Iraqi Governor Found Dead After Clash

U.S. Forces Engaged Foreign Fighters in House Where Abducted Official Was Held

RAMADI, Iraq, May 31 -- The governor of the western province of Anbar apparently died when U.S. troops were drawn into an assault against a house where Saudis and other foreign Arab fighters were holding him captive, U.S. military and Iraqi government spokesmen said Tuesday.

Gov. 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 Tuesday 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 join Iraq's insurgency, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

It was unclear Tuesday 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 in the house were killed, a U.S. military spokesman said in Baghdad. U.S. soldiers detained two other Saudis and a Moroccan who were wounded in the fight, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan.

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

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

Mahalawi's brother, who said he had seen the body, said he believed the governor was killed by foreign Arabs just before they died in the battle.

The governor's death highlighted the vulnerability of Iraqi officials who take part in the new government and cooperate with U.S. 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.