IRAQ: Killings drive women to become suicide bombers

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/5ffe5fccbc2ce169d49e8c3bf558da51.htm

BAGHDAD, 8 March (IRIN) - Um Abdallah, 41, has a difficult task ahead of her - she has to learn how to use a gun and begin preparing for a day she believes is going to be one of God's forgiveness and revenge against foreign forces occupying her country.

"I'm going to be a suicide bomber in the name of God," Um Abdallah said. "I will be one of the Iraqis who will take revenge for all suffering that US and Iraqi militaries have caused in the past years and force them to leave the blessed land of Iraq.

"I know I will die but for a good reason. When I die I will be beside my loved ones who were killed without {good reason}," she added.

"I wasn't forced to be a suicide bomber. One day I woke up with this feeling, found the right person to help me to realise this dream and today I'm with five other women of different ages, preparing for the day of God's forgiveness," she said.

Um Abdallah is one of thousands of Iraqis who have lost their relatives in the past four years. Her two boys and one girl were killed during a US military attack in her neighbourhood.

"My husband was killed four months ago by Iraqi forces. Killed alongside him were my son-in-law and his two children. I cannot even remember how many bullets the children had in their bodies," she said.

She does not know exactly when she is going to detonate herself but she is sure she will be ready whenever she is asked. More women are being encouraged to help the insurgency and sometimes even to become suicide bombers.