Female suicide bomber in Iraq kills 15, wounds 40
Pastor Dale Morgan
Female suicide bomber in Iraq kills 15, wounds 40*
By ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 22, 2008; 2:36 PM
BAGHDAD -- A female suicide bomber concealing explosives beneath her
black robe struck outside a government complex northeast of Baghdad on
Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40, U.S. and
Iraqi officials said.
It was the 21st suicide mission carried out by a woman in Iraq this
year, the U.S. military said, as al-Qaida and other Sunni militant
groups try to regroup from major losses suffered at the hands of U.S.
and Iraqi forces.
The blast occurred about 1 p.m. as dozens of people were leaving a
walled compound that includes a courthouse and the provincial governor's
office in Baqouba, capital of Diyala province and a former al-Qaida in
Iraq stronghold 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
A car bomb across the street from the same compound killed at least 40
people in April.
It appeared that the latest attack was timed to maximize casualties
since many people were leaving the compound because the government
offices there were to close soon for the day.
A U.S. military statement said the dead included seven Iraqi police and
eight civilians. Ten police were among the wounded. Iraqi authorities
said 16 people were killed and 42 wounded.
"I was trying to leave the court when the explosion took place," said
one witness, who was wounded by shrapnel but refused to give his name
because of fears for his own safety.
"I heard some of the injured people saying they saw a woman wearing a
black robe blow herself up."
Al-Qaida has been increasingly using women because their black,
billowing abaya robes easily conceal explosives. Iraqi police often lack
enough policewomen to search women carefully.
The number of female suicide attacks has risen from eight in 2007 to 21
so far this year, according to U.S. military figures. Eight of the
attacks were in Diyala province.
Last year, U.S. soldiers regained control of Baqouba, which had been
declared the capital of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front
organization. But the terror movement has been trying to regroup in the
strategic Diyala province, which extends from the Iranian border to the
eastern gates of Baghdad.
To the north, a roadside bomb Sunday apparently targeting a police
patrol struck a civilian vehicle instead, killing four people, near
Kirkuk, police reported. A suicide car bomber attacked a police
checkpoint Sunday in the northwestern city of Mosul, wounding 14 people,
including four policemen, provincial police said.
The violence occurred as U.S. and Iraqi authorities are trying to meet a
July target date for completing a security agreement that would allow
American troops to remain in the country after the U.N. mandate expires
at the end of this year.
Talks bogged down over several key issues, which Iraqi lawmakers said
violated the nation's sovereignty. Last week, however, Iraqi authorities
said prospects for a deal had brightened after the Americans submitted
new, unspecified proposals.
In Lebanon, however, the country's top Shiite cleric called Sunday on
Iraqis to reject any deal that would allow the U.S. "to continue its
occupation" and hijack the country's sovereignty.
"We specifically warn Iraqis not to submit to American temptation or
pressures to sign an agreement with the Americans that will enable them
to continue their occupation of Iraq under new slogans," Grand Ayatollah
Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said.
Fadlallah's remarks are significant because he is one of the founders of
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party and serves as the
spiritual guide for many key Iraqi Shiite leaders.
Elsewhere Sunday, police said they have arrested six men suspected in
the killing of the head of Saddam Hussein's tribe this month. Sheik Ali
al-Nida, the head of Iraq's Albu Nasir tribe, and one of his guards were
killed on June 10 when a bomb planted on their car exploded in Tikrit.
Police said three of those arrested were related to the sheik. Another
was his longtime personal driver and trusted family employee, who police
said accepted money to stick a bomb on the undercarriage of the victim's
car.
Last year, al-Nida founded a so-called Awakening Council in Saddam's
home village of Ouja, partnering with U.S. forces to fight Sunni
militants in the area.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't
authorized to release the information, said investigators suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the attack as part of its campaign of
violence against Sunni tribal leaders who have joined forces with the
Americans.
___
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad and
Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.