Female Suicide Bomber in Iraq Marks A Growing Trend
EmailA female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 16 people in the town of Muqdadiya, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad on Friday, and experts say the attack marks a growing trend of female suicide bombings in Iraq. "Women have the tactical advantage of evading arrest, of disguising the bomb," said Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre (JTIC) analyst Will Hartley. Of the six reported suicide bombings in Iraq where the assailant was specifically cited as being female, five were recorded this year – including two in the town of Muqdadiya, according to JTIC. Hartley said there could be many more women attackers because in a large number of cases, the gender of the assailant is either unreported or was not possible to establish at the scene. Friday’s attack was the second by a female suicide bomber in less than two weeks after a similar assault on November 27 targeting a US foot patrol in the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba killed one Iraqi and wounded seven US soldiers. "As U.S. and coalition forces become aware of the potential threat posed by female suicide bombers, the tactical advantage of using women will diminish," said Hartley. But, Hartley added, if coalition forces or private contractors start operating in a way that would seem culturally offensive, such as conducting close-body searches on women at check-points, the potential repercussions could be deadly. "If American soldiers or contractors start searching Iraqi women at checkpoints, this will definitely antagonize locals," Hartley said. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
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When an American Soldier has a doubt, SHOOT!!! The death of an innocent should be blamed on al-Qaeda who send these women to their deaths not the American who is just trying to protect himself and other. For some reason the lib media can’t comprehend that.
Posted by: Ed Stanowicz | December 7, 2007, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
If the ppl dont want to be antagonized, they need to “man-up” and stop the terrorist themselves, but no…we want the americans to do it for us…well let the americans do it then. and keep your mouths shut.
Posted by: Stan | December 7, 2007, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
Hey ED STANOWICZ, thats an awesome message. MSM is brainwashing our country.
Posted by: stan | December 7, 2007, 3:00 pm 3:00 pm
Well the locals will just have to get out of the middle ages.
Posted by: Neo Politicus | December 7, 2007, 3:21 pm 3:21 pm
I don’t think the story was biased in any way, ed…pretty straight forward piece of reporting.
Posted by: Jazz | December 7, 2007, 3:41 pm 3:41 pm
People who either kill, or use others to kill, in assault on liberalism and liberty, have lost the intellectual argument. However, knowing that as we do is no use against them and their willing or unwilling accomplices.
I am British, so I have lost already as our gumment is to run from the war. But you must continue to RETAIN THE WILL TO INFLICT DEFEAT on the enemies of the West, and the defeat must be sufficiently violent each time so as to be noticed and commented upon. otherwise the buggers will never leave you alone and ill never go away, and in the end they will never “come to the table”. When they do, you must finish them. War crimes and stuff. The Earth HAS to be safe for Man, not for pre-capitalist barbarians.
I see that your ally Australia is also to leave soon. God bless you and I hope you succeed.
Posted by: David Davis | December 7, 2007, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Very interesting article. An increased use of female suicide bombers may require the US army to deploy female soldiers on the front line at checkpoints to conduct searchs. That would lead to higher female casualties, which would be a very bad outcome. This could be a tough situation
Posted by: GG | December 7, 2007, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
Religous fervor, a willingness to die for a cause and a sense of hopelessness are independent of gender. Both women and men use their bodies as platforms to deliver ordinance to selected targets to achieve both military and political objectives. The key to dealing with this problem is improved intelligence to identify suicide attacks BEFORE they occur and, ultimately, to solve the dispute in the name of which these suicide bombers are deployed.
Posted by: Bill Schecter | December 7, 2007, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
When a person HAS NOTHING nor WANTS NOTHING and has NOTHING to look forward to in their miserable little lives. . . they will often just throw in the “towel” and kill themselves and others, Add in RELIGIOUS FERVOR and you have a recipe for death and destruction. This, to me, is quite like the mall, and school shootings. Now the Iraqi’s are using their women to to their “dirty work”.
Posted by: Iam avoter | December 8, 2007, 10:37 am 10:37 am
The factions in Iraq have proven to be fanatics beyond any possible reconciliation …The USA is faced with a road to nowhere …It is overdue time to vacate , stop all further wastage of american lives and money , and apply the national resources to more urgent priorities .
Posted by: Robert Cassidy | December 9, 2007, 1:27 am 1:27 am
The concept behind women being essentially concealed in public, must be that women are supposed to remain only in the private sphere: the burka allows them to transit public space while enveloped in private space. There is an inherent philosophical disconnect between this notion and the idea of women as agents in the public sphere. So when a woman wrapped in obscuring garments becomes an agent of political or military acts, there is no “culturally competent” way to react.
One more insoluble conundrum, in entangling ourselves with a traditional, society whose fundamental principles are incompatible with our own. If we didn’t need their oil, we could and would have remained bystanders to their drama. It is all about oil, and the only solution is to get off it.
Posted by: Julie Baller | December 9, 2007, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
I couldn’t disagree more with Julie and her idea that we are only in this for the oil or that there is no culturally competent way to react. To believe the problem has no solution is to give up completely. That doesn’t mean the solution will necessarily be easy.
There are solutions to this in technology and scanning devices, and better yet, within the alliances our Marines and soldiers have made in the Iraqi communities they serve in.
Posted by: Samantha West | December 9, 2007, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm
The complete destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure and the murder of the Iraqi people by the occupying Americans has forced Iraqis to desparate measures.
Posted by: US Citizen | December 10, 2007, 8:44 am 8:44 am
That makes a lot of sense…it’s the Americans’ fault that Iraqies are blowing themselves up…good one…I’m sure there was all kinds of hope under Saddam…yeah, a real future for everybody in that regime.
Posted by: Bill | December 10, 2007, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
I’m pretty sure this is about petroleum, and the securing of it for western consumption…all middles east policy is about securing oil interests…
Posted by: Jazz | December 11, 2007, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
If we look through all the haze & muddle that surrounds Iraq & the Middle-East, it is perfectly clear that the matters all revolve around the need to preserve our way of life. To do otherwise is to submit to medievil life. We must preserve it in any way we can…legal or otherwise….because the other side does not care how they secure their long term objective. The fanatical leaders in the Middle East will not want to lose their hold on the populous nor the wealth they personally hold and will throw as many innocent but misguided human fodder to keep what they have.
Posted by: Morris | December 11, 2007, 9:59 pm 9:59 pm
What means doubt and shoot? If Amerian keep this attitude in other country ,only make much more anger and hater later.
Posted by: Tobias | December 11, 2007, 10:50 pm 10:50 pm
They can “HAVE” their MIDDLE EASTERN, 7th CENTURY cr_P. I don’t want any part of any of it.
Posted by: Iam Avoter | December 12, 2007, 2:52 pm 2:52 pm
The Army will never put females on the front line, though some inadvertantly end up there. Regardless of the smaller psychological impact of someone being searched by someone who isn’t the same gender you are, it won’t happen. It’s not the whole issue that women aren’t great soldiers, it’s the physical differences and we don’t want female Army troops being overpowered in hand to hand combat, because then the argument will come back…why was a woman put in a hand to hand fight with a man. It’s a no win.
Posted by: Al Anon | December 14, 2007, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm