BAGHDAD, 22 July 2003 — Iraq’s US-appointed governing council met yesterday to discuss naming ministers, in a further step toward recovery, as another US soldier and an Iraqi translator were killed in an attack in Baghdad.

The council met behind closed doors at its headquarters, the former Ministry for Military Industrialization in central Baghdad, a spokesman said, amid efforts to get rebuilding under way and map the course for Iraq’s recovery.

But an attack on US troops in the north of the capital left one soldier and an Iraqi dead in what a military spokesman described as an improvised explosive attack together with small arms fire, again undermining coalition efforts. “One armored division soldier was killed along with an Iraqi interpreter,” Spc. Brian Sharkey said.

A US Army officer at the scene, Lt. Col. John Kem, said that three people had also been wounded in the attack. A later military statement said the three were soldiers. The seriousness of their injuries was not known.

Further north, outside the town of Baqubah, US troops at Ibn Firnas airport came under a five-hour mortar attack overnight, witnesses said. There were no reports of casualties while the military said it was not aware of the incident.

The governing council meanwhile said in a statement it would send a delegation to meet officials from the US-led coalition following a series of reported raids on the offices of Shiite political groups.

Its statement mentioned searches allegedly carried out in offices of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) in a southern district of Baghdad, which the group said had been ransacked.

Ghazi Al-Yawar, a Sunni member of the council, denounced the alleged raids as “criminal... It would have been better if the US troops had coordinated with Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim,” council member and deputy head of SAIRI. The formation of the 25-member council, unveiled one week ago, was seen as a major achievement despite the coalition’s rebuilding efforts suffering as a result of a still fragile security situation and ongoing sabotage attacks.

— With input from Agencies