Female suicide bombers

Al Qaeda may be on the run, but it is having success in Iraq with female suicide bombers: 27 attacks since the start of the year, according to CBS. Dhimmi Watch describes some of the ways the women are recruited: their husbands or sons may have been killed or detained by coalition or Iraqi forces; Al Qaeda members may have married, then dishonored them (perhaps having them raped by another man), so that their only remaining option is to kill themselves; or they have been told that if they didn't become suicide bombers, their husbands or children would be killed. Another article suggests that women who are illiterate, poor and whose religious fervor can be manipulated are at most risk.

Female bombers have an advantage, in that they can easily conceal the bombs under their clothing and males should not conduct body searches of them. So the Iraqis are hiring female police officers in Kirkuk and elsewhere to perform the necessary searches - apparently many of them widows of men killed by Al Qaeda. The BBC further reports that 150 female police graduates have been hired in Diyala to approach women thought to be vulnerable and attempt to persuade them not to become suicide bombers.