FTI
Iraqi mother describes daughter's descent into suicide bombing
* Story Highlights
* U.S. military reports 19 female suicide bombers in Iraq this year, up
from 8 in 2007
* Authorities say al Qaeda in Iraq targets desperate women who seek
revenge
* Many women bombers have lost male relatives to the war, officials say
* Iraqi and U.S. officials fear more women will turn themselves into
bombs
By Arwa Damon
CNN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The mother's voice lacks emotion as she recalls how her
daughter became a suicide bomber.
"She wanted to die in the name of God," she says on a videotape, her face
peering out from under a dark brown head scarf.
"She
told me she is sick of this life. ... So she spoke about the Americans.
I told her, 'Where will you get Americans?' She said she will go after
the Americans." Watch as the mother tells her story »
The
daughter is one of 19 female suicide bombers this year, a number much
higher than in previous years. According to the U.S. military, women
carried out eight bombings in all of 2007.
In the February
13 attack, the daughter posed as a journalist with an English-speaking
male accomplice, claiming they had an interview with a prominent Iraqi
tribal leader who works with U.S. forces.
Four guards protecting
Sheikh Ifan al-Isawi were killed in the attack. Al-Isawi brought the
mother in for questioning, and CNN obtained the video of the
interrogation.
"God willing, she went to heaven," said the
mother, whose son also was a suicide bomber in 2004. "She told me,
'Mom, I want to do it.'"
The latest bombing involving a
female came Friday when a man and woman targeted an Iraqi police
checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The explosion wounded three
police and two civilians, said an official with the Iraqi Interior
Ministry.
Authorities said al Qaeda in Iraq actively is recruiting women and that
increasing numbers of women are
offering themselves up for missions. The officials said the women are
desperate and hopeless. Most have pre-existing ties to the insurgency,
and their main motive is revenge for a male family member killed by
U.S. or Iraqi forces in the war, authorities said.
"We
do see certain members of cells attempting to persuade women,
specifically in many cases wives or those who have been killed as
terrorists, to conduct suicide operations," said U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark
Hertling, whose area of operations includes the volatile province of
Diyala.
"Since October, there have been nine suicide bombers who
were female, seven of whom were recruited in the last 90 days,"
Hertling said by phone.
Hertling's troops in Diyala have launched
operations targeting members of families of suspected female bombers
trying to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls.
The U.S. military said it has six females in custody who were would-be
suicide bombers. The youngest is 14, said one U.S. official who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Intelligence gathered from detainees
indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main
characteristics: those who are illiterate, deeply religious or have
financial struggles because most likely they've lost the male head of
the household.
"They are also looking for someone who is young," Hertling said. "They will
bypass an older widow."
Sheikh
Adel Fahdawi, a Sunni leader, added, "If the woman's psychological
state is bad, they try to lure her with the illusions that she will be
going to heaven. ... All of them come from the families of terrorists,
and they are being recruited and pressured."
In one bombing this
year, a woman approached a police station in Diyala sobbing about her
son. One witness said the woman referred to the local police commander
as a "good man," adding, "I came for help." While she was being
searched, her explosives detonated.
A woman who went to the bomb scene expressed outrage that another female would
carry out such an attack.
Another
female bomber used a similar tactic at an Iraqi army headquarters in
Yusufiya, south of Baghdad, asking for the commanding officer,
authorities said. As he approached, she blew herself up. The U.S.
military detained a woman it said confessed to being her handler.
"She
was the person on the ground responsible for coordinating the final day
or two of the attack," Capt. Michael Starz said. "[She] helped her
prepare the device ... she helped her affix it to her body."
According
to U.S. intelligence, al Qaeda in Iraq uses suicide missions carried
out by women to pressure its male fighters to step up and offer
themselves up for attacks.
Classified documents given to CNN also
indicate that the terror group is having increasing difficulty
smuggling foreign fighters across the border from Syria following a
recent military crackdown in the north.
The nationalities of most female bombers are unknown, but those identified in
recent attacks are mainly Iraqi.
Females
always have played a role in the insurgency in Iraq, helping feed
militants, hiding them in their homes and helping sneak weapons around
the country. They have proven to be highly effective in their
operations as a result of the cultural convention that women are not to
be searched.
Against a backdrop of such suffering and violence,
U.S. and Iraqi officials said they fear that even more Iraqi women will
turn themselves into bombs.
Fahdawi, the Sunni sheikh, said more
needs to be done to raise awareness through Iraq's imams, mosques and
the media that al Qaeda in Iraq is preying on women.
"They need to expose the crime of al Qaeda. It is like the whole world is
targeting Iraq," he said.
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