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Explosion in Green Zone at Iraq Parliament Cafe
An explosion has hit a cafeteria at the Iraqi parliament, killing at least two MPs and injuring at least 15 people, witnesses and security officials say.
Police said they believed a suicide bomber was involved, but that they were keeping an open mind about the cause.
The cafe, in Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone, is for MPs and their staff, some of whom were having lunch there.
Earlier, a bomb on a bridge in Baghdad killed at least eight people and sent several cars into the River Tigris.
The two attacks are major blows to the much-trumpeted Baghdad security surge now in its third month, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
The convention centre where parliament meets is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, he says. There are sniffer dogs, and all the other usual precautions are taken. Sometimes several searches are made within the space of just a few metres.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the attack was a "criminal cowardly act" and said the violence would not weaken MPs' resolve, AFP news agency reported.
Chaos and confusion
The bomb went off 10 minutes after the parliament had adjourned for lunch.
It exploded in the cafeteria on the first floor where the deputies, their staff and parliamentary officials were taking their break.
MP Mohammed Hassan Awad from the National Dialogue bloc (a Sunni group not part of the government) was killed in the blast.
Another MP was also killed and at least three more parliamentarians were among the injured, a police source told the BBC.
Iraqi media reports said a third person, a parliamentary employee, had died.
Windows were blown out in the attack and there was chaos and confusion. "We heard a huge explosion inside the restaurant," a parliamentary official at the scene told Reuters news agency.
"We went to see what was going on. We saw lots of smoke coming from the hall, with people lying on the ground and pools of blood."
This is the first time a bomb has gone off inside the building although it has been shaken by several mortar attacks in the past. Several MPs have been assassinated outside the Green Zone.
The security drive has brought down the rate of sectarian murders, but it has not stopped the bomb attacks.
The bombing of the Sarafiya bridge, one of the main arterial bridges in Baghdad, had been condemned by the speaker of parliament a short time before the explosion in his own building.
The bridge, one of the main linking the two halves of the capital across the Tigris River, was partially demolished by a huge truck bomb.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6548337.stm
The cafe, in Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone, is for MPs and their staff, some of whom were having lunch there.
Earlier, a bomb on a bridge in Baghdad killed at least eight people and sent several cars into the River Tigris.
The two attacks are major blows to the much-trumpeted Baghdad security surge now in its third month, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
The convention centre where parliament meets is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, he says. There are sniffer dogs, and all the other usual precautions are taken. Sometimes several searches are made within the space of just a few metres.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the attack was a "criminal cowardly act" and said the violence would not weaken MPs' resolve, AFP news agency reported.
Chaos and confusion
The bomb went off 10 minutes after the parliament had adjourned for lunch.
It exploded in the cafeteria on the first floor where the deputies, their staff and parliamentary officials were taking their break.
MP Mohammed Hassan Awad from the National Dialogue bloc (a Sunni group not part of the government) was killed in the blast.
Another MP was also killed and at least three more parliamentarians were among the injured, a police source told the BBC.
Iraqi media reports said a third person, a parliamentary employee, had died.
Windows were blown out in the attack and there was chaos and confusion. "We heard a huge explosion inside the restaurant," a parliamentary official at the scene told Reuters news agency.
"We went to see what was going on. We saw lots of smoke coming from the hall, with people lying on the ground and pools of blood."
This is the first time a bomb has gone off inside the building although it has been shaken by several mortar attacks in the past. Several MPs have been assassinated outside the Green Zone.
The security drive has brought down the rate of sectarian murders, but it has not stopped the bomb attacks.
The bombing of the Sarafiya bridge, one of the main arterial bridges in Baghdad, had been condemned by the speaker of parliament a short time before the explosion in his own building.
The bridge, one of the main linking the two halves of the capital across the Tigris River, was partially demolished by a huge truck bomb.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6548337.stm
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The blast at the parliament building - inside the usually secure Green Zone - killed two MPs, parliamentary officials said.
It tore through a restaurant as MPs and staff were having lunch, Mohammed Abu Bakr, who runs the parliament's media department, said.
"We heard a huge explosion inside the restaurant. We went to see what was going on. We saw lots of smoke coming from the hall, with people lying on the ground and pools of blood," another official told the Reuters news agency.
Among the dead was Mohammed Awad, a member of the Sunni National Dialogue Front, according to the leader of his party, which holds 11 seats. Security officials said the other victim was an MP from a Shia party.
The heavily fortified Green Zone, which includes many government offices and embassies, is usually well protected against suicide blasts and other attacks, although there are signs that insurgents are increasingly targeting the area. Last month, Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, was wounded in a suicide bombing in the garden of his home inside the Green Zone. Nine other people were killed in the attack.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2055431,00.html
Thursday's blast took place in a cafeteria while several ministers were eating lunch, Mohammed Abu Bakr, who heads the media department at the parliament, said.
Muhammad Awadh, a member of parliament from the mainly Sunni National Dialogue Front, was killed in the blast.
Taha al-Lihaibi, Salman al-Jumaili, Hahim al-Ta'i and two other MPs were injured from the Iraqi Accord Front, another member of parliament said.
Iraqi media have reported that another MP - possibly a Kurd - was also killed in the attack although this has not been officially confirmed.
"We were having a meeting when suddenly we heard a huge blast inside the restaurant. I saw a lot MPs wounded and bleeding," Fouad al-Massoum, leader of the Kurdish parliamentary bloc, said.
Al Jazeera has learnt that three female MPs from Muqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary list were wounded in the explosion, along with three members of the United Iraq Alliance, the main Shia bloc in the parliament.
US condemns attack
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, condemned the attack which she said was the work of "terrorists" opposed to recent US attempts to a semblance of order to Iraq's lawless capital.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad, which is also in the Green Zone, said no Americans were injured in the blast which took place in an area under the control of US troops.
The canteen where the explosion took place is on the first floor of the huge Iraqi parliament building, on the same floor as the 275-member national assembly's main debating chamber.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9D62DB46-0F5E-44B6-AA74-F4FA18B4535D.htm
After the attack in the building's cafeteria, more explosives were found near the parliament room and were destroyed in a controlled detonation, according to Iraqi lawmaker Iman al-Asadi.
It is unclear how the bomber was able to pass through the multiple security checkpoints required to enter the parliament building, which is in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
The Associated Press, citing Mohammed Abu Bakr, the parliament's media relations chief, said some security procedures had changed earlier in the day at a Green Zone entrance near the parliament building.
The entrance's security scanner was not working, Abu Bakr told the AP, and pedestrians entering the zone were subject to hand searches and passed through metal detectors, he said.
The slain lawmakers include a Shiite, whose identity has not been released, and a Sunni, Mohammed Hassan Awadh, a member of the National Dialogue bloc, according to Muhanned Jabbar, an official with the office of Iraq's speaker of parliament.
More
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/12/iraq.main/index.html