BAGHDAD: Akila al-Hashimi, the first member of Iraq’s US-installed administration to come under attack, is known as a savvy Shia diplomat and foreign policy expert who made a smooth transition from Saddam Hussein’s regime to US occupation.

Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member Governing Council and the only one not to wear a veil, was hit by several bullets on Saturday when gunmen sprayed her two-car convoy with Kalashnikov fire from the back of a pickup truck.

At least four men — her two brothers and two bodyguards — were also wounded in the attack near the Shanshall mosque in the Iraqi capital.

It was the first attack on a prominent pro-American politician since Saddam’s ouster in April.

Doctors said her condition was serious after being treated at the Yarmuk hospital and then whisked out to a secret location by US troops.

Hashimi, a self-described technocrat, was forced to straddle the political gulf between an Iraq under Saddam’s iron fist and US occupation.

With a bachelor’s degree in law and a doctorate in French literature, she became something of a women’s rights advocate and a passionate champion of her battered country.

A one-time member of Saddam’s Baath party and protege of former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, she handled relations with international organisations under the old regime.

As the United States began its massive military build-up prior to the March 20 invasion, Hashimi was firmly on the side of Saddam, actively drumming up international support aimed at thwarting Washington’s designs on Iraq.

At a press conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur in February she famously declared: “The defence of Iraq is now the defence of the civilised world.”

But that tune changed with the political realities heralded by Saddam’s downfall with the arrival of coalition forces in April.

She was one of the few Baathists to keep her job and was named to the Governing Council in July, serving on the follow-up committee running the interim foreign ministry.

Hashimi led Iraq’s team to a pre-donors and reconstruction conference in New York in June and was due to take part in another round of UN talks, also in New York, in two weeks time.

Other people on the June team included UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a suicide truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital on August 19.

On arrival at UN headquarters in New York, Hashimi declared “Iraq is back” and later added: “This is a declaration of the reintegration of Iraq into the international community.”

Saturday’s attack was immediately condemned by US authorities in Iraq.

“We are shocked and saddened by this horrific and cowardly act against a colleague and respected member of the Governing Council of Iraq,” said Paul Bremer, Washington’s top man in Iraq.—AFP