There have been reports of 5 suicide bombings in Iraq today. One of which seems to have targeted Sunni tribal leaders.
From an article at Time.com.
A suicide bomber apparently targeting a meeting of U.S.-allied Sunni sheiks penetrated layers of security and blew himself up in a hotel lobby on Monday, killing four tribal leaders and at least eight others, police reported.
SNIP
After the blast, a member of the Anbar Salvation Council said in the provincial capital of Ramadi that the sheiks meeting at the Mansour Hotel had been dropped from the council "because they did not continue working with us." He said they had been meeting secretly with government officials, about unspecified matters. The U.S. command here has pointed repeatedly to the Anbar group and its opposition to al-Qaida as an example for other tribes to follow elsewhere in Iraq.
Newsday has more details.
Police and security officials said a man wearing traditional Arab garb like the sheiks', complete with headdress, entered the lobby. He also was wearing a belt of explosives, packed with nails and metal pellets, said these officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. He approached the sheiks and detonated the bomb.
A police officer based at the hotel identified four tribal leaders killed as former Anbar governor Fassal al-Guood, sheik of the Albu Nimr tribe and a Mansour Hotel resident; Sheik Abdul-Azizi al-Fahdawi of the Fahad tribe; and Sheik Tariq Saleh al-Assafi and Col. Fadil al-Nimrawi, both of the Albu Nimr tribe. Three of al-Guood's guards also were killed, the police officer said.
Another police official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said six of the assembled sheiks were killed.
Gen. Aziz al-Yassiri, a Defense Ministry adviser, also died in the hotel attack, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Asked whether al-Yassiri had been meeting with the sheiks, this official would say only he was on "an official mission."
This coupled with all the other bombings and attacks this month make it very clear to me that the "Surge" is not working. As far as what I have read and heard reported the only conclusion I can draw is that in spite of the Presidents great new strategy conditions in Iraq are continuing to deteriorate. An apparently well thought out and planned assassination of Sunni Sheiks and Gen. Aziz al-Yassiri seem to emphasize just how bad things are.
The fact that the bomber was able to penetrate the security at the Mansour hotel also does not bode well. From the reports I read the bomber had to get past 3 security check points and the hotel is also the location of the Chinese embassy. Such a place should be relatively secure, and that a bomber was able to breach its security says a great deal about how vulnerable everyone in Iraq is. It reiterates how impossible of a task it is for the US to bring security to the country.