A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people in Diyala province Wednesday morning in an attack that appeared to target Iraqi police, Iraqi officials said. The female attacker set off the explosives about 11:20 a.m. outside the main government building in the province's capital, Baqoubah, which is north of Baghdad.
The attack was carried out outside the city's courthouse, where law enforcement officials tend to congregate. The building has been targeted numerous times in recent years.
| Bajilan said he was told the female suicide bomber was a 16-year-old girl from Muqdadiyah, a town northeast of Baghdad. U.S. military officials found a male suicide bomber who was unable to carry out a second attack nearby. |
Iraqi and U.S. officials say al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups have turned to women and teenagers to carry out suicide bombings as it has become harder for the group to get non-Iraqi Arabs to travel to the country to carry out those attacks. Widows and teenagers in poor, war-ravaged areas have proven to be susceptible to pressure from the insurgents, U.S. officials say. Some female suicide bombers are widows of slain insurgents motivated by a desire to avenge their deaths, officials say.
Since 2003, more than 50 women carried out suicide bombings or were detained before detonating vests packed with explosives in Iraq, according to the U.S. military. Such bombings have killed at least 380 people and wounded hundreds more. So far this year, more than 30 women have either carried out suicide bombings or been intercepted before doing so, according to the military.
Ibrahim Hasan Bajilan, chairman of the Diyala provincial council, said U.S. military officials found a male suicide bomber who was unable to carry out a second attack nearby.
Bajilan said he was told the female suicide bomber was a 16-year-old girl from Muqdadiyah, a town northeast of Baghdad.
| Islamic guppies continue to eat their young. |