Member of Iraqi's Governing Council Critically Wounded

20/09/2003| IslamWeb

Aquila al-Hashimi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council, was shot and critically wounded Saturday in an assassination attempt outside her home in western Baghdad, police and doctors said. Al-Hashimi was in critical condition with abdominal wounds, a doctor at al-Yarmouk hospital said on condition of anonymity. After surgery she was moved to an unspecified location in a convoy of American armored vehicles and military ambulances. Three of her bodyguards also were injured, said Mohammed Abdul Ghany, a security official at the al-Yarmouk hospital. An Iraqi official who asked not to be named said she was shot twice in the stomach, once in the shoulder and once in the leg as she was walking outside of her home in western Baghdad with her driver and brother. Earlier, two explosions were heard in Baghdad Friday night. One blast took place in Al Mansour neighborhood of west Baghdad. A woman and her three children who were riding in a taxi suffered light injuries in the second blast on the east side of the Tigris River near the People's Stadium, police said. Police added the bomb appeared to have been placed in a trash bin. Elsewhere, an explosion and an exchange of small arms gunfire has struck the center of Fallujah as hundreds of US occupation forces and vehicles were deployed to the town, witnesses said, according to AFP. The explosion was heard across Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, when it detonated at about 10:20 am (0620 GMT) and gunfire erupted immediately afterwards. The blast occurred shortly after the main highway and a second access route, both linking the capital to Fallujah, were re-opened after being cut by hundreds of troops and vehicles entering the city. One witness said troops blocked the exit and entry points to Fallujah at about 9:00 am Saturday and traffic had backed-up "for kilometres" heading into the town. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iraqis shout Anti-American slogans as they fire their machine guns into the air during the funeral of slain Iraqi policemen in Fallujah in this Sept. 13, 2003 file photo. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)