Baghdad, Iraq – A suicide bomber slipped through the tightest security net in Baghdad and blew himself up in the midst of lawmakers having lunch in the parliament dining hall Thursday. U.S. officials said eight people, including parliament members, were killed in the deadliest-ever attack in the American-guarded Green Zone.
The stunning breach of security came on the same day that a massive bombing destroyed one of Baghdad’s main bridges across the Tigris River.
A news video camera captured the moment of the blast, about 2:30 p.m. – a flash and an orange ball of fire causing Jalaluddin al-Saghir, a startled parliament member who was being interviewed, to duck. Smoke and dust billowed through the area, and confused and frightened lawmakers and others could be heard screaming for help and to find colleagues. Al-Saghir reportedly escaped injury.
But a woman was shown kneeling over what appeared to be a wounded or dead man near a table and chairs. The camera then focused on a bloody, severed leg – apparently that of the suicide bomber. At least two lawmakers were among the dead.
Three miles north and seven hours earlier, a bombing sent a major bridge linking east and west Baghdad plunging into the Tigris. Several cars plummeted into the murky, brown water, and at least 10 people were known to have died. Many more were believed missing.
Police blamed a suicide truck bomber for the attack on the al-Sarafiya bridge, which the British built in the 1950s.
Security officials at Iraq’s parliament said they believed the bomber in the cafeteria attack was a bodyguard of a Sunni lawmaker who was not among the casualties. The bombing, which wounded both Sunnis and Shiites, showed that determined suicide assailants remain capable of striking at will.
Signs of al-Qaeda in Iraq
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the attack bore the trademarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The terrorist group is fighting not only to oust U.S. forces from Iraq but also against fellow Sunnis in the west of the country who have begun to leave the insurgency and side with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
One of the lawmakers killed in the attack, Mohammed Awad, was a member of the moderate Sunni National Dialogue Front, according to party leader Saleh al-Mutlaq. A female Sunni lawmaker from the same list was wounded, he said.
A second Sunni lawmaker known to have been killed was Taha al-Liheibi, a key go-between in government efforts to negotiate with Sunni insurgents about putting down their arms and joining the political process.
Niamah al-Mayahi, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance bloc, initially was reported killed by Saleh al-Aujaili, a fellow member of the bloc. Later, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh’s office said al-Mayahi was gravely wounded, but it was not immediately possible to reconcile the reports.
It would be the second time in less than a month that a bodyguard wearing a suicide vest attacked a Sunni official. On March 23, a member of Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie’s security detail exploded his suicide vest and seriously wounded al-Zubaie, the highest-ranking Sunni in the Iraqi government.
Two satchel bombs reportedly also were found in the parliament building near the dining hall. A U.S. military bomb squad took the explosives away and detonated them without incident, officials said.
Caldwell said eight people were killed in the blast, but hours after the bombing Iraqi officials were giving wildly varying accounts of how many people died and who they were. The government never gave a final death toll Thursday.
President Bush strongly condemned the attack, saying: “My message to the Iraqi government is ‘We stand with you.’ It reminds us, though, that there is an enemy willing to bomb innocent people in a symbol of democracy.”
But congressional Democrats said the attack was evidence that substantial progress was not being made in the war.
“How the president and people around him can say things are going well is really hard to comprehend,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
“This is the progress we’ve been hearing about?” asked Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “And tell me, how are more American troops going to stop a single fanatic with explosives strapped to his chest?”
Hours after the bombing, Iraqi officials including Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh met with the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and decided to put the Interior Ministry in charge of security at parliament, al-Dabbagh said. The building was previously guarded by a private security company, he said.
Most secure sites not safe
The brazen bombing was the clearest evidence yet that militants can penetrate even the most secure locations. Masses of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are on the streets in the ninth week of the security crackdown in the capital; security measures have been significantly hardened inside the Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government.
Earlier in the day, security officials brought dogs inside the building in a rare precaution – apparently concerned that an attack might take place.
But a security scanner that checks pedestrians at the entrance to the Green Zone near the parliament building was not working Thursday.
