Military

DATE=5/17/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= IRAQ WRAP (S/L)

NUMBER=2-315986

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The head of Iraq's Interim Governing Council along with six others has been killed in a car bomb in central Baghdad, raising new concerns about security just weeks before political power is set to be handed back to Iraqis. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports Monday's assassination marks the second time that a member of the U-S installed council has been killed in the past year.

TEXT: Izzidin Salim was killed at a checkpoint outside U-S occupation headquarters when a bomb exploded in a nearby vehicle. Despite a yet to be verified claim of responsibility from a previously unknown group, American General Mark Kimmitt told reporters he has a strong suspicion about who was behind the attack.

/// KIMMITT ACT ///

It would have been our first impression that this was classic Zarqawi network.

/// END ACT ///

. . . a reference to suspected Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who U-S intelligence officials believe was responsible for last week's videotaped beheading in Iraq of American civilian Nick Berg.

By nightfall in Baghdad, no arrests had been reported in connection with the killing. Izzidin Salim is the second member of Iraq's Governing Council to be assassinated since the interim body took power. Last September, another member (Aquila al-Hashimi) was killed when her car was ambushed.

/// REST FOR LONG ///

Governing Council members reacted to the assassination by vowing not to let it disrupt plans for handing limited sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, as scheduled on June 30th. Council member Mahmoud Othman condemned it as an act of terrorism.

/// OTHMAN ACT ///

We will have more resolve in the Governing Council with the others also to finish the political process, to end occupation status and regain sovereignty.

/// END ACT ///

Elsewhere in Baghdad, General Kimmitt says a roadside bomb containing the toxic nerve agent sarin exploded near a U-S military convoy. Two explosives experts were treated for minor injuries caused by exposure.

/// SECOND KIMMITT ACT ///

This produced a very small dispersal of agent.

/// END ACT ///

Saddam Hussein's government had declared that all of its stocks of sarin had been destroyed. Although United Nations weapons inspectors uncovered evidence of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq in the years since, no stashes of illegal weapons have been found in the 14 months since the U-S led war began, despite on-going searches by American weapons experts.

The Bush administration's contention that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were a grave threat were the main rationale for the war with Iraq. But Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he now believes the C-I-A was deliberately misled by intelligence sources about what weapons Iraq possessed in the run up to last year's invasion.

(SIGNED)

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