THISDAYonline

The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council was killed yesterday in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the United States-led coalition in Baghdad.

Ezzedine Salim was near a checkpoint outside the compound when the bomb went off, killing him and several others.

It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of the suicide attack.

A US military spokesman said it bore all the hallmarks of attacks carried out by supporters of Jordanian-born al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, condemned the killing and vowed to defeat those responsible.

"The terrorists who are seeking to destroy Iraq have struck a cruel blow with this vile act," Bremer said in a statement.

But they would be defeated and Salim's vision of a "democratic, free and prosperous Iraq" would become a reality, he said.

The IGC also condemned the killing of their leader.

Describing it as "great shock," United Nations officials yesterday condemned the assassination.

"We condemn this criminal act, which has taken the life of one of Iraq's most loyal and patriotic citizens, a man who made every sacrifice for his country, who worked sincerely and selflessly so that Iraq may regain its sovereignty and strength," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi, said in a statement.

Brahimi, who is currently in Iraq helping to set up a caretaker government for the transfer of sovereignty from the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) on 30 June, noted that he and his delegation had just spent three days with Mr. Salim in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

"We were able to appreciate the depth of his knowledge, his broad mindedness, his political vision, his humanity and his profound belief in the ability of the citizens of Iraq to overcome this difficult phase in the life of their nation and to build the new Iraq," he said.

Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan in a statement condemned the killing as "as another act of terrorism by people who have no regard for life or any other human right."

Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer - a Sunni Muslim from the northern city of Mosul appointed as Salim's successor - said he would continue the march towards freedom and democracy despite the bomb attack.

"This is a terrorist act that will not dissuade the Governing Council from continuing its work to build a federal, united Iraq," he said.

Yawer will serve as IGC head until the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis, scheduled for 30 June.

The explosion in which Mr Salim was killed happened at 0500GMT at a checkpoint outside the Green Zone - the sealed-off area where the coalition and the IGC both have their offices.

Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and sent debris flying over a large area.

"There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," a security guard at a nearby residential compound told the Reuters news agency.

"There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts everywhere."

A previously unknown Iraqi group said it had carried out the attack.

The Arab Resistance Movement al-Rashid Brigades posted a statement on the internet saying two suicide bombers had been used to carry out "a qualitative heroic operation, which led to the killing of the traitor and mercenary" Ezzedine Salim.

"The Brigades pledges to the masses of our nation to pursue struggle until the liberation of glorious Iraq and dear Palestine," the statement on al-Anbar website said.

US military spokesman Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said they were investigating the statement of the group that could be a cover for the Zarqawi network.

Gen Kimmitt said the bombing that killed the IGC president had all the hallmarks of Zarqawi - the use of suicide bombers, going after spectacular and symbolic targets, and killing large numbers of civilians.

Mr Salim, a Shia Muslim and member of the Daawa Islamic Party, was the current holder of the rotating IGC presidency.

He is the second council member to be killed since it was set up last July.

The killers of Ezzedine Salim are "enemies of the Iraqi people", British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday in Brussels.

French President Jacques Chirac said he was "as convinced as ever that there is no military solution" in Iraq.