Reply #103: Here's another Arab news source, .alarab online: "Iraqi woman recruited 80 suicide female bombers"

[Turborama]

Iraqi police have arrested a woman who has confessed to recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers and who helped orchestrate dozens of attacks, a senior officer said on Tuesday.

Samira Jassim, 51, admitted that she had mentally prepared the women, passed them on to militants who provided explosives and then took them to their targets.

"We arrested Samira Jassim, known as 'Um al-Mumenin,' the mother of the believers, who was responsible for recruiting 80 women" suicide bombers, Major General Qassim Atta told reporters in Baghdad.

"She confessed her responsibility for these actions and she confirmed that 28 attempts had been made," Atta said, without elaborating.

Jassim was arrested on January 21.

Reporters were shown a video of Jassim's confession. Dressed in a traditional black abaya, she explained how she had prepared the women for suicide before sending them for training at militant bases.

Two of the attacks admitted to by Jassim in the video took place in central Iraq's Diyala province, which is considered one of the most dangerous areas of the country.

Al-Qaeda and various militant groups still manage to launch attacks in Diyala despite a general decrease in violence elsewhere.

In the video, Jassim said she had met a man named Shaker Hamud Malek from Ansar al-Sunna. He proposed that she go to Baghdad with him to bring back to Diyala remote control devices capable of being used to trigger explosions.

She also met another man who asked her to recruit women for the bombings.

"The first one's name was Um Hoda," Jassim said. "I sent her to the orchard (where the militants were hiding) for training and the code was Um al-Mumemin."

After a few days the woman was sufficiently convinced to become a suicide bomber.

"She exploded herself against a police station in Mukdadiyah," a city of 250,000 people, located 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Jassim said.

Another attacker, named Saadiya Khalaf, was described by Jassim as a "spinster, who was quite an age".

"I put her in front of the bus stop in Mukdadiyah where she blew herself up," Jassim said in the video.

From: http://www.alarabonline.org/english/display.asp?fname=2009\02\02-04\zsubz\911.htm">Alarab Online