The head of the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council is assassinated:

Ezzidin Salim was the second member of the American-appointed council to be assassinated. He was killed while waiting in a Governing Council convoy at a checkpoint leading to the Green Zone, the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad.

…The bomb wounded five other civilians and two soldiers in the American-led military coalition, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said. The killing of Mr. Salim, a low-profile council member who held the rotating and largely ceremonial position of council president, is another blow to the American-led coalition, which is also grappling with a tenacious insurgency and the fallout from the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.

…Soon after the blast, the Governing Council selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul, to replace Mr. Salim as head of the council, a position that rotates monthly. Mr. Yawer will serve as the council’s chief until the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.