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.

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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