Member of Iraq's governing council shot
Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women members of Iraq’s Governing Council, was shot in the abdomen and critically wounded today in an assassination attempt outside her home in west Baghdad, police and doctors said.
A physician at al-Yarmouk hospital, who would not be named, said al-Hashimi was in a critical condition with abdominal wounds.
Three of her bodyguards were also injured, according to a security guard at the al-Yarmouk facility.
An Iraqi security official said al-Hashimi was taken to the hospital at about 10.30am and immediately was taken to surgery for a bullet wound in the left side of her abdomen.
She was then taken to an unknown location in a US military ambulance still unconscious, said the official who would not give his name.
Members of al-Hashimi’s security detail said the attack was carried out by men in two vehicles.
They fired rocket-propelled grenades that missed her car, then opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
While at the al-Yarmouk facility, fellow council member Ahmad Chalabi arrived. He was joined by Health Minister Dr Khudayer Abbas. Chalabi is council president for September.
Mohammed Abdul Ghany, a security official at al-Yarmouk Hospital, said the search for the attackers was under way.
“We will catch those responsible for this vicious crime,” he said.
A policeman, also refusing to give his name, said the attack happened outside al-Hashimi’s home at about 9am.
An al-Hashimi neighbour, Khola Ibrahim, said she was in her kitchen when she “heard shooting, very heavy shooting”.
Another neighbour, Saba Adel, said al-Hashimi’s brother – who acted as one of her bodyguards – knocked on her door crying out “My sister, my sister.”
Saba Adel said she saw another bodyguard lying on the pavement wounded in the arm and leg.
“He looked in a terrible condition,” she said.
Al-Hashimi was preparing to leave for New York as part of the Iraqi delegation to the UN General Assembly next week in an attempt to assume Iraq’s seat in the world body.
The attack on al-Hashimi underlines the risk faced by Iraqis who co-operate with the American-led occupation in high profile positions.
She is a Shi-ite Muslim and a career diplomat, who led the Iraqi delegation to the New York donor’s conference for Iraq this summer. She holds a doctorate in modern literature and a bachelor’s degree in law.
