It's been announced now. Two coworkers were returning form the airport to the GZ yesterday around 3:30pm local, in a two car armored convoy, when a "svbied" (suicide, vehicle born, improvised explosive device, aka "car bomb") managed to roll up next to them and detonate. They were on a flyway and their vehicle was blown over the side and landed upside down on the street below and burst into flames. All four people in the car, my two coworkers and their two PSD's, were killed instantly. We heard the explosion from here, not knowing it was one of ours. One of the people killed I knew and liked, she had been here the longest of all of us; I saw her leave on her way out, she sits (sat) two desks behind me.
I gotta tell you, getting the Iraqis a working billing system for their national phone company just doesn't seem so important anymore. I'm not one to let terrorists win through their actions but I don't plan on taking any rides out of the GZ anytime soon, nor do I plan on taking a car to the airport anytime soon. The embassy and USAID workers all "have" to take a helicopter flight to get to/from the airport -- I expect to be put on their transportation plan and get "withdrawn" to Amman, at least for a while. We'll see what happens.
Meanwhile, as I sat down to write this, another explosion rocked the trailers, this one much louder than most. Looking around outside it appears that another gate, closer than the airport one, was hit by a car bomb, it should be on the web in about an hour.