Rishawi was killed by a buried bomb in his family compound only 10 days after he met George W Bush in Ramadi, the restive Sunni city west of Baghdad.
Though al-Qaeda in Iraq promptly welcomed the killing, it is likely that others could have done the deed. Rishawi was unpopular among Anbar’s senior shaikhs who are prepared to fight al-Qaeda, but not ready to ally with the US.
Others castigated Rishawi for self-promotion and claimed that he was trying to seize Anbar’s leadership by aligning himself with the United States.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Shia leaders have been critical of the US commander in Iraq for providing weapons and ammunition to Sunni tribesmen.
Therefore, the hand of Shia perpetrators cannot be ruled out. Whoever killed Rishawi had access to his compound. This implies that the bomb was actually planted by a follower or bodyguard.
The Bush administration has also been undermined on the political front by the failure of the Maliki government and parliament to adopt the compromise draft law on Iraq’s oil sector.
Benchmark
This law, which would govern how the country’s fields are developed and managed, is considered an important benchmark by Washington, because it would prepare the way for foreign companies to take part in rebuilding damaged fields and opening new ones.
There was consensus early this year between the three main communities, but this seems to have broken down due to the fact that the Kurds have passed their own law and entered into deals with foreign firms. The government has been unable to pass the draft law on control of the oil sector and distribution of revenues.
A third negative development is the release by ORB, a British polling organisation, of the report of a study on Iraqi households, which puts the number of fatalities in Iraq since the 2003 US war and occupation at 1.2 million.  Those carrying out the exercise asked 1,461 adults how many members of their households had died as a result of the conflict.
 Nearly 50 per cent of the families in Baghdad have lost at least one member, while 22 per cent of households in the rest of the country had lost at least one member due to the violence.
The report said, 48 per cent of victims fell to gunshots while 20 per cent were killed in car bombings.
A year ago, results of a similar study, published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, put the number of deaths at 654,965.