Recruiter of female suicide bombers nabbed

BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has been arrested in Iraq, officials in Baghdad said Wednesday.

Samira Ahmed Jassim, 51, confessed to dispatching 28 of her recruits to carry out attacks, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a Baghdad security spokesman, told The Times of London. She was captured at an undisclosed location about two weeks ago.

The security spokesman played a video of Jassim's apparent confession during a news conference. Dressed in traditional black Islamic robes, Jassim is allegedly shown outlining how she would take the women to an orchard for training and how she led them to their targets, the British newspaper said.

Moussawi said Jassim belonged to Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni Arab militant group.

"Our intelligence information and tips from residents showed she directly supervised training of more than 80 female terrorists in Baghdad and Diyala" province, which has seen a rash of female suicide attacks during the last year, he told reporters.

At least 36 female suicide bombers attempted or carried out 32 attacks in 2008, compared with eight in 2007, U.S. military information indicated.