Yet another child pressed into the service of the jihad. “Iraqis show video of teenage girl in suicide vest,” by Karin Laub for Associated Press, August 25:
BAGHDAD – Iraqi police publicly questioned a teenage girl after she was allegedly caught wearing an explosives belt, parading her in front of reporters and pressing her to confess she was planning a suicide bombing. […]
The girl gave her first name as Rania and said she was born in 1993. She appeared confused in the questioning, giving conflicting answers about whether she knew two women who put the vest packed with 33 pounds of explosives on her.
In the video of the arrest, a policeman standing next to the teenager could be heard saying that when she was picked up, she was initially unable to talk because she had been given drugs.
She denied under questioning that she planned to carry out an attack, saying she had been instructed to remove the vest when she got home.
The arrest heightened concern about a rise in suicide bombings by women. The number of female bombers has more than tripled from eight in 2007 to 29 this year, according to U.S. military officials. […]
In the interrogation, she gives conflicting answers about whether she knew the women who gave her the vest.
“I swear to Allah that I do not know them. They were strangers,” she is heard saying initially. But later she says “one of the women’s names was maybe Fadhila and the other was called Widad.”
When pressed about whether she knew the woman she then replied: “Yes.” […]
An Iraqi police officer said the girl came from a family of al-Qaida in Iraq supporters in Baqouba and that her father had carried out a suicide bombing. The officer said a relative is suspected of having recruited her. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. […]
Many Iraqi women wear long robes, ideal for covering bulky suicide vests, and Iraqi policemen hesitate to pat them down at checkpoints because of cultural taboos….
Yeah, that would create a problem. But the article goes on to say that the Daughters of Iraq are helping out.