The idea in Iraq has been to extend the stability and security of the Green Zone to the rest of Baghdad and beyond. Instead, we’re seeing the opposite — the AP reports that 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.”
Anonymous security officials at parliament said they believed the bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni lawmaker. Spencer Ackerman, reporting from Baghdad, considers the implications.
If [this was the result of a suicide bombing] — and even if the bomb was planted and detonated remotely — that means someone in a uniform had to wave the bomber into the parliament building. I didn’t visit the parliament, but getting into a facility like the U.S. Embassy chow hall requires passing through several tiers of security. You are scanned and frisked. Your papers are scrutinized. Your companions are questioned. Items on your person are confiscated, even without suspicion of their use for terrorism. It’s a likely bet that someone guarding the facility, and quite possibly a beneficiary of our training, equipping and mentoring efforts, wanted the attack to occur.
Time added, “The metal detectors at the entrance to the Baghdad Convention Center, where Parliament is housed, were not operating Thursday, said the Interior Ministry official, who was suspicious of a wider plot.”
What’s more, the attack inside parliament comes immediately on the heels of a suicide bomber destroying Baghdad’s Sarafiya bridge, which Ackerman describes as “the first successful attack with real military significance since the beginning of the surge.”
As Matt Yglesias concluded, “Two different attacks both of which indicate a qualitative leap in insurgent capabilities or intentions over what we’ve seen over the past four years of combat does not, to me, suggest an insurgency that’s in its last throes or a ‘surge’ that just needs more time to succeed.” Indeed.