Al-Qaida may be trying to recruit more women

[unhappycamper]

Al-Qaida may be trying to recruit more women
By Diaa Hadid - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 7, 2008 5:57:31 EST

BAGHDAD — Three female suicide bombers blew themselves up within a few weeks late last year in Iraq, killing or wounding dozens — a tactic that goes against religious taboos on involving women in fighting and could indicate insurgents are growing increasingly desperate.

The bombings 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.

Female suicide bombers are a small part of the insurgents’ battle to force U.S. troops from Iraq and rattle Shiites from newly acquired power. Women have been responsible for 14 of 667 suicide attacks since May 2005, or 2 percent. They have caused at least 107 deaths, or 5 percent of the 2,065 people killed during that period, according to Associated Press statistics.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_femalebombersiraq_080104/



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