Iraqi
Parliament Bombing: A Sign Of Deepening Crisis
By Peter Symonds
18 April, 2007
World
Socialist Web
The
bombing inside the Iraqi parliament last Thursday has underscored the
deepening quagmire created by the US-led invasion and occupation. Four
years after American troops entered Baghdad, nowhere in the country—including
the heavily fortified and guarded Green Zone where the huge US embassy
and Iraqi government offices are also sited—is invulnerable to
attack.
Details of the bombing remain
sketchy. The initial death toll was revised sharply downwards on Friday
from eight civilians to just one—Mohammed Awad, a Sunni legislator
belonging to National Dialogue Front. More than 20 people were injured,
including seven other parliamentarians, when the bomb detonated in the
café area just outside the main hall around 2.30 p.m.
A suicide bomber was apparently
responsible, but it remains unclear how he was able to penetrate the
multiple layers of security required to enter the Green Zone and then
the parliament building. According to a BBC report, there are up to
eight separate checks for visitors entering the parliamentary zone,
which may include body searches, sniffer dogs and various scanning devices.
Before entering the parliament a visitor must be met outside by his
or her sponsor.
As a symbol of the detested
US occupation, the Green Zone has been previously attacked by insurgent
groups. Late last month UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon was shaken
by a mortar round that landed inside the Green Zone near the building
where he was holding a press conference. On March 23, Deputy Prime Minister
Salam al-Zubaie was hospitalised after a bomb exploded near his compound
at the edge of the Green Zone. Several weeks ago two “suicide
belts” were reportedly found in the zone.
An organisation calling itself
the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the latest bombing
in a web site statement, hailing “a heroic knight” who “managed
to infiltrate into the midst of the apostates of the so-called parliament”.
Several parliamentary canteen workers have been held for questioning.
The US military immediately
sought to play down the high profile attack, claiming that the Bush
administration’s “surge” strategy in Iraq was working.
Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno told the media that progress is “not
about one or single events; it’s about an overall feeling of security
in your neighbourhood.” He highlighted the fact that the US military
had established 26 joint security stations and more than 21 combat outposts
across the capital to provide “a continuous presence”.
However, if the Green Zone,
which is sometimes referred to as the “ultimate gated community”,
is not secure, then the US efforts to carve up Baghdad into separate,
secure neighbourhoods are even less likely to succeed. Just hours before
the attack on the parliament building, a huge truck bomb destroyed the
Sarafiya bridge across the Tigris River in Baghdad, killing at least
six people. Odierno conceded that last Thursday was “frankly ...
a bad day, a very bad day.”
President Bush immediately
denounced the parliament bombing as an attack on “innocent people
and a symbol of democracy”. But the claim is absurd. The fact
that Iraqi parliamentarians are only able to meet behind layer upon
layer of US security testifies to their lack of popular support. The
main qualification for the job is their willingness to accept the ongoing
US occupation, which is opposed by the vast majority of Iraqis who blame
the US for the systematic repression, sectarian warfare and nightmarish
social conditions.
A day after the bombing,
parliament met last Friday in what was trumpeted in the international
media as “a show of defiance”. Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi
told the assembled parliamentarians and TV cameras: “The more
they [the insurgents] act, the more solid we become. When they take
from us one martyr, we will offer more martyrs. The more they target
our unity, the stronger our unity becomes.”
Behind this façade
of unity, however, the parliament, the government of Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki and the state apparatus are all deeply divided. Ministries,
militias, security guards and even intelligence services are organised
on the basis of party and sectarian loyalties. A Sunni suicide bomber
could only penetrate the Green Zone with assistance from the inside.
According to several reports, he may have been a guard for a Sunni parliamentarian.
The bombing provoked immediate
recriminations. Mustafa al-Hiti of the Sunni-based National Dialogue
Front blamed a “conspiracy” by Shiite-dominated government
organs to weaken parliament and target Sunni lawmakers. Shiite parliamentarian
Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir declared that the attack should be a “wake-up
call” to Sunni politicians that they are being targeted by Sunni
extremists along with Shiites.
Nassar al-Rubaie, head of
the parliamentary bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, criticised
the US military for lax security. “The occupation forces are in
charge of security in 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?”
Last week, the Sadrist movement
organised a huge anti-occupation protest in the southern city of Najaf
to mark the fourth anniversary of the US capture of Baghdad. Hundreds
of thousands marched behind banners declaring “Down with Bush,
Down with America” and burned American flags, giving vent to the
widespread anger, frustration and opposition among the population as
a whole.
Yesterday Sadr responded
to the Maliki government’s refusal to set a timetable for US withdrawal
by ordering his six loyalists to quit the cabinet. The decision was
a carefully calibrated manoeuvre aimed at accommodating mass anti-US
sentiment and distancing the Sadrist bloc from the deeply unpopular
government, while avoiding a direct confrontation with Maliki and the
US. The Sadrists have made no move to pull out of the ruling Shiite
coalition or from the parliament.
Nevertheless, the withdrawal
of the Sadrist ministers, like the bombing of the parliament building,
is one more sign that the puppet regime on which the US occupation has
rested is reaching the point of collapse.
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