Death toll rises to 99, more than 200 injured, in al Qaeda bombings by two women detonated by remote control in Baghdad
In the worst bombings in the Iraqi capital in six months, the women suicides reported to have been mentally retarded, were blown up by mobile phones at two popular pet markets, Friday, Feb. 1.
The US death toll in Iraq increased in January to 38 – mostly outside Baghdad and Anbar – after a four-month drop in casualties.
debkafile‘s counter-terror sources report that while US-Iraqi military operations have achieved successes against al Qaeda strongholds and brought down the violence in most parts of Iraq, some remnants of their terrorist infrastructure remain in place ready to spring up again for violent attacks.
Since early January, Al Qaeda has taken to using female suicide bombers.
In the Friday attacks, one woman was detonated at a bird market, followed ten minutes later by the second woman who blew up at the Ghazil pet market. An Iraqi military officer said the mobiles used to detonate them had been found and the two women used by al Qaeda had been mentally retarded.