On the scorching summer morning of Aug. 19, 2009, I was walking from my home in Baghdad‘s Mansour district to Ahmed Chalabi’s residence, just a few houses away, for our routine morning meeting. As I made my way down the street, I suddenly heard a massive explosion in the distance. Moments later, the blast wave reached me with tremendous force, and I could feel the pressure ripple through the air. Looking toward the horizon, I saw a huge plume of black smoke rising into the sky, a chilling sign that another devastating attack had struck Baghdad.

As I entered Chalabi’s house, he immediately asked me about the explosion. I quickly made several phone calls to determine what had happened. I was horrified to learn that the attack had targeted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, located near one of the Green Zone’s main entrances, only a few miles from where we were. The explosion had caused catastrophic damage, with extensive casualties and widespread destruction.