Iraq:US officials admitted last night that the bombing of the Iraqi parliament shows that not even the heavily fortified Green Zone is safe any more, despite the security crackdown launched earlier this year in the Iraqi capital.
American and Iraqi security officials were last night investigating how a suicide bomber evaded a ring of security checks and blew himself up in the assembly's cafe, killing three MPs and five other people and wounding more than 20.
About 100,000 US and Iraqi soldiers are on the streets of the capital as part of the troop "surge" begun two months ago. Security inside the Green Zone has been tightened following the discovery of two suicide bomb belts.
But after the deadliest attack ever in the Green Zone, US officials warned that nowhere is safe in Baghdad. "The international zone is not safe, it is just safer than the rest of the city," said Lieut Col Christopher Garver.
"Enemies of the country are trying to drive a wedge between the people and the government."
In Washington, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said: "We know that there is a security problem in Baghdad. This [crackdown] is still early in the process and I don't think anyone expected that there wouldn't be counter-efforts by terrorists to undermine the security presence." The blast came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in northern Baghdad that links the east and west of the city. The steel structure collapsed and sent cars tumbling into the Tigris river, killing at least 10 people.
The parliament bomber struck at around 2.30pm as lawmakers and government officials gathered for lunch on the first floor. The Saddam-era building also houses Iraqi government offices and has withstood repeated mortar attacks since March 2003.
Barzan Mohammed, an assistant to deputy speaker of parliament Arif Tayfour, said: "I was just leaving my office for lunch and there was this very big bang. I ran along the corridor to the restaurant, but all I could see were huge clouds of dust.
"It was choking and there was the smell of burning meat. The windows were blown out, there were tables and chairs everywhere and the sound of groaning. Then I saw that many people had been hit, and that blood was everywhere."
Maj Gen William Caldwell, the chief US military spokesman, said witness accounts pointed to a suicide attack, but "we don't know at this point who it was. We do know in the past that suicide vests have been used predominantly by al-Qaeda."
Initial reports said the explosion was near the cash register and there was speculation a cafe worker had smuggled in a bomb in food boxes. But Mohammed Abu Bakr, who runs the parliamentary media unit, and other witnesses said they saw two legs on the floor. "None of those killed or wounded lost their legs," he said.
A police source said they had found the remains of what appeared to be a suicide belt.
Iraq's parliament is surrounded by concentric rings of checkpoints.
- (Guardian service)