Woman suicide bomber strikes Iraq

At least eight people have been killed in the first attack by a female suicide bomber during Iraq's insurgency.

Witnesses and army officers said the attacker pushed her way into a crowd at an army recruitment centre in Talafar, northern Iraq. An internet message purporting to be from the Islamist group al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed a "blessed sister" mounted the attack on its behalf. The bomber blew up a device hidden beneath her Islamic dress as she stood among job applicants, reports said. Up to 30 people were injured. One of those, Jumaa Mohammed, said from his hospital bed: "It was a young woman. She pushed her way through the crowd and then there was an explosion." A statement apparently from al-Qaeda in Iraq said: "A blessed sister... carried out a heroic attack defending her faith... May God accept our sister among the martyrs." It did not identify the bomber. The last time women are known to have been used as suicide bombers in Iraq was during the war, in April 2003, when two women, one of them pregnant, blew up their car at a coalition checkpoint, killing three soldiers.

Source : BBC