A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt hidden under her all-encompassing black robe at a checkpoint Tuesday in Baghdad, killing at least two women and wounding five, police said. The attack occurred just after noon as women were being searched in a room before being allowed to enter a commercial street in the predominantly Sunni Amariyah neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, according to police officials.
Such checkpoints have been erected across Baghdad as US and Iraqi authorities have walled off entire neighborhoods as part of a security crackdown that has helped to bring the levels of violence in the capital down more than 50 percent. Women are usually searched separately by female guards because of Islamic sensitivities. The women attacked Tuesday were waiting at one of two entrances to the Amal al-Shaabi market district.