First female suicide bomber attack reported in Iraq

[Barrett808]

Baghdad - Iraqi media Friday reported what was believed to have been the first-ever attack by a female suicide bomber, an attack which targeted joint Iraqi-US forces.

The Iraqi news agency al-Dar cited eyewitnesses as saying the attack took place Wednesday in Maqdadiya, 110 kilometres north-east of Baghdad.

The woman, wearing an explosives belt, approached a joint US-Iraqi forces patrol positioned near a bus stop and blew herself up, the report said.

At least seven were killed and more than another 20 wounded, including civilians and military personnel, al-Dar said. The US and Iraqi military did not specify the number of casualties inflicted upon their forces in this attack.

Eyewitnesses said that joint Iraqi and US forces moved in to seal off the site of the blast while US helicopters hovered overhead. One of these helicopters reportedly landed in order to evacuate wounded US soldiers. Iraqi and US military vehicles also moved in to evacuate their injured personnel.

Iraqi military spokesmen have declined to comment on the incident beyond stating that Iraqi forces had suffered casualties in the attack. Further details were not available.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1191674.php/First_female_suicide_bomber_attack_reported_in_Iraq

[Ian David]

1. There have been female suicide bombers before.

For example, there was the lady who went into a hotel lobby with her husband (also a suicide bomber) but her vest didn't work. She was taken alive. Her husband got his 72 virgins.

[Ian David]

2. Over 50 female suicide bombers according to The RAND Corp

from the August 17, 2006 edition

Suicide bombings by women in Iraq
Some 50 women have carried out suicide attacks worldwide in the past five years, according to a report by Farhana Alia of the RAND Corp.

Since 2003, the report cites at least five suicide bombing cases in Iraq, including an Iraqi woman who traveled to Jordan but failed in her mission. It also includes a Belgian woman who converted to Islam, then went to Iraq.

April 3, 2003: Two women blew up a car at a checkpoint, killing themselves and three US Army Rangers in western Iraq.

Sept. 28, 2005: An Iraqi woman disguised as a man stood among job applicants before detonating an explosive belt outside a US military facility in the city of Tal Afar. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, calling her a "blessed sister" affiliated with the Malik Suicidal Brigade.

<snip>

Nov. 13, 2005: Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, an Iraqi from the city of Fallujah and a would-be suicide bomber, was arrested. She confessed on Jordanian TV that she had participated in a suicide bomb plot the previous week that killed 57 people at three hotels in Amman, Jordan. She said her explosives belt failed to detonate.

More:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0817/p12s01-woiq.html


(Photograph)
A TV CONFESSION : Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi shows the explosives strapped to her body that failed to go off when she and three men entered a Jordanian hotel on Nov. 9, 2005. Although her explosives failed to detonate, the other bombers killed 57 people.
REUTERS/Jordan TV

[Ian David]

3. Female Suicide Bombers: Dying to Kill

Female Suicide Bombers: Dying to Kill
Brian Handwerk
National Geographic Channel
December 13, 2004

As a spate of suicide bombings around the world in recent years has shown, the face of terror is increasingly female. In 1991 a female Sri Lankan separatist killed herself and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Since then similar bombings have occurred in Turkey, Pakistan, Israel, Uzbekistan, and Iraq.

In Russia at least 11 female Chechen bombers have struck, including the women who, earlier this year, downed two Russian airliners and those who helped seize a Beslan middle school and kill over 330 hostages, many of them children.

This week, on a special edition of National Geographic Explorer (see details), host Lisa Ling travels to Russia's Chechnya region and to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Israel to speak with families who female suicide bombers have left behind. Here, Ling shares her insights into why these women are dying to kill.

What did you learn about the women behind these terrible bombings?

What we found in talking to the {bombers'} families and people in the community—and I want to limit this to the women whose stories we looked into—all of them had very traumatic personal stories and issues. Those things, combined with the horrors of living under occupation, could have provoked them to act.

What kind of personal problems?

One terrorist, for example, was the first female suicide bomber in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Wafa Idris. She was married off at a very young age and could not have kids. In that society a woman, a wife, who can't have kids is considered worthless. The husband {divorced Wafa and} married someone else and had kids with her.

More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1213_041213_tv_suicide_bombers.html

[rocktivity]

4. It's called "adapting to win"

:(
rocknation

[Az_lefty]

5. She wasn't the first...

I was on the ground in April 03 when a female suicide bomber drove up to a check point and detonated.

[frylock]

6. welcome home

[fshrink]

7. Guess she'll go to a paradise with lots of virgin men.

[The Icon Painter]

8. Paradise?

That sounds more like Perdition.

[Alacrat]

9. How can so many people in this world be so brain washed

by religious fanaticism, and they all claim to be religions of peace, WTF? Faith in a God isn't a bad thing, until it becomes blind faith in man's interpretation of God's word.

[ShortnFiery]

10. No, from what I have read about the traditional Muslim culture,

Women martyrs can pick loved ones to be with them in their after-life.

They usually select their children or their mother.

BTW I think it's 70 virgins vice 72 but not positively sure. No matter - IMO the exact number doesn't matter because "the intended insult" of Martyrdom within the Muslim Faith has long worn thin.

When judging other religions please recall that one Catholic Saint, in particular Our Joan of Arc was no slouch. Albeit she wore no suicide belt, her faith imposed assured Death Sentence, Martyrdom and subsequent Saint hood.

After all the insults I've had to endure about liberal Catholics by Souther Baptists, I find insulting anyone's practiced religion and culture only serves to spread resentments and nurture grudges against "the other."

But that's just me :shrug: ... unless you're atheist or agnostic everyone must STAND ALONE before their Higher Power. :hi: