Iraq's first female suicide bomber kills 6 (Reuters) Updated: 2005-09-29 13:58
A woman disguised in a man's robes and headdress slipped into a line of army
recruits Wednesday and detonated explosives strapped to her body, killing at
least six recruits and wounding 35 — the first known suicide attack by a woman
in Iraq's insurgency.
![](xin_360902281920820114373.jpg) An US helicopter hovers as plumes of black
smoke rise from the Green Zone,the heavily guarded area where foreign
embassies and Iraq's parliament are based, in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept.
27 2005. A car bomber penetrated the heavily fortified Green Zone Tuesday
but was stopped by U.S. Marines before being able to detonate the vehicle,
a military spokesman said. U.S. troops destroyed the car in a controlled
blast and detained the bomber. [AP] |
The attack in Tal Afar near the Syrian border appeared aimed at showing that
militants could still strike in a town where U.S. and Iraqi offensives drove out
insurgents only two weeks ago. A female suicide bomber may have been chosen
because she could get through checkpoints — at which women are rarely searched —
then don her disguise to join the line of men, Iraqi officials said.
Iraq's most notorious insurgent group, al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed
responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement, saying it was carried
out by a "blessed sister."
The bombing came a day after U.S. and Iraqi officials announced their forces
killed the second-in-command of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abdullah Abu Azzam, in a raid
in Baghdad over the weekend. His death has not slowed insurgent violence, with
at least 84 people — including seven U.S. service members — killed in attacks
since Sunday.
U.S. President Bush warned violence will increase in the days leading up to a
key Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution, a document that has sharply
divided Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and the Sunni minority that forms the
backbone of the insurgency.
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