An Internet statement signed by a group linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attack Monday killing the Iraqi Governing Council president.
The statement, seen Wednesday, was the second Internet claim of responsibility for the car bombing that killed Abdel-Zahraa Othman, better known by the name he had adopted in exile, Izzadine Saleem. A statement had been posted Monday by a previously unknown Iraqi group, the Arab Resistance Movement.
Wednesday's statement was signed by the military wing of the "Monotheism and Jihad Group," which is believed led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is wanted by the United States for allegedly organizing terrorists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of al-Qaida.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, had said the car bombing that killed Saleem had the "classic hallmarks" of al-Zarqawi. But on Tuesday, Kimmitt said another group may be to blame "because of methodology in some of the techniques that were used." Kimmitt did not elaborate.