Group claims Iraq parliament attack

The Islamic State of Iraq issues claim after parliament holds special session.

Flowers Iraqi parliament mourning
A bouquet of flowers was placed on the seat of a Sunni politician killed in the attack [APF]

One person was killed and 22 injured in one of the worst attacks ever carried out in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
 

Earlier reports had suggested that eight people had died in the attack.

 
Parliament meets
 
The Iraqi parliament held an extraordinary session on Friday – the Muslim day of rest – to denounce the bombers and to promise to continue their work.
 
As the session began, Mahmoud Mashhadani, the speaker, urged parliamentarians to defy the bombers.
 
“This meeting is a clear message to all terrorists and to everyone who tries to halt this blessed [political] process, which we should sacrifice ourselves for.”
 
“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.”
 
Investigation launched
 
The parliamentary session was poorly attended, as many Iraqi MP’s struggled to get to 

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the meeting due to stringent security measures in Baghdad and at the parliament building itself.
 
Politicians held a minute’s silence for those killed and wounded in the bombing and recited verses form the Quran.
 
Later in the session, parliamentarians placed a bouquet of red and white flowers on a seat that was formerly used by Mohammed Awad al-Jibouri, a Sunni politician who was killed in the attack.
 
The US and Iraq have begun an investigation into the blast.
 
Three cafeteria workers have been detained and the bodyguards of some parliamentarians are being questioned.
 
Al Jazeera was told that Iraqi security forces found two further devices outside the parliament building that were probably intended to be detonated as MPs were running away from the original blast.
 
‘Huge blast’
 
The explosion on Thursday took place in a canteen on the same floor as the 275-member national assembly’s main debating chamber.
 
Several ministers had been eating lunch when the blast took place.
 

Awad, a member of parliament from the mainly Sunni National Dialogue Front was killed in the blast on the building’s first floor.

Three female MPs from Muqtada al-Sadr’s parliamentary list were wounded in the explosion, along with three members of the United Iraq Alliance, the main Shia bloc in the parliament, Al Jazeera reported.

Taha al-Lihaibi, Salman al-Jumaili, Hahim al-Ta’i and two other MPs from the Iraqi Accord Front were injured, another member of parliament told al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies