Iraq's 1st female suicide bomber kills 6, wounds 35

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The woman slipped into the town, passing checkpoints where women are not searched. Then, donning a man's "dishdasha" -- a traditional white robe -- and kaffiya headscarf, she blended in with the men waiting in line to join the Iraqi army.\nShe then set off the explosives strapped to her body, killing six would-be recruits and wounding 35 -- and sparking worries over a potentially dangerous new insurgent tactic.\nThe attack Wednesday in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, was the first successfully carried out by a female suicide bomber since Iraq's bloody insurgency began.\nThe move exploits a hole in security that is tough to fill, especially ahead of an upcoming referendum on the country's new constitution, in which men and women are expected to be lining up at the polls. Iraqi officials on Wednesday worried about having to step up searches of women at the numerous checkpoints that guard facilities across Iraq -- a process that requires extra resources and irritates cultural sensitivities.\nGen. Ahmed Mohammed Khalaf, the regional police chief, said insurgents likely sent a woman from outside the area to carry out the attack because women are rarely searched at checkpoints entering Tal Afar "because of religious and social traditions." Islamic customs frown on such close physical contact between men and women, so female personnel -- who are few -- must carry out any searches.\nThe Tal Afar attack also appeared aimed at showing that militants could still strike in a town where U.S. and Iraqi offensives drove out insurgents only two weeks before.\nIraq's most notorious insurgent group, al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement, saying it was carried out by a "blessed sister."\nThe bombing came a day after U.S. and Iraqi officials announced their forces killed the second-in-command of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abdullah Abu Azzam, during a raid in Baghdad over the weekend. The killing has not slowed insurgent violence, with at least 84 people -- including seven U.S. service members -- killed in attacks since Sunday.\nPresident Bush warned violence will increase in the days leading up to the Oct. 15 referendum. The draft constitution that the U.S. hopes will be approved has sharply divided Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni minority, who form the backbone of the insurgency.\n"We can expect they'll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom," Bush said. "And our troops are ready for it."\nThe U.S. military announced Wednesday two more American soldiers and an airman were killed in violence and a Marine was killed by a non-combat gunshot. The deaths brought to 1,922 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.\nIn the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, an attacker set off an explosion in the home of a bodyguard of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Wednesday, killing two people and wounding five, al-Sadr aides and a hospital official said.\nDuring the attack at the Tal Afar army recruitment center, the female suicide bomber disguised herself by wearing a traditional white "dishdasha" robe and a checkered kaffiya headscarf -- both worn only by men --to stand in the line of Iraqi applicants, Maj. Jamil Mohammed Saleh said.\nIn a photo of the attacker's head taken by Saleh and shown to AP, the woman appeared to be in her early 20s with dark eyes, light skin and brownish hair. Saleh said it was not known whether she was Iraqi.