Suicide Bombing in Iraq Kills Head of Governing Council

Power Transfer to Stay on Track Despite Killing, U.S. Says

A suicide car bombing near an entrance to the coalition headquarters here killed the head of the Iraqi Governing Council, dealing a further setback to the American effort to stabilize Iraq in advance of a June 30 handover of sovereignty.

Ezzidin Salim was the second member of the American-appointed council to be assassinated. He was killed while waiting in a Governing Council convoy at a checkpoint leading to the Green Zone, the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad.

L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq, condemned the bombing as a "shocking and tragic loss."

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The killing of Mr. Salim, a low-profile council member who held the rotating and largely ceremonial position of council president, is another blow to the American-led coalition, which is also grappling with a tenacious insurgency and the fallout from the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.

This does not speak well of security in an area that is supposed to be amongst the most secure in the city. It also underscores the fact that those fighting the CPA are fighting on the side of chaos and not for the betterment of the Iraqi people.