Region | Iraq
Inside the mind of a would-be suicide bomber
Gulf News speaks to 15-year-old Iraqi girl who was arrested wearing an explosive vest.
- By Mayada Al Askari, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:30 August 31, 2008
- Image Credit:
- Rania Ebrahim Mutleg, who was wearing a suicide vest, after turning herself in to police in Baqouba on August 24.
Dubai: Rania Ebrahim Mutleg is adamant she never knew the vest with red wires she was asked to wear was a bomb.
"I swear to God I had no idea the vest was an explosive belt," the 15-year-old Iraqi girl told Gulf News from the security centre where she was being questioned by Iraq's Ministry of Interior.
Nine months ago, Mutleg became a bride. Last week, she was arrested by Iraqi police in the small town of Baqouba, standing outside a local school, wearing the vest containing 33 pounds of explosives.
According to US military analysts, the number of female suicide bombers has increased over the past two years.
In 2007, eight female bombers struck. Already this year, 29 women have acted as human bombs.
Exploitation
Analysts believe Al Qaida is exploiting women's inability to deal with grief from losing husbands, brothers and children to violence.
Rania told Gulf News, that she was made to wear the vest without knowing what it was.
Rania's family lives in Baqouba, a town north-east of the capital Baghdad. Her husband is from an adjacent Al Mukhifa village.
Her husband, Rania told Gulf News, was a member of a terrorist group before their marriage.
"He left the group after we were married a few months back," she said.
"I was asked by a relative to wear the vest, with red wires in it, and to stand close to the school. I was left alone there when the police caught me," she added.
A tearful Rania said: "I swear to God I had no idea that the vest was an explosive belt."
General Kareem Khalaf, Iraqi Ministry of Interior spokesman, told Gulf News the teenager was spotted by a policeman close to a school in Baqouba, who noticed a red wire protruding from under her clothes.
The policeman, added Khalaf, moved in quickly and handcuffed the girl to a post.
Soon other police personnel moved in, frisking the girl and finding the suicide belt under her clothes, which was removed on the spot.
No resistance
General Kareem said the girl did not resist, nor did she react when her clothes were removed, as she seemed to be in a daze.
Khalaf said the suicide vest contained around 15kg of explosives.
Khalaf also said that the teenager was fitted with the explosive vest by female relatives of her husband and her father was a terrorist.
Her mother and one of her sisters were later arrested.
Khalaf told Gulf News that Rania later led the police back to where she was fitted with the explosives and that they found a second suicide belt in an empty apartment in Baqouba.
Asked if she was drugged, Rania told Gulf News: "I don't know, everything seems like a dream now."
"These are simple village girls who are easy targets of terrorists. Rania was given a mobile phone and new clothes. As simple and trivial as these objects may seem, to a poor village girl they mean a lot," General Khalaf said.
According to US military officials, the number of female suicide bombers has increased from 8 in 2007 to 29 this year.
They believe that Al Qaida is increasingly exploiting hapless women who are unable to bear the grief of losing their husbands, parents and children.
More from Iraq
More from Region
News Editor's choice
-
6,000 cups and counting: Addicted to that tea
This cafeteria in Al Mamzar attracts thousands of customers daily, including the rich and not so rich
-
Swimming pool horror: Twins hospitalised
Twins rushed to hospital after collapsing from chlorine inhalation at swimming pool in their villa
-
Play your cards right with credit card interest
UAE Central Bank plans to cap interest rates, but are you paying thirty-five per cent now?
