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Thu 12 Apr, 2007 07:11 am
Sigh.
Explosion 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.
Click here for a aerial map of the Green Zone
The bridge and the cafeteria 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 security drive has brought down the rate of sectarian murders, but it has not stopped the bomb attacks.
Chaos
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........
Full BBC story
Information at early stages.....
Reuter's version:
Suicide bomber kills 2 MPs at Iraq parliament
By Dean Yates
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed two Iraqi lawmakers and wounded dozens of other people at a restaurant in parliament on Thursday while lawmakers were having lunch, officials and local media said.
The bombing represents one of the worst security breaches of the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad that houses parliament and other government buildings since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Iraqi media said two lawmakers had been killed, including Mohammed Awadh, a Sunni.
A security official confirmed Awadh had been killed and said another parliamentarian was missing and presumed dead. Two other lawmakers were critically wounded, the official 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," a parliamentary official told Reuters by telephone from the scene.
The Iraqi security official said the bomber was wearing a belt packed with explosives.
Earlier, a truck bomb killed at least seven people on a key bridge in northern Baghdad, destroying most of the steel structure and sending several cars plunging into the River Tigris below, police said. Continued...
Reuter's article continues here
Yep, the surge is working alright.
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