An inside job in the Green Zone

Today’s bombing attack on the Iraqi parliament (video here) is an ominous sign that the Green Zone has been penetrated. TIME‘s Brian Bennett reports from Baghdad:

An official at the Ministry of the Interior told TIME that the bomber was wearing a suicide vest and was a guard for one of the members of parliament. The blast went off just after 2 p.m. on Thursday at the cafe in the central atrium of the building just outside the main hall where politicians, staff and journalists often meet for a cup of tea or a plate of food from a buffet spread. Early reports say at least two people were killed and a dozen wounded, but the toll is expected to rise.

Many people had already left, but so far that toll has risen to eight dead, two of them MPs, and 23 wounded, according to the New York Times. 

Also today: A truck bomb blew up a 60-year-old bridge across the Tigris. So now the U.S. and Iraqi militaries are going to have to clean house inside the Green Zone, and start figuring out how to defend Baghdad’s many bridges from attack. All this against the backdrop of a possible collapse of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s governing coalition. Fun times.