Would-be suicide bomber surrenders in Iraq

A female suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden vest turned herself over to police, the same day that 25 people were killed in a further suicide bombing.

A female suicide bomber still wearing an explosives-laden vest turned herself over to police on Sunday, the same day that 25 people were killed in a further suicide bombing, the US military said on Monday.

HT Image

The military said the woman let herself be escorted away by the police in the city of Baquba, northeast of the capital Baghdad, and that she then led the officers to a 13-year-old girl who was also supposed to carry out a suicide attack.

Baquba is capital of the restive Diyala province, where the US Army has set up a separate female anti-terrorism unit in the battle to try to thwart suicide bomb attacks by women.

Meanwhile the death toll in Sunday's suicide bombing west of Baghdad had risen to 25, Arab media reports said on Monday. Initial reports had put the figure at 21 dead.

In addition, 30 people were wounded when the attacker detonated his explosives vest during a banquet thrown by a family celebrating a relative's release from prison, a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The attack took place in the Abu Ghraib district, 30 km west of Baghdad.