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Afghan suicide bomb is first by a woman; 2 GIs die
Wed Jun 23, 12:58 pm ET
A woman who detonated explosives hidden under her burqa in Afghanistan — killing two U.S. soldiers Monday and injuring more than a dozen bystanders — was the first female suicide bomber in Afghanistan, government officials tell the Wall Street Journal's Maria Abi-Habib and Habib Zahori. All suicide attacks were taboo in Afghanistan until fairly recently.
If more women are recruited into suicide bombing there, that could pose a significant threat to coalition forces, experts say. Under Afghan army policy, male troops are forbidden to search women. Male suicide bombers have tried to take advantage of that policy by dressing in burqas to elude searches. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has formed "female engagement teams" of Marines: women who are able to engage with the half of the Afghan population off-limits to male Marines. And the Afghan army has stepped up efforts to recruit women, though without much success.
The Taliban claimed credit for Monday's attack, saying the bomber was named Bibi Alimi. Locals in Kunar province told the Journal that an Afghan coalition raided Alimi's home and killed two relatives two years ago, prompting her to join the Taliban. House raids are controversial, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for them to end.
Al Qaeda is better known than the Taliban is for recruiting and training women to launch suicide attacks — a tactic Al Qaeda used frequently in Iraq. According to a 2008 U.S. government report quoted in Newsweek, 9 percent of suicide bombers worldwide are women, but 15 percent in Iraq are women. A suicide attack in a Russian subway station that killed almost 40 people in March was perpetrated by two Chechen women, CNN reported.
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