BAGHDAD, April 12: A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament’s canteen in Baghdad’s Green Zone on Thursday, killing eight people in a staggering breach of security at the country's most heavily guarded site.

The attack came just hours after a suicide bomber blew up a truck on a major bridge across the Tigris River in Baghdad, killing 10 people and sending several cars plunging from the wrecked structure into the waters below.

Another 26 people were wounded in the attack on Al Sarafiyah Bridge, one of the oldest in the Iraqi capital, which collapsed under the force of the blast, a security official said. An Iraqi security official said that in the Iraqi parliament’s attack two lawmakers and a parliamentary official died and 20 people were wounded, around half of them MPs, when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt walked in carrying a briefcase.

US military commander Maj-Gen William Caldwell later put the death toll at eight with another 23 wounded, giving no further details.

The bombing defied a massive US-Iraqi security crackdown launched in the world’s most dangerous capital two months ago, and was swiftly condemned in Washington.

The rare strike inside the heavily fortified Green Zone caused lunchtime chaos, shattering glass and filling the room with heavy smoke as people shrieked for help in dramatic scenes broadcast on Arabic television.

Six people were also killed when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb near the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, a security official and a doctor said.—AFP