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Female Suicide Bombers Are Latest War Tactic
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Some children nodded. Others appeared confused.
'I've Been Framed'
In a Baqubah prison, Ikram Ismail stands accused of using her two daughters to recruit their girlfriends to become bombers. Her husband had been jailed in Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention facility in southern Iraq, for the past three years. Both her sons, police officials said, were al-Qaeda operatives killed by American and Iraqi forces.
Wide-faced with large expressive eyes, the 50-year-old housewife denied she had any links to al-Qaeda or any desire to orchestrate suicide bombings.
"No mother would think like this," Ismail said.
Police intelligence officials said they found al-Qaeda in Iraq propaganda leaflets and two letters incriminating Ismail during a raid on her house. Phone numbers for several women were jotted down on one leaflet. When a police official called one, a woman answered and demanded a password.
In one letter, Ismail's daughter Asma wrote to her father that she wanted to join her brothers Muhammed and Omar in Heaven. "I am thinking of an eternal meeting. I will go before you and meet my brothers," the letter said, according to Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman.
The second letter was addressed to Um Omar, or "mother of Omar." It was from Abu Dawood, who police officials say is an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, praising her work for the Islamic State of Iraq, Khalaf said.
"I don't read or write," Ismail said. "I've been framed. I swear to God I am innocent."
Maj. Hisham Ali Khalifa al-Timimi, a police intelligence officer, insisted otherwise. "She was preparing to blow herself up," he said, seated at his desk in front of a thick file. "Al-Qaeda is smart. They know how to brainwash such women."
But a judge decided there wasn't enough evidence to hold Ismail's two daughters and released them. That bothered Timimi, who wanted to keep them jailed.
"Why? If she goes and blows herself up, everyone will blame the security forces," he said, referring to Asma. "They will ask, 'Why didn't the system stop her?' "
Widows at Checkpoints
In Abarra, a suburb of Baqubah, women are trying to stop other women from committing suicide attacks. Scores have signed up to become Daughters of Iraq, a U.S. military-funded program that pays women to search other women at checkpoints. Many of the recruits are widows whose husbands were killed by Sunni insurgents or Shiite militias. They receive a week of training and $280 monthly salaries.
On a recent day, Thikra Abid Dawood, 37, was working at a checkpoint, frisking women and searching their purses. Over her black abaya, she wore a yellow band signifying her membership in the Daughters of Iraq. Al-Qaeda had abducted her husband more than a year ago, said the mother of four.
"My husband left me nothing. I needed a job," she said. But it was also a matter of avenging his death. "I was hit by terrorism. I hope to help stop it."
Five days after the death of Jabbar, the Awakening leader, his wife gave birth to a daughter. Last month, Baidaa Muhammed, 30, sat in their living room, in front of a gold-framed photo of her husband. The baby was named Hibatullah, or "gift from God."
As Hibatullah rested in her lap wrapped in a white blanket, Muhammed, her face streaked with tears, declared: "I hate women."
Special correspondents in Baqubah and Anbar province contributed to this report.
