In the war-ravaged streets of Iraq, US-led forces say insurgents are recruiting women driven by despair or revenge to act as suicide bombers in the latest tactic against coalition troops.
Motivated by poverty, desperation or vengeance against the US-led military they blame for the deaths of family members, vulnerable women are easy prey for insurgents promising them a place in a paradise afterlife.
On Thursday evening a female suicide bomber killed eight people and wounded 20 after she detonated her explosives-filled vest in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala, one of the most dangerous regions in the country.
The bomber targeted a Sahwa or Awakening patrol of Iraqi forces — former insurgents recruited to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq and paid by the US military.
The blast demonstrates a growing trend of using women in insurgent attacks attributed to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which have claimed hundreds of lives across the volatile country.
On July 7, another female suicide bomber killed two people and wounded 14 others after blowing herself up at a bustling street market in Baqubah.
“One of the reasons for women to kill like this is a desire for vengeance,” said Captain Kevin Ryan, commander of a US base in Baqubah. “Often, they have lost parents, brothers or children in the fighting.”
Revenge is a powerful motive which followers of Osama bin Laden are keen to exploit, said Iraqi army Colonel Ali al-Karkhi, who is responsible for security in the Khan Bani Saad district, 30km outside Baqubah.
“Some want vengeance for the fact their families have disappeared,” he said, adding: “And it is easy for them to target those people they believe are responsible.”
Women without education, or even those who suffer from learning disabilities, are particularly targeted by extremists.
“Al-Qaeda look for this type of profile, then they train them and indoctrinate them,” Ryan said.
Some suicide bombers chose to carry out an attack in exchange for cash for their families, the two officers said, adding that Iraqi security forces, police, army or Awakening groups are the bombers’ most frequent targets.
Abu Zarra, leader of an Awakening group west of Baqubah, described how some months ago he was visited by a young woman dressed in a long black dress which covered her whole body.
“She was about 17 or 18 years old and she asked for help. She said she needed to see Abu Zarra. She spoke to me without knowing who I was,” he explained.
The tribal chief left to go to a wedding and decided to leave the woman in the care of one of his guards. It was a decision which saved the chief’s life.
“She opened her dress and blew herself up,” he said. “Three were killed and two wounded. One of my guards was burned alive.”
Fearful for their safety, US soldiers patrolling the streets avoid women wearing these long dresses.
“Each time you see one, you wonder if she is going to blow herself up,” one soldier said.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The bomb scare was among several e-mails threatening Albanese sent to a representative of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance troupe banned in China that is due to perform in Australia this month, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. The e-mail
RSS