May 28 2004 at 02:36PM
|
By Michael Georgy
Baghdad - A leading Iraqi politician who survived an ambush by gunmen that may have killed her son blamed American troops on Friday for spiralling violence gripping the country.
Iraqi Governing Council member Salama al-Khafaji said she was returning to Baghdad from the sacred city of Najaf, where she had gone to pray for an end to bloodshed, when her three-car convoy was met by fierce gunfire on Thursday.
"We went to pray for an end to American violence and then we faced violence from the other side," she told Reuters in an interview in her Baghdad home.
"What the Americans are doing is breeding violence from the other side. This is provocation. Violence breeds violence. The American military violence must stop."
Continues Below ↓
Khafaji, who was also in Najaf to negotiate an end to clashes between United States troops and Shi'a militiamen, came under fire after blocked roads forced her convoy down an agricultural road in the bandit-ridden town of Yusufiya, south of Baghdad.
A car suddenly appeared and opened fire. The vehicle carrying her 17-year-old son and her three bodyguards rolled over four times into a sandy riverbank, she said.
One bodyguard who was rescued by Iraqi police died in hospital of his wounds and two other guards were injured.
Her son jumped into the river and tried to swim away. Khafaji said she was still awaiting word on his fate. Aides to other Council members said he had been killed.
"One of my bodyguards was hiding behind sugarcane. He told me he heard the gunmen point at the car and say 'This belongs to a Governing Council member'. They opened fire on the car again.
"If my son died he is a martyr. I will not mourn his death until the violence in Iraq ends."
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
©2008. All rights strictly reserved. Independent
Online is a wholly owned subsidiary of Independent News & Media. Reliance
on the information this site contains is at your own risk. |
| Please read the user
agreement and privacy
policy.
Send us feedback.
Tel: +27 21 481 6200, Fax: +27 21 481 6292 Click here for more information on IOL |