Suicide blast hits Iraqi town

16/01/2008| IslamWeb

A female suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest has killed at least eight people in an attack on a crowded market in a Shia town of Iraq's volatile Diyala province, police said.

Another seven people were wounded in the attack on Wednesday in the small town of Khan Bani Saad near Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, 65km north of Baghdad.

Suicide attacks by women are relatively rare in Iraq, although there has been a handful of such bombings in recent weeks.

A female bomber killed 10 people in Baquba on January 2.

The US military this month launched a new offensive aimed at driving Sunni al-Qaeda fighters out of religiously mixed Diyala.

On Monday, the military said 60 fighters had been killed during the offensive.

That operation was part of a wider offensive, known as Operation Phantom Phoenix, in restive provinces north of Baghdad as well as the capital's southern outskirts, where Sunni Arab fighters have regrouped after being driven out of other areas.

PHOTO CAPTION

Victim of suicide bombing