mercenary Izzadine Saleem".

The claim from a group that identified itself as the Arab Resistance Movement was posted on an internet site devoted to Iraqi issues and that opens with a map of Iraq cut from the old Iraqi flag, which was replaced after the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.

"Two heroic members of the Arab Resistance Movement, Al-Rashid Brigades - and they are Ali Khaled al-Jabouri and Mohammed Hassan al-Samaraei - carried out a qualitative heroic operation" that killed Saleem, the statement said.

It said the group will continue its "jihad" or holy war until Iraq and Palestine are liberated.

The website carried other messages of praise for the killing. It also prominently mentions the Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated area of activity against the US-led coalition in Iraq.

Saleem, also known as Abdel-Zahraa Othman, was a Shiite and leader of the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra. He was killed in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad earlier on Monday. He was among nine Iraqis, including a bomber, who were killed.

As council president, a rotating position, Saleem was the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed during the occupation. His death, just six weeks before the United States plans to transfer power to Iraqis, drew global condemnation. It also underscored the risks facing those perceived as owing their positions to the Americans.

- AP