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Iraqi Parliament Meets After Bomb Attack NewsMax.com Wires BAGHDAD -- Iraqi lawmakers expressed outrage and resolve Friday in a rare session of parliament on the Muslim holy day, a day after a suicide bomber ripped through their cafeteria in a brazen attack inside Baghdad's U.S.-guarded Green Zone. A red and white bouquet sat in place of Mohammed Awad, a Sunni member of the moderate National Dialogue Front killed in Thursday's attack on the parliament cafeteria. Lawmakers ambled up to the podium to denounce the bombing, including one man with his arm in a sling and a woman wearing a neck brace. "The more they (terrorists) act, the more solid we become. When they take from us one martyr, we will offer more martyrs," Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi said. "The more they target our unity, the stronger our unity becomes." But the turnout was low because of a weekly driving ban on the Muslim day of rest. "Very few parliament members showed up because of the curfew," said Mohammed Abu Bakr, head of the parliament's media office. "Also the MPs' turnout is very low today because most of them are visiting those who were wounded by the blast," he said. Some additional members filed into the parliament room and took their seats after the session was under way, but the room remained less than half full. The meeting began late, and adjourned after about 90 minutes. The parliament chamber bore no signs of damage, but cleanup had yet to begin elsewhere in the building, where investigators were still combing through the debris for clues as to who was behind the attack and how they penetrated the tightest security in Baghdad - the heavily fortified Green Zone compound, which houses the U.S. Embassy as well as offices of the Iraqi government. Story Continues Below
"The cafeteria is still not clean. There is still flesh of the bomber on the floor," Abu Bakr said. "Broken glass has not been removed, and a meeting hall is still full of dust." Both Iraqi and American officials Friday revised down their estimates of those killed. The U.S. issued a statement saying one civilian was killed. But Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani opened Friday's session by asking members of recite verses from the Quran to mourn the death of a "hero, the parliament member Mohammed Awad." The meeting was "a clear message to all the terrorists and all those who dare try to stop this (political) process, that we will sacrifice in order for it to continue," al-Mashhadani said. "We feel today that we are stronger than yesterday," he said. "The parliament, government and the people are all the same - they are all in the same ship which, if it sinks, will make everyone sink." Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told lawmakers that the government "had received indications that this building would be targeted." Before the attack Thursday, security guards took the unusual precaution of using sniffer dogs to search inside the parliament building. State-run Iraqiya television's transmission was draped Friday in a black mourning banner. Regular programming aired, but the screen had a black stripe across the upper left hand corner. Several TV channels replayed images Friday of the moment of the attack and the minutes following: a flash and an orange ball of fire causing Jalaluddin al-Saghir, a startled parliament member who was being interviewed, to duck. Smoke and dust billowed through the area, and confused and frightened lawmakers and others could be heard screaming for help. Al-Saghir escaped injury. But a woman was shown kneeling over what appeared to be a wounded or dead man near a table and chairs. The camera then focused on a bloody, severed leg - apparently that of the suicide bomber. The U.S. military said Friday that one Iraqi civilian was killed and 22 injured in the attack. The night before, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell had said eight people died. "Yesterday's reports were based on initial reports from the scene. During evacuation operations, emergency responders and eyewitnesses reported that casualties were being evacuated in multiple directions," the statement said. The stunning breach of security at parliament - along with another bombing the same day that destroyed a historic bridge across the mighty Tigris river and killed at least 11 people - struck a blow to a two-month-old U.S.-Iraqi effort to pacify the capital. Violence was down slightly in Baghdad, but the effort to put thousands of additional troops on the streets has failed to halt spectacular attacks like Thursday's. Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the parliamentary bloc allied with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, accused the U.S. of lax security that allowed the bomber in. "The occupation forces are in charge of security of this area. But no one dares to hold them responsible for this issue," he said. "The problem of the occupation is not inside or outside this hall, it is for all Iraqi people. Why don't we hold them completely responsible?" Security officials at parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said they believed the cafeteria bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni lawmaker who was not among the casualties. Caldwell said the attack bore the trademarks of al-Qaida in Iraq. "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," he said. U.S. forces captured 14 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members in raids early Friday, the military said in a statement. It would be the second time in less than a month that a bodyguard wearing a suicide vest attacked a Sunni official. On March 23 a member of Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie's security detail exploded his suicide vest and seriously wounded al-Zubaie, the highest-ranking Sunni in the Iraqi government. On Friday, police said 11 civilians had been killed in the bridge bombing a day earlier. Seven were killed in the explosion by a powerful suicide truck bomb, and four perished when their cars plummeted into the river below, police said. At least 39 people were injured, including three Iraqi soldiers. Two civilians are still missing, they said. A roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded four others in southern Baghdad on Friday, police said. A civilian was also wounded.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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