Baghdad bomber strikes parliament

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria Thursday, killing at least eight people – including three lawmakers – and wounding dozens in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone.\nA news video camera captured the moment of the blast: a flash and an orange ball of fire causing a startled parliament member who was being interviewed to duck, and then the smoky, dust-filled aftermath of confusion and shouting. The video was shot by Alhurra, a U.S. government-funded Arab-language channel.\nThe blast came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded 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.\nThe parliament bombing was believed to be the deadliest attack in the Green Zone, the enclave that houses Iraq’s leadership as well as the U.S. Embassy, and is secured by American and Iraqi checkpoints.\nSecurity officials at parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said they believed the bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni member of parliament who was not among the dead. They would not name the member of parliament.\nThe officials also said two satchel bombs were found near the cafeteria. A U.S. bomb squad took the explosives away and detonated them without incident.\nPresident Bush strongly condemned the attack, saying: “My message to the Iraqi government is `We stand with you.’”\nMaj. Gen. William Caldwell told The Associated Press that eight people were killed in the attack, which witness accounts indicated was carried out by a suicide bomber.\nIraqi officials said the bomber struck the cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, and at least three of them – two Sunnis and a Shiite – were killed. State television said 30 people were wounded.\n“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-Qaida,” Caldwell said.\nGovernment spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh suggested that those behind the attack might work in the building.\n“There are some groups that work in politics during the day and do things other than politics at night,” he told Alhurra.\nThe Alhurra video showed the blast, with startled lawmaker Jalaluddin al-Saghir, who is also a Muslim imam, ducking for cover. It then showed the immediate aftermath: People screamed for help in a smoky hallway, with one man was slumped over, covered in dust, motionless. A woman kneeled over what appeared to be a wounded or dead man near a table. The camera then focused on a bloody, severed leg.\nTV cameras and videotapes belonging to a crew sending footage to Western networks were confiscated and apparently handed over to U.S. authorities.\nAfter the blast, security guard no one – including lawmakers – was allowed to enter or leave.\nA spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said no Americans were hurt.\nThe 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.\n“We know that there is a security problem in Baghdad,” added Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the State Department. “This 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.”\n–Associated Press Writer Lauren Frayer contributed to this report.