Five killed in second suicide attack
The explosion was a suicide attack carried out by two Iraqi women, Iraq’s official INA news agency said yesterday.
The news agency named the women as Nusha Mjalli al-Shammari and Widad Jamil al-Duleimi.
The Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera, meanwhile, broadcast images last night of the two women, vowing to launch suicide attacks in the defence of their country.
“I vow ... to be a suicide bomber who will defend Iraq,” said al-Shammari, who could be seen raising a rifle in the air, with her other hand placed on a Koran, the Muslim holy book.
“They blew up their car at the positions of the enemy in the west of the country on the night of April 3-4. The martyr operation brought the destruction of nine armoured vehicles with their teams on board,” INA said.
US Central Command had said three coalition troops, a pregnant woman and her female driver were killed in the explosion near Hadithah Dam, about 120 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, said US forces were working in the region of the dam, but he declined to give further details on which sections of the military the soldiers belonged to.
“A civilian vehicle approached a checkpoint. A pregnant female stepped out of the vehicle and began screaming in fear,” read a statement by Jim Wilkinson, the spokesman at US Central Command.
“Then the vehicle exploded, killing three coalition force members who were approaching the vehicle, and wounding two others.”
Four US soldiers died in a suicide car bombing at another checkpoint last Saturday, putting invading forces on edge.
After that incident, Iraq promised more suicide attacks would follow.
“The more desperate the regime gets, the more desperate their tactics become,” Wilkinson said.
“This is just the latest tragic example.”
The Thursday attack was the second known suicide bombing to hit US forces.
On Saturday, an Iraqi officer posing as a taxi driver staged a suicide attack that killed four soldiers at an Army checkpoint near Nassiriyah, south of Baghdad.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rewarded the suicide bomber, honouring him with a posthumous promotion, two new medals and a huge financial windfall for his family.
The Iraqi government has said suicide bombings will be a “routine military policy” and has promised more attacks.
Troops have been on heightened alert since that attack, and have fired on civilian vehicles that have approached checkpoints.
In the deadliest incident reported so far, 11 members of the same family, including five children, were killed when troops fired on their car near Najaf on Monday.
US officials have said the troops have a right to defend themselves against what they call terrorist tactics by the Iraqi reqime.
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