IGC Head Killed in Bombing

As if the security situation in Iraq needed further underscoring.

There are reports everywhere that Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammad, head of the Iraqi Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb attack today while at a checkpoint waiting to enter the U.S. controlled "Green Zone" in Baghdad.

Here's the Reuters report.

Details seem to be few at this time, but according to Reuters:

A statement purporting to be from a group headed by leading al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for that attack.

"Leading al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?"

Well, I don't know that Zarqawi has any al-Qaeda ties whatever.

In this BBC profile of al-Zarqawi we find the following statements:

• The cell-members also told their German interrogators their group was "especially for Jordanians who did not want to join al-Qaeda".



• Intelligence reports indicated he was in Baghdad and - according to Mr Powell - this was a sure sign that Saddam Hussein was courting al-Qaeda, which, in turn, justified an attack on Iraq.
  
  But some analysts contested the claim, pointing to Mr Zarqawi's historical rivalry with Bin Laden.



• Both men rose to prominence as "Afghan Arabs" - leading foreign fighters in the "jihad" against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
  
  After the Soviets were defeated, Mr Zarqawi went back to Jordan.

So, while I am certain that al-Zarqawi is a very bad guy, I am unconvinced that he is, as claimed by the U.S., a top al-Qaeda figure.

I mourn for our brothers in Iraq. Anything remotely like security and or stability appears to some distance away.