Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Daily News
March 23, 2008 Six recent suicide attacks in Iraq triggered by women
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — A pummeled Al Qaeda in Iraq is switching to female suicide bombers for a new wave of strikes, which government experts fear is a sign of the group’s comeback.
Since the U.S. troop surge began nearly a year ago, the most deadly suicide bombings— a hallmark of the foreign-led insurgent network — had decreased.
Recently, however, Iraq has seen a return of the mass-casualty bombings that were practically a daily blight before the U.S. force was beefed up.
And since November, at least six suicide blasts by women have slain scores of Iraqis.
Nimrod Raphaeli, an Iraqi-born terror expert at the Middle East Media Research Institute, said the rash of new strikes by Al Qaeda in Iraq “is a sign of new energy rather than collapse.”
The most recent suicide blast by a woman hit Tikrit onWednesday, killing five Iraqis. On Monday, a female terrorist blew up 43 people worshiping at a mosque in Karbala and on March 14, another killed herself and two other Iraqis in Tikrit using what a 10th Mountain Division commander labeled “barbaric tactics.”
The use of women, who are checked less frequently by security because of Muslim sensitivities, is an alarming new twist, U.S. counterterror officials said.
“Six female suicide bombers is a trend within the increasing number of attacks,” a defense intelligence official acknowledged.
Another counterterror official agreed the “recent uptick” in female suicide attacks is evidence that Al Qaeda in Iraq is not as decimated as some — including President Bush — have claimed.
“They may be down, but they’re not out,” the official told the Daily News. But “it’s too early to tell whether this shift in terror tactics is part of a larger or longerterm trend.”
The most infamous attack so far was on Feb. 1, when two women killed more than two dozen Iraqis in two marketplaces. The U.S. military at first said the bombers had Down syndrome, but later retracted that claim.
The terror group is focusing on mixed Sunni-Shiite populations in Baghdad and northeast of the city in Kirkuk and Baquba. At least three female suicide terror cells have also been rolled up by coalition forces in recent weeks.
March 23, 2008 Six recent suicide attacks in Iraq triggered by women
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — A pummeled Al Qaeda in Iraq is switching to female suicide bombers for a new wave of strikes, which government experts fear is a sign of the group’s comeback.
Since the U.S. troop surge began nearly a year ago, the most deadly suicide bombings— a hallmark of the foreign-led insurgent network — had decreased.
Recently, however, Iraq has seen a return of the mass-casualty bombings that were practically a daily blight before the U.S. force was beefed up.
And since November, at least six suicide blasts by women have slain scores of Iraqis.
Nimrod Raphaeli, an Iraqi-born terror expert at the Middle East Media Research Institute, said the rash of new strikes by Al Qaeda in Iraq “is a sign of new energy rather than collapse.”
The most recent suicide blast by a woman hit Tikrit onWednesday, killing five Iraqis. On Monday, a female terrorist blew up 43 people worshiping at a mosque in Karbala and on March 14, another killed herself and two other Iraqis in Tikrit using what a 10th Mountain Division commander labeled “barbaric tactics.”
The use of women, who are checked less frequently by security because of Muslim sensitivities, is an alarming new twist, U.S. counterterror officials said.
“Six female suicide bombers is a trend within the increasing number of attacks,” a defense intelligence official acknowledged.
Another counterterror official agreed the “recent uptick” in female suicide attacks is evidence that Al Qaeda in Iraq is not as decimated as some — including President Bush — have claimed.
“They may be down, but they’re not out,” the official told the Daily News. But “it’s too early to tell whether this shift in terror tactics is part of a larger or longerterm trend.”
The most infamous attack so far was on Feb. 1, when two women killed more than two dozen Iraqis in two marketplaces. The U.S. military at first said the bombers had Down syndrome, but later retracted that claim.
The terror group is focusing on mixed Sunni-Shiite populations in Baghdad and northeast of the city in Kirkuk and Baquba. At least three female suicide terror cells have also been rolled up by coalition forces in recent weeks.