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Thursday, April 12, 2007

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WASHINGTON -- The United States strongly condemned Thursday's suicide bombing on Iraq's parliament but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said such attacks were not unexpected while the U.S. security plan was in its early stages.

"It is obviously again the terrorists and those who wish to stop the Iraqi people from having a future that would be based on democracy and stability," Rice told reporters of the attack on a restaurant in Iraq's parliament, which killed two lawmakers and injured dozens more.

She was speaking after a meeting with Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful who visited Iraq this month and said the Bush administration's new security plan was starting to show results, comments that were seized on by the Democrats as being too optimistic.

The White House strongly condemned the attack, one of the worst security breaches of the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, which houses parliament and other government buildings, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"This attack demonstrates the terrorists' and extremists' desire to undermine the Iraqi government and its desire to bring peace and stability to the people of Iraq," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Rice said such attacks were to be expected as efforts were made to undermine U.S. progress on security.

"We've said there are going to be good days and bad days concerning the security plan but the commanders are carrying on their responsibilities and working to try to make the population more secure," added Rice.

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"We're really just at the beginning of this and not at the end of it," she said.

McCain also predicted "spectacular" attacks in the Green Zone, which he said were intended to grab the headlines in the United States, where opinion polls show dwindling support for U.S. forces staying in Iraq.

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