Sheikh Faisal Raikan al-Gut al-Nimrawi ( ar, فصال القعود; died 25 June 2007), also known as Fasal al Gaood ( ar, فصال القعود), was a Governor of Anbar,

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and an important Iraqi

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

ally of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He served as interim governor of the province from July 2004 to January 2005. Fasal al Gaood helped to form an umbrella group of tribal Sunni leaders called the Anbar Salvation Council. The goal of the organization was to ally themselves with U.S. forces against

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irreg ...

in Sunni regions of Iraq, such as Al Anbar. The council had been unfortunately torn by infighting. Al Gaood was killed on June 25, 2007, in a

suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

blast at the Mansour Hotel in Baghdad along with 11 others. Six of those killed, including al Gaood, were members of the Anbar Salvation Council, who were meeting at the hotel at the time. Investigators believe that the Sunni tribal leaders were the targets. The blast also killed Rahim al-Maliki, a prominent Iraqi poet and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...

for

Al-Iraqiya Al Iraqiya ( ar, العراقيّة, al-ʿIrāqiyyä) is a satellite and terrestrial public broadcaster and television network in Iraq that was set up after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It is an Arabic language network that serves upwards of 85% ...

TV.

External links

McClatchy Newspaper Service: A U.S. ally in Iraq is murdered
(Accessed September 14, 2007) 2007 deaths Assassinated activists Assassinated Iraqi politicians Governors of Al Anbar Governorate Iraqi Sunni Muslims Iraqi terrorism victims Terrorism deaths in Iraq Year of birth missing 2000s assassinated politicians‎ {{Iraq-bio-stub