Woman was behind Afghan suicide attack: ministry

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
KABUL (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber killed two foreign troops and wounded 18 locals in eastern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday, a rare case of insurgents using a woman to attack NATO-led forces.

WorldThe identity of Monday's bomber in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, is under investigation, ministry spokesman Zemaray Bashary said. There have been other attacks by women in Afghanistan, he said.That was disputed by a spokesman for the Taliban-led insurgents, Zabihullah Mujahid, who said it was the first time a woman had carried out a suicide bombing during the Islamist group's nearly decade-long struggle to regain power."She herself volunteered for this mission because she had lost family members in the war," Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location."She went through some training and after that carried out yesterday's attack," he said, describing the woman as a resident of Kunar.He offered no details on whether there were more women prepared to become suicide bombers -- a tactic favored by the Taliban and copied from insurgents in Iraq. There, women have been involved in several suicide strikes.Mujahid said new female volunteers!
would be welcomed by the Afghan insurgents, who banned them from working or education while they were in power.Toppled by U.S.-backed forces in 2001, the Taliban have extended the scope and extent of their attacks in recent years and inflicted heavy loses among Afghans and the 150,000-strong garrison of foreign troops.Three of the Afghans wounded in Monday's bombing were police and the rest civilians, the Interior Ministry said.(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox)
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