At Least Two MPs Killed in Attack, Two More Devices Found
By IraqSlogger, 12 April 2007
As the casualty count continues to rise from today's bombing of Parliament, confusion reigns about who perpetrated the audacious attack, and how they managed to get explosives through the multiple rings of Green Zone security.
TIME magazine is reporting that "within an hour of the explosion, a message from the al-Qaeda-controlled Islamic State in Iraq was posted on a prominent militant website, muslm.net, calling the blast a 'message' to anyone who cooperates with 'the occupier and its agents.'" However, the statement attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq does not specifically articulate a claim of responsibility, so Slogger is not prepared to accept it as such. Slogger has posted full text of the statement and its explanation for not accepting the claim.
While Islamist Internet forums have seen much chatter celebrating the attack on the Iraqi Parliament, viewed by hard-core Islamists as illegitimate, no detailed claim of responsibility has yet emerged.
Most reports indicate two MPs were killed in the blast, though CBS News cites an Iraqi parliamentarian who witnessed the explosion as saying that "five or six" died in the blast. Reuters and AP both report that officials have identified Mohammed Awadh, a member of the National Dialogue Front, AP also names MPs Taha al-Liheibi, and Niamah al-Mayahi of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance bloc among the dead. (Several stories in English and Arabic incorrectly identify al-Awadh as a member of the Accordance Front, in fact he was associated with the National Dialogue Front.)
However, NBC cites Mukhlis al-Zamili of the Shiite Fadhila party as reporting one dead lawmaker was a Kurdish MP. Zamili also said six of those wounded were members of the Sadrist bloc.
For its part, Al-Jazeera reports that two MPs died in the attack, Mohammed Awadh, and Asif Hussein Muhammad of the Islamic Union of Kurdistan.
Al-Melaf writes in Arabic that it has learned that as many as eight MPs may have died in the attack, but without confirmation or names it is unclear at this time how reliable this report may be.
ABC News reports that another 20 people--10 MPs and 10 security officials--suffered wounds and have been taken to Ibn Sina, the US military hospital inside Green Zone compound.
CNN reports that at least 14 MPs were injured in the attack, including seven from the Sadrist bloc and seven from the Tawafuq Front.
Al-Jazeera puts the number of wounded from the Tawafuq Front at five, among them Taha al-Lahibi and Salman al-Jamili, but adding that its sources clarified that the Tawafuq MPs injuries were not dangerous.
The US embassy said it had no reports of any American citizens being wounded.
Time magazine reports that an Interior Ministry official said the guard of one of the members of Parliament was wearing a suicide vest, which he detonated at approximately 2 pm in the atrium outside the main hall of Parliament. The official also expressed some suspicion of a wider plot because the metal detectors at the entrance to the Baghdad Convention Center, where Parliament is housed, were reportedly not functioning on Thursday.
ABC also had an anonymous "security official at the national assembly" report that, "There is a strong indication that the suicide bomber was a bodyguard of one of the law-makers." The official said three law-makers, for example, are known to regularly refuse security checks inside the Green Zone. Police are also reportedly questioning the cafeteria manager, only one-month on the job, as well as his kitchen staff.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh suggested a possible conspiracy involving parliamentarians, telling Alhurra, the U.S.-funded Arabic-language channel, “There are some groups that work in politics during the day and do things other than politics at night."
Abu Bakr, from Parliament's media department, told AP that security officials, in a rare precaution, had been using dogs to check people entering the building on Thursday--apparently concerned about an impending attack.
US forces have formed a security cordon around the building and are prohibiting all from entering and leaving the building. US helicopters hover over the Green Zone, as US special forces were observed en route to the Parliament.
A number of Iraqi MPs are also being held in a room inside the building. US forces are holding “tens” of the building’s workers inside the Parliament, according to the Iraqi News Agency.
U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell told Reuters that "We are trying to backtrack all the systems to see how somebody was able to get a suicide vest into the Convention Centre where the members of parliament meet ... we are looking at who had access there."
The BBC is reporting that two other suicide vests were found in the building after the explosion, though AP describes them as "satchels." US forces removed the devices and safely detonated them outside.
Citation: "Iraqi Parliament Hit by Suicide Bomber," IraqSlogger, 12 April 2007.
Original URL: http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2329/Iraqi_Parliament_Hit_by_Suicide_Bomber