Iraq Interim Government Member Dies From Wounds

Aquila al-Hashimi died at a U.S. military hospital where she had been transferred in recent days.

Gunmen in a pickup truck reportedly opened fire on al-Hashimi’s vehicle as bodyguards drove her to work. Al-Hashimi was shot in the abdomen. Her bodyguards returned fire, but the attackers escaped.

Al-Hashimi was set to become one of Iraq’s representatives to the United Nations and was making preparations to travel to New York this week for a meeting of the General Assembly when she was attacked.

“Today, the people of Iraq have lost a courageous champion and pioneer for the cause of freedom and democracy,” Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, said in a statement Thursday. “On behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority and all its members, I offer my heartfelt condolences to her family, her colleagues at the Governing Council and the people of Iraq.”

Al-Hashimi was a foreign ministry official in Saddam Hussein’s regime but had been a staunch supporter of U.S. efforts to establish security and control. She was one of three women named to the U.S.-appointed 25-member Iraqi Governing Council.

The Washington Post reported that al-Hashimi was “a Shiite who had a law degree and a doctorate in French literature, [who] rose through the ranks in Hussein’s Foreign Ministry, eventually assuming responsibility for Iraq’s dealings with the United Nations and other international organizations.”

U.S. officials and members of the Governing Council have said they suspect former regime members are responsible for al-Hashimi’s death.

Al-Hashimi had accompanied Bremer to the scene of the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and had proclaimed the bombing a “cowardly act.”

On Thursday the Governing Council declared three days of mourning in honor of al-Hashimi and released a statement that said she “fell as a martyr on the path of freedom and democracy to build this great nation. She died at the hands of a clique of infidels and cunning people who only know darkness.”

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday ordered a further reduction of U.N. international staff in Iraq after a second bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad occurred Sept. 22. The United Nations said it would pull at least 19 of its 105 international staffers in Iraq, Reuters reported.

“This is not an evacuation, just a further downsizing and the security situation in the country remains under constant review,” U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said, according to the Associated Press.

Attacks on foreigners and U.S. soldiers continued in Iraq Thursday. A bomb exploded outside a hotel where NBC correspondents and crews are staying in Baghdad. One security guard was reportedly killed and a cameraman wounded.

Seven U.S. soldiers were also reportedly wounded when bombs exploded near their convoy north of Mosul.