CNN REPORTS: IRAQI MOTHER DESCRIBES HOW HER DAUGHTER BECAME A SUICIDE BOMBER

Iraqi woman describes daughter's descent into suicide bombing

"God willing, she went to heaven," said the woman, whose son also was a suicide bomber in 2004. "She told me, 'Mom, I want to do it.' "

Story Highlights
U.S. military reports 19 female suicide bombers in Iraq this year, up from 8 in 2007
Authorities say al Qaeda in Iraq targets desperate women who seek revenge
Many women bombers have lost male relatives to the war, officials say
Iraqi and U.S. officials fear more women will turn themselves into bombs

By Arwa DamonCNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/06/female.bombers/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The mother's voice lacks emotion as she recalls how her daughter became a suicide bomber.

"She wanted to die in the name of God," she says on a videotape, her face peering out from under a dark brown head scarf.

"She told me she is sick of this life. ... So she spoke about the Americans. I told her, 'Where will you get Americans?' She said she will go after the Americans." Watch as the mother tells her story »

The daughter is one of 19 female suicide bombers this year, a number much higher than in previous years. According to the U.S. military, women carried out eight bombings in all of 2007.

In the February 13 attack, the daughter posed as a journalist with an English-speaking male accomplice, claiming that they had an interview with a prominent Iraqi tribal leader who works with U.S. forces.

Four guards protecting Sheikh Ifan al-Isawi were killed in the attack. Al-Isawi brought the mother in for questioning, and CNN obtained the video of the interrogation.

The latest bombing involving a female came Friday, when a man and woman targeted an Iraqi police checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The explosion wounded three police and two civilians, said an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

Authorities said that al Qaeda in Iraq actively is recruiting women and that increasing numbers of women are offering themselves up for missions. The officials said the women are desperate and hopeless. Most have pre-existing ties to the insurgency, and their main motive is revenge for a male family member killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces in the war, authorities said.

"We do see certain members of cells attempting to persuade women, specifically in many cases wives or those who have been killed as terrorists, to conduct suicide operations," said U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, whose area of operations includes the volatile province of Diyala.

"Since October, there have been nine suicide bombers who were female, seven of whom were recruited in the last 90 days," Hertling said.

Hertling's troops in Diyala have launched operations targeting members of families of suspected female bombers trying to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls. The U.S. military said it has six females in custody who were would-be suicide bombers. The youngest is 14, one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main characteristics: those who are illiterate, are deeply religious or have financial struggles because most likely they've lost the male head of the household.