Blast Kills 8 at Iraqi Parliament Building

[tequila]

Remarkable coup by the insurgency to get a bomb inside the parliament building. Apparently they managed to get past bomb-sniffing dogs, even. Not surprising, though, given the recent assassination attempt on Iraqi VP Adel Abdul-Mahdi by a member of his own security detail. It was just a matter of time after the recent find of suicide vests in the Green Zone.

BAGHDAD - A bomb exploded in the Iraqi parliament's cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone Thursday, killing at least two lawmakers and wounding 10 other people.

The blast in the parliament building came hours after a suicide truck bomb blew up on a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

The bomb in parliament went off in a cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, media reports said. In addition to the two dead, state television said at least 10 people were wounded.

The bombing came amid the two-month-old security crackdown in Baghdad, which has sought to restore stability in the capital so that the government of Iraq can take key political steps by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support.

One of the dead lawmakers was Mohammed Awad, a member of the Sunni National Dialogue Front, said Saleh al-Mutlaq, the leader of the party, which holds 11 seats in Iraq's legislature. A female Sunni lawmaker from the same list was wounded, he said.

A security official at the parliament building said a second lawmaker, a Shiite member, also was killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media...

[goesh]

off track but there was a hit in the Iraqi Parliment cafeteria, AQ connected is the prelim assessment, no doubt someone will post it soon

[Jedburgh]

Remarkable coup by the insurgency to get a bomb inside the parliament building. Apparently they managed to get past bomb-sniffing dogs, even. Not surprising, though, given the recent assassination attempt on Iraqi VP Adel Abdul-Mahdi by a member of his own security detail....

Breaking news suggests that the bomber in this case was also a member of another MP's security detail - but not one who was around when the device initiated....

...Security officials at parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information, said they believed the suicide bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni member of parliament who was not among the dead.

They would not name the member of parliament.

The officials also said two satchel bombs were found inside the building near the dining hall.

A US military bomb squad was called and took the explosives away and detonated them without incident....

[Sarajevo071]

"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt and carrying a briefcase entered the cafeteria. Security was very tight because parliament was meeting," a security official said.

"The flesh of the suicide bomber was scattered across the cafeteria. There was blood everywhere on the floor," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity from the scene of the attack.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/3159/104/

Another member of the National Dialogue Front, Mohammed al-Dayni, also suggested a suicide bomber was behind it.

"I am standing now at the site of the explosion and looking at the severed legs of the person who carried out the operation. If this tells us anything, it tells us that security is lax," al-Dayni told Iraq's Sharqiya television.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/...YRDrAaOewUewgF

In an assault apparently aimed at chilling negotiations between the Iraqi government and a faction of the insurgency, the Iraqi Parliament, located in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, suffered a bomb attack. An official at the Ministry of the Interior told TIME that the bomber was wearing a suicide vest and was a guard for one of the members of parlament…

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...609521,00.html

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The officials also said two satchel bombs were found inside the building near the dining hall.

A US military bomb squad was called and took the explosives away and detonated them without incident....

If so, do that means there was more of them??

[Culpeper]

Of course that is a possibility. Not all suicide bombers carry out their missions. I think it was on this forum that many groups are now making two or three people stay inside a vehicle designed to explode while driving towards a target. This is because loners are getting to where they change their minds and don't carry out their mission. Something like that.

[SWJED]

13 April Washington Post - Blast Kills 8 at Iraqi Parliament Building by Karin Brulliard and Robin Wright.

A suicide bomber detonated a vest packed with explosives inside Iraq's parliament building Thursday, killing at least eight people in the worst-ever breach of security in the heavily guarded Green Zone.

Elsewhere in the capital, a truck bomb destroyed a bridge over the Tigris River, killing at least one person and severing a link between the now Shiite-dominant eastern side of Baghdad with the Sunni-dominant west...

[tequila]

Video here.

Eyewitness account by reporter here.

[goesh]

-do you think that will sway the Pelosi/Murtha/Reid crowd in their rush to cut and run?

[wm]

As a last great act of defiance in WWII, the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive, AKA Wacht am Rhein. One of the goals of the German effort was to split the Allies and get the US and UK to stop fighting. Then the Reich could have focused its full attention on the Eastern Front.

Could yesterday's events in Baghdad be akin to that last German effort to snatch a victory? Knowing that a sharp divide in US support for the war exists, it makes sense that the insurgents might "shoot their wad" to try to get us to bail out of the country.

[marct]

Hi WM,

Could yesterday's events in Baghdad be akin to that last German effort to snatch a victory? Knowing that a sharp divide in US support for the war exists, it makes sense that the insurgents might "shoot their wad" to try to get us to bail out of the country.

Just a guess, but I'd have to say no. They may have used a valuable asset to deliver the attack but I'm pretty certain that that isn't the bulk of their resources . My gut guess is that his is probably an escalation of the fight between AQI and other groups.

Marc

[tequila]

Interesting that Sunni lawmakers appeared to be the target - or at least they appear to have been the ones killed. Or perhaps the bomb was in a satchel, and Sunnis just sat down next to it?

The fact that suicide vests were discovered prior to this attack, and suspicious packages detonated afterwards, suggests that something much bigger was planned - or perhaps is still to be attempted.