Former Exile Claims to Form City Government

A returned Iraqi exile who has proclaimed himself mayor of Baghdad said he had formed a city government and promised to put on trial anyone whose “hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people.”

Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, a member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress, said at a news conference that he had held meetings to draft regulations in a nation accustomed to answering to Saddam Hussein.

“We have met with lawmen to create laws, and to open the courts so that life can begin to take on legitimacy,” he said. Without elaborating, he said Iraq’s new constitution would be based on Islamic law.