US: Iraqi Women Bomber Trainer CaughtThe U.S. military announced the capture Saturday of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up — the latest sign that al-Qaida in Iraq plans to keep using women to carry out suicide attacks.
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In another development, the military said Saturday it had captured a sniper instructor in Baghdad who had been trained by Iranians. Iran has in the past denied such claims.
On the eve of a visit here by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country's state news agency reported that he rejected claims that Iran is fueling violence in Iraq.
"This is the temper of the Americans that they point fingers toward others wherever they are defeated ... instability, divisions and tensions in Iraq result from the occupiers," he said.
In the case of the suicide vests, the military said the man was arrested Thursday in an operation near the town of Kan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad in Diyala province — still an al-Qaida hotbed.
"The ringleader was a man trying to recruit women to carry out SVEST (suicide vest) bombings. The cell leader used his wife and another woman, to act as carriers of his next SVEST attack," the military said.
Women have recently been used more frequently by al-Qaida in Iraq as bombers, with six attacks or attempted attacks this year alone, according to U.S. military statistics. That's out of a total of 19 such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion began in 2003, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said in a recent briefing.
The latest included two women with a history of psychiatric treatment who killed about 100 people at pet markets in Baghdad on Feb. 1.
morethis caught my attention.
his wife? and mentally ill women?
