She was one of the very few Baathists to keep her job under the U.S. occupation

BAGHDAD, September 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Akila al-Hashimi, one of three female members in the Iraqi interim governing council, breathed her last Thursday, September 25, from wounds she sustained in an earlier assassination attempt, while a bomb blast that rocked a central Baghdad hotel housing U.S. television staff killed a maintenance worker.

Hashimi was ambushed by gunmen who lobbed a bomb and sprayed her two-car convoy with machine-gun fire Saturday, September 20, in the first such attack on an Iraqi official of the U.S.-installed 25-member council.

She underwent two stomach operations and was taken to a U.S. medical facility, but her condition had gradually deteriorated, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Today the people of Iraq have lost a champion and pioneer of freedom and democracy," U.S. civilian administrator Paul Bremer said in a statement.

Hashimi was known as a savvy diplomat and self-described technocrat who made a smooth transition from Saddam Hussein's regime to the U.S. occupation.

With a bachelor's degree in law and a doctorate in French literature, she became something of a women's rights advocate and a passionate champion of her battered country.

A one-time member of Saddam's Baath party and protege of former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, she handled relations with international organizations under the old regime.

As the United States began its massive military build-up prior to the March 20 invasion, Hashimi was firmly on the side of Saddam, actively drumming up international support aimed at thwarting Washington's designs on Iraq.

But she changed her tune with the arrival of occupation forces in April and was one of the few Baathists to keep her job.

She was named to the Governing Council in July, serving on the follow-up committee running the interim foreign ministry.

Many Iraqis opposed to the U.S. occupation of their oil-rich country have denounced the council, accusing its members of collaborating with the U.S. and being part of a puppet administration with little real power, says the BBC's Jill McGivering in Baghdad.

A spokesman for the Governing Council said three days of mourning had been declared in memory of Hashimi, a Shiite, a foreign policy expert and one of three women on the 25-member council.

A U.S. soldier investigates the damage from a bomb blast outside the al-Aike Hotel in Baghdad

The death of Hashimi is likely to further stir tensions in Iraq, where U.S.-led troops are faced with daily attacks, bombings and now a political assassination more than five months after they ousted Saddam Hussein.

The announcement of her death came after a bomb went off outside the Baghdad hotel used by U.S. television network NBC, killing a Somali maintenance worker, reported AFP.

Witnesses said two other people, including an NBC soundman, were wounded by the explosive device placed by a generator on the sidewalk outside the Aike hotel, on the corner of al-Hindi street, a main thoroughfare in the capital.

Soundman David Moodie, 44, a Canadian, had a cut on his arm from the blast, and said no other staffer of the network was hurt.

The bombing was the third in a week in Baghdad following Monday's second attack on the U.N. headquarters, which killed one Iraqi security man.

U.S. Causalities

In another development in the northern city of Mosul, witnesses said a U.S. military vehicle was hit with an explosion, leaving at least four American soldiers badly wounded, reported AFP.

Some 10 witnesses reported seeing the bodies of four U.S. soldiers after their military vehicle was hit with an explosion then ambushed.

But there was no confirmation of their deaths on a main road in front of the telecommunications center and the U.S. military said it had no report of the blast.

The U.S. military said it had no report of the assault, which witnesses said occurred at 9:30 am (0530 GMT) in Mosul, which has seen frequent attacks on U.S. occupation forces.

A soldier of the American 101st Airborne division stands near a humvee destroyed by an explosive device in Mosul

One witness, Mohammad Ali, told AFP: "An American jeep was blown up at around 9:30 am and an American car. I saw the bodies of four Americans who had died, one of them without legs."

Another resident, Ahmad Ali, said he saw three or four American soldiers on the ground after the vehicle exploded. "I saw U.S. soldiers taking away the bodies of two others," he said.

Yunis Yassina, 31, said that after the vehicle exploded, "some Iraqis began to shoot at the American truck and the Americans retaliated."

U.S. soldiers cordoned off the scene and declined to comment.

On Wednesday, U.S. troops were blamed for two incidents of violence in which two Iraqis were killed and at least three injured.