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| Europe |
| Trial of first Euro suicide bomber starts in Belgium |
| 2007-10-15 |
| The trial opened Monday of six men accused of being part of a terrorist network that allegedly turned a Belgian woman into a suicide bomber and who died in an attack on U.S. troops in Iraq. Six men, most of them Belgians of north African descent, face charges including membership of a terror group, forgery and fencing of stolen goods. All deny the charges. Prosecutors allege the network was responsible for sending the 38-year-old Belgian woman to Iraq for the attack on Nov. 9, 2005. The woman, Muriel Degauque, was the only person who died in the blast. Degauque, the daughter of a hospital secretary, grew up on a quiet street in a town outside the city of Charleroi before becoming a baker's assistant. Years later she died in Baghdad carrying out a suicide bombing in the name of jihad. She was the first known European woman to die in such an attack. Police were investigating the group at the time of the attack, and suspected they had set up a network that took people to Iraq to fight. Police said Bilal Soughir, 33, was the main suspect for keeping the lines open with terrorists in Iraq, and the only one behind bars when the trial opened. Muriel Degauque became heavily involved in Islam after marrying an Algerian. Belgian prosecutors say Degauque carried out the attack near an American military patrol in Iraq after entering the country from Syria a month earlier. The group included her second husband, a Belgian of Moroccan origin who entered Iraq with Degauque and was killed in murky circumstances while allegedly trying to set up a separate suicide bombing. Authorities said the Belgian network had been planning to send more volunteers to Iraq for attacks. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 Welcome to the great chromosome sink, Muriel. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-10-15 15:40 |
| #1 Don't you just love the way the NYT's and the IHT report things. I especially like the last part about her husband "dying under murky circumstances" as if killing a terrorist was supposed to be crystal clear and very public like on HD tv. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-10-15 12:41 |