Female Suicide Bombers Kill Police, Others

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A female suicide bomber blew herself up north of Baghdad yesterday, killing six and wounding twelve others.

The bombing took place outside a police station in the Diyala province, where several other attacks have occurred recently.

Most of the dead were policemen, according to a police source.  There have been several attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq in recent weeks.  Diyala is one of the northern provinces where al Qaeda has sought sanctuary after being driven out of Anbar province in the west and Baghdad.

On Monday, a female suicide bomber detonated near the office of an anti-al-Qaeda group in Baquba, killing three of its members.

The bomber activated her vest, filled with explosives, in the Al-Mafraq neighborhood north of Baghdad.

Ahmed Alwan, a doctor at Baquba hospital, said three anti-al-Qaeda group members were killed and four other people wounded in the attack.

“The woman attacker tried to get inside the office that lies in the middle of the market.  The guards at the first checkpoint stopped the woman and asked her to open her robes to check if she wore an explosive belt, but at this moment she exploded herself outside the office,” said Abu Talib, a Sons of Iraq commander.

Al-Qaeda has been targeting groups who have sided with the US military to fight them in recent months.  These groups are made up of mostly Sunni Arab former insurgents, using women as a way to carry out attacks with an element of surprise.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Female suicide bomber kills six north of Baghdad – 22 April 2008

AFP – Female suicide bomber kills three in Iraq city – 21 April 2008

Los Angeles Times – Female suicide bomber kills four in Iraq – 22 April 2008

Author: Impunity Watch Archive