There are a number of characteristics of this bombing that make me suspect it was carried out by al-Qaida or one of its affiliates.
Most strikingly, this strike appears to have been an entirely unnecessary suicide attack. The BBC reports that the suspect vehicle was parked at the time that it exploded, which means that the driver ought to have had plenty of time to make his escape. If he did not, and this was in fact a suicide attack, it would be strange move for a Ba’athist resistance that must be struggling to preserve its numbers. It would, however, be perfectly in keeping with al-Qaida’s zeal for “martyrdom operations” even where such martyrdom is not strictly required.
Like the Jordanian Embassy bombing, this attack also struck a “soft” target not directly affiliated with the CPA-I. Targetting the Jordanian government would do little to accomplish the Ba’athist goal of expelling coalition forces from Iraq beyond sewing a little more peripheral chaos, but is perfectly in line with al-Qaida’s policy of targeting pro-US Arab governments. Similarly, it seems somewhat counter-productive for the Ba’athist resistance to strike at UN employees who were not directly involved in restoring order and services to Iraq; for one thing, this could broaden the list of enemies that the Ba’athists would have to overcome to expel the occupation forces from Iraq.
Al-Qaida, on the other hand, has a history of targeting the United Nations and has been actively targeted by that body itself. It also has an interest in attacking all pro-Western interests that it can, regardless of what role such interests play in the immediate situation in Iraq, in hopes of provoking iits desired “clash of civilizations” between the West and the Muslim world in general.
Needless to say, this bombing and the Jordanian were also far larger than the attacks that have characterized the Iraqi resistance in recent months. Their intent seems not to have been to disrupt Iraqi infrastructure or kill Coalition soldiers, but simply to kill large numbers of pro-Western civilians. They were a far cry from the pipeline attacks that occurred over the weekend, for example, which strike me as Ba’athist operations.
All things considered, the UN headquarters and Jordanian Embassy bombings seem to me to be the work of parties distinct from the rest of the Iraqi resistance, and quite possibly affiliated with al-Qaida.
Total hijack, Chefguy, but what did you (do you?) do with the State Department?