Islamic group claims parliament blast

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-13 21:31

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.

Image taken from video footage shows a severed leg at the scene of a suicide bomb blast where three Iraqi lawmakers were killed in Baghdad April 12, 2007. [Reuters]
The breach of security at parliament - along with another bombing the same day that destroyed a bridge across the Tigris river and killed at least 11 people - struck a blow to a two-month-old US-Iraqi effort to pacify the capital. Violence was down slightly in Baghdad, but the crackdown was insufficient to halt Thursday's spectacular attacks.

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Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the parliamentary bloc allied with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, accused the US 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?"

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.

US forces captured 14 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members in raids early Friday, the military said in a statement.

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.

The bodies of radio newscaster and her husband were found Thursday in the northern city of Mosul three days after being kidnapped by gunmen, Police Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jubouri said.

The death of Iman Youssef Abdullah, who works for a local radio station of President Jalal Talabani's Patriot Union of Kurdistan, would put the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the war began at 100, according to figures compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.


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