By NNN-KUNA
Baghdad : Iraqi and US Security authorities have arrested a terrorist cell that used women in suicide operations.
A source in the operations command of Diyala told KUNA on Saturday that Iraqi and US forces earlier in the day stormed a home of a terrorist cell of female suicide bombers in Al-Makhesa village north east of Diyala.
The source added that the operation also resulted in the arrest of scores of women suicide bombers without saying how many.
For its part, the American army disclosed in a press statement that its forces carried out a similar operation last Thursday when they arrested a commander of a terrorist cell using females for suicide operations in Al-Ghalibia area north of Bani Saad in west Diyala.
The source said that the arrested person had been planning to use his wife and another woman for the next suicide attack.
In another operation, American and Iraqi forces arrested a leader of a terrorist cell during a military operation in Baghdad, the US army said Saturday.
It said in a statement the operation, which occured last Thursday, resulted in the apprehension of the leader of a 100-strong cell. The name of the cell leader was not disclosed.
The arrestee is involved in carrying out mortar and bomb attacks against Iraqi and US forces, in addition to the killing and kidnapping of people, it added.
In another development, six Al-Qaeda members were killed by US army during an operation in Samarra town north of Baghdad, indicated a statement by the Multi-National Force (MNF) Saturday.
The MNF indicated that the operation, which occurred within the past 24 hours, was to apprehend Al-Qaeda leader in Samarra, adding that coalition forces engaged with the enemy after the terrorists refused to surrender.
The operation also resulted in the damage of four vehicles for the terrorists, said the MNF.
In a separate operation, the MNF arrested 13 Al-Qaeda members in an area east of Tikrit. The operation resulted in the confiscation of weaponry and a discovery of a terrorists training camp.
Meanwhile, American troops deployed in Iraq suffered a small number of casualties in February compared to previous periods of time, as a result of noticeable improvement in security conditions.
According to statements of the American Army, the troops suffered 29 deaths last month, compared to 40 in January.
The American forces, in December lost 23 soldiers, November (37), October (38), September (65) and August (84).
February witnessed no casualties among non-American troops of the Multi-National Force, which has suffered 4,280 deaths, including 3,973 Americans, since start of the war of liberation in 2003.
On record, November of 2004 was the bloodiest month concerning the American force that suffered 137 deaths in this month that also witnessed a wide-scale military operation in Falluja. The lowest death toll among the Americans was also recorded in February the same year.