Kidnapped Iraqi governor is found dead after clash

RAMADI, Iraq -- The governor of the western province of Anbar apparently died when US troops were drawn into a tank assault against a house where Saudis and other foreign Arab fighters were holding him captive, US military and Iraqi government spokesmen said yesterday.

Governor Raja Nawaf Farhan Mahalawi, 51, found blindfolded and handcuffed to a gas canister with his head crushed, died as he lived, a family member said: caught between the foreign guerrillas he was trying to fight and the American forces he was trying to help.

''I advised him a lot to leave this job, but he told me, 'The Anbar people expect good from me, and I have a way to convince the Americans to stop the attacks and raids on the homes,' " said his brother, Dahham Nawaf Farhan Mahalawi.

''We will not tolerate the terrorists, and if the Americans are unable to get rid of them, we will do what the Americans were not able to," the brother quoted the slain governor as saying.

Two thousand mourners turned out for Mahalawi's funeral procession yesterday from Ramadi, the provincial capital.

Anbar, a province of tens of thousands of square miles, serves as a refuge and way station for foreign fighters who cross from Syria to launch attacks in Iraq's insurgency, US and Iraqi officials say.

It was unclear exactly how Mahalawi died in Sunday's clash near the village of Rawah, about 175 miles northwest of Baghdad. Two Saudis, an Algerian and a Jordanian inside the house were killed, a US military spokesman said in Baghdad. US soldiers detained two other Saudis and a Moroccan who were wounded in the fight, said the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan.

Mahalawi appeared to have died of blunt trauma to the head, just before or during the clash, Boylan said. He said the governor's body had no bullet wounds.

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said authorities believe the governor was hit by rubble from the assault.

Mahalawi's brother said he had seen the body and believed the governor was killed by foreign Arab fighters just before they themselves died in the battle.

The governor's death highlighted the risk and vulnerability of Iraqi officials who take part in the new government and cooperate with US forces despite insurgent threats. Hundreds of local or national officials and security force members have died in insurgent attacks, which occur daily.

The threat is particularly great in Anbar's countryside, from which many Iraqi officials and all but a few dozen Iraqi troops have fled.

Mahalawi, son of a top sheik of Anbar's leading Albu Mahal tribe, had been elected to his post by a local council on May 3. The foreign Arabs who kidnapped him on May 10 said they would release him only when US Marines halted an offensive in Anbar -- the first of two in May.

Boylan said Sunday's clash began when a US Army force on an unrelated mission near Rawah came under fire from a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms.

Soldiers fired back, sending bullets and at least one tank round into the house, Boylan said. Troops also saw explosions inside the house during the battle, he said.

Afterward, Americans found the dead and injured foreign Arabs and Mahalawi's body, Boylan said. A US military statement said the troops also found bomb-making material.

''It was not a rescue attempt," Boylan said of the clash. ''We had no way to know he was in that house."

US forces made no mention of the governor's death until yesterday, when Kubba, spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, announced it at a news conference.

After the killing, the governor's family had asked US military officials not to intervene if tribe members attacked hideouts of Arab fighters they believed were somehow involved, said one relative, Omar Farhan.

Under the tribe's custom, deaths must be avenged before the victims can be buried, local officials said. An Iraqi Army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of four suspected foreign Arabs were found yesterday afternoon near a burned car in Rawah.

In other developments:

The UN Security Council yesterday extended the mandate of the US-led multinational force in Iraq, saying it hopes Iraqi forces will ultimately be able to assume responsibility for their country's national security. The council also repeated calls to member states to prevent the transit of terrorists into Iraq and the flow of arms and money to sustain them.

Iraq's new president, Jalal Talabani, told CNN that Saddam Hussein could go on trial for crimes against humanity within two months, far earlier than expected. Iraqi prosecutors and their US advisers say a trial is more likely in 2006, after some of Hussein's lieutenants have been tried, to help build the case against the former dictator.

An Italian helicopter crashed in the south, near Nasiriyah, killing four soldiers. The crash appeared to have been an accident, Italy's ANSA news service quoted an Italian military spokesman as saying. Italy has about 3,000 troops in Iraq.