By Xinhua
Baghdad : A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a shop in central Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding four others, an Interior Ministry source said.
“A female wearing an explosive vest blew herself up inside an electrical shop at a commercial area near the National Theater Intersection in Karrada neighborhood in central Baghdad,” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The woman entered the shop after being chased by Iraqi army soldiers on suspicion that she was a suicide bomber, the source said.
The blast destroyed the shop and caused damages to several nearby shops and civilian cars, he added.
Analysts say that militant groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq network, has increasingly used women, children and disabled people as suicide bombers to carry out blasts in crowded areas in Iraq.
Early in February, two female suicide attackers carried out explosions at two Baghdad pet markets, killing some 100 people and wounding more than 200 others.
An Iraqi security spokesman blamed the two incidents on two mentally retarded women as the security found mobile phones on the sites of the attacks, referring that the explosives strapped on the two women and were detonated by remote control.
Last week, a U.S. military statement said that its troops have detained the director of al-Rashad psychiatric hospital in Baghdad in connection with the possible exploitation of mentally impaired women in the two attacks of the pet markets.