Al Qaeda's exploding women

AP/NCT:

It goes against religious taboos in Iraq to involve women in fighting, but three recent suicide bombings carried out by women could indicate insurgents are growing increasingly desperate.

The female suicide attacks come as U.S.-led coalition forces are increasingly catching militants suspected of training women to become human bombs or finding evidence of efforts by al-Qaida in Iraq to recruit women, according to military records.

With coalition forces pushing extremists out of former strongholds and shrinking their pool of potential recruits, the militants are being forced to come up with other methods to penetrate stiffened security measures, said Diaa Rashwan, who follows Islamic militancy for Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"There's a sense that this is an act of desperation," said Col. Donald Bacon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

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In November and December, women carried out three suicide bombings in Diyala province, one of Iraq's most violent areas, where al-Qaida in Iraq has a stronghold. The last female suicide bombing had been in July.

On Nov. 4, a woman detonated an explosives vest next to a U.S. patrol in Diyala's regional capital, Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, wounding seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis. On Dec. 7, a woman attacked the offices of a Diyala-based Sunni group fighting al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 15 people and wounding 35. Then, on Dec. 31, a bomber in Baqouba detonated her suicide vest close to a police patrol, wounding five policemen and four civilians.

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The tightening noose _ at least for now _ appears to be prompting the militants to turn to women attackers, Rashwan said, noting that extremist Muslim groups use women only when they see no alternative.

"Women should be in the last rows" of fighting, he said. "So to see women (suicide bombers) shows an abnormal situation _ the absence of men."

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At least twice in December and once in August, al-Qaida members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured, the U.S. military has said. There are no military reports before August indicating suspicion of al-Qaida in Iraq training women attackers.

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Although use of women can be a sign of desperation, female suicide bombers also help extremist groups attract male recruits. Militants exploit the image of desperate women fighting because there aren't enough brave men, taunting would-be male suicide bombers into action, Hafiz said.

"Women," Hafiz said, "make great propaganda."

I think they are desperate. The Anbar awakening and the Sunni revolt against al Qaeda cut off their rat lines from Syria through Anbar. The northern route was disrupted when US forces caught the facilitators along with a trove of information about the operation. With no new human bombs the desperate fighters are turning to some desperate women willing to engage in mass murder by exploding. I think they will run out of women to do this soon too. While women may make "great propaganda" they can also create a aura of impotence on the part of the males who are hiding behind their skirts.