IRAQ - Sept. 26 - Woman On Iraqi Panel Dies Of Wounds.

Akila al-Hashemi, a member of Iraq's 25-member Governing Council, dies on Sept. 24 morning, five days after unidentified gunmen ambushed her in the street as she drove to work. The attack on Hashemi marks the end of a brief period of calm in Baghdad earlier this month. Sept. 24 morning a bomb outside a hotel used by NBC News kills one man and wounds two others. The attack was the third fatal blast in three days. The bombs are disturbing reminders that Baghdad seems to be growing less safe, not more. And the list of targets also appears to be widening. The Sept. 24 attack was the first on an American news organization, although no one from NBC was seriously wounded. On Sept. 23, a suicide bomber blows up his car in a parking lot outside the UN and kills one security guard. On Sept. 24 a roadside device explodes as an American patrol drives by, misses the patrol but destroys two buses and kills at least one Iraqi. Because of its relationship with Bremer's administration, IGC  is an obvious target for attacks, and some council members have harshly criticized the occupation administration in Iraq for failing to properly guard them.Hashemi was shot in the stomach and suffers a serious injury to her pancreas. Her condition seemed to have stabilized earlier this week after two operations at the US-run Ibn Sina Hospital here, but she weakened from internal bleeding and fell into a coma on Sept. 24. She dies at about 11:30 a.m., according to the US authorities here. Hashemi was 50. IGC calls for a three-day period of national mourning. Hashemi "fell as a martyr on the path of freedom and democracy to build this great nation," the council says in a statement. "She died at the hands of a clique of infidels and cunning people who only know darkness. The US administrator for Iraq, "L. Paul Bremer 3rd, says in a statement that "the people of Iraq have lost a courageous champion and pioneer for the cause of freedom and democracy. "Hashemi's brother Zaid has said that his sister received threats in recent weeks, warning that she would be punished for collaborating with the occupation authorities. At a news conference on Sept. 25, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez says the coalition had helped council members improve their security".We have been working with IGC in enabling them to stand up their security detachments," he says. He declines to say whether he believed Baghdad and Iraq were generally becoming safer or more dangerous. "There isn't a security crisis in the country at this point," Sanchez says. The bombing outside the Aike Hotel, where NBC News reporters and crews are staying, kills a Somali worker and slightly wounds two men, the police and witnesses says. None of the bombs this week have been as destructive as the truck bombs that devastated the UN compound and the Jordanian Embassy in August. The rumble of blast Sept. 25 morning, which came just before 7 a.m., echoed across much of Baghdad and sent police cars scurrying across the city in search of the explosion. Outside the Aike Hotel, in a residential neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, they found a familiar scene. "It's not safe to live in this country," says Johnny Lawrence, who lives across the street from the hotel and was slightly wounded when the windows of his house shattered. An Iraqi Christian, Lawrence, says that he had initially welcomed the collapse of Hussein 's regime. But he has changed his mind, he says.Saddam "grabbed everything for himself and his children, and nothing for his country," he says. "But one thing about it, you were secure. You could sit in the garden and have tea".