Vieira de Mello was working as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq when he was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing . Abu Musab Zarqawi , a leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization , claimed responsibility for the blast . A communiqué from al-Qaida said that de Mello was assassinated because he was a crusader that extracted a part of the Islamic land ( East Timor ) after the Indonesian regime committed genocide on the small country with Christian majority
Canal Hotel bombing
Canal Hotel bombing
Sérgio Vieira de Mello