Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have arrested
a woman whose boyfriend convinced her to send her little boy
on a suicide mission and then failed to stop the attack after
she had a change of heart, police said.
Sunni widow Suad al-Obaidi, 47, was arrested yesterday
along with her allegedly al Qaeda boyfriend, after attacks on
anti-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) militia in Diyala province a day
earlier, a Diyala police officer said.
She was arrested in Diyala province, while the boyfriend,
Hamid Alwan, 53, was detained in Baghdad.
According to the officer, Alwan convinced Obaidi to send
nine-year-old Murtada Latif Kadhem to bomb a Shiite mosque in
Khales, north of Baghdad, several years ago.
Alwan "took her son with her ... by car to the Shiite
mosque but, on the way there, she started to cry about her
son," the officer said.
"He put her out of the car, and took the son, who was
wearing an explosive belt, to the mosque," where "he blew
himself up."
Security officials said the December 29, 2006 attack
killed at least nine people, including the imam of the mosque,
and wounded at least eight.
A few months later, Alwan tried to convince Suad to send
her 18-year-old son Kadhem Latif Kadhem on a suicide attack,
but he fled to the home of his married sister, Hanna.
Diyala province, north of Baghdad, was the scene of
bloody sectarian fighting that left thousands dead.
PTI
