Suicide bomb threats by women are linked to deaths of American soldiers

Two Iraqi women who appeared on an al-Jazeera video vowing to launch suicide attacks were being linked yesterday by the Iraqi government news agency to a car bomb that killed three US special forces soldiers, the driver and a pregnant woman passenger.

Intelligence sources suggested that a similar attack six days earlier might not have been the simple suicide explosion it was assumed to be.

The latest bomb exploded on Thursday night as a vehicle approached a checkpoint close to the Haditha dam, north-west of Baghdad, which US Central Command earlier said had been seized by special forces.

US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said a pregnant woman got out of the car in evident distress when it approached the checkpoint. "She was running away, screaming with fear," said another US military source.

Brig Gen Brooks said: "As coalition forces began to approach, she and the vehicle were detonated. Whether this woman was coerced or not, it's now impossible to say ... some parts of it will never be discovered."

The al-Jazeera satellite station showed separate videotapes of two Iraqi women, who might have been suicide-bombers. In the videos, each of the women stood in front of the Iraqi flag, with their right hand placed on the Koran and their left hand brandishing an automatic rifle.

One woman who identified herself as "martyrdom-seeker" Nour Qaddour al-Shanbari swore "to defend Iraq ... and take revenge from the enemies of the nation, Americans, imperialists, Zionists" and others.

"We say to our leader and holy war comrade, the hero commander Saddam Hussein, that you have sisters that you and history will boast about," said the woman, who wore a red Arab head-scarf.

In a separate video, another woman, who identified herself as Wadad Jamil Jassem, stood in a similar pose. In a similar address, she declared that she had dedicated herself to "jihad for the sake of God and against the American, British and Israeli infidels and to defend the soil of our precious and dear country".

The videotapes were similar to those of Palestinian suicide bombers distributed after attacks against Israelis.

The attack follows the deaths of four American soldiers in a suicide car-bomb explosion last Saturday.

The driver of the car, Ali Jaffar al-Nomani – who was thought to be a taxi driver – was subsequently said by the Iraqis to be a non-commissioned army officer.

He was immediately treated as a martyr by the Iraqi high command, promoted posthumously to the rank of colonel and given two medals. Baghdad announced that his family was being given the equivalent of £35,000. The Iraqi government said suicide bombings would be a "routine military policy" and promised further attacks.

After the attack American forces manning checkpoints were ordered to toughen procedures to prevent a recurrence. There have been a number of Iraqi civilian deaths at checkpoints since then. On Monday, in the worst incident reported so far, 11 members of a family were killed when troops fired on their car, near Najaf.

At least one Allied intelligence agency is believed to have come to the conclusion that the bomb used in last Saturday's attack was remotely detonated. Allied military officials acknowledge, however, that there is no actual evidence from the scene of the blast to confirm the theory.

Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman at US Central Command, said the attack showed the Iraqi leadership was getting desperate. "The more desperate the regime gets, the more desperate their tactics become," he said. "This is just the latest tragic example."