Female suicide bomber arrested in Baaquba

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Diala policemen captured a female suicide bomber in central Baaquba city on Monday, according to the Diala police department’s media officer. “The police captured a 49-year-old female suicide bomber called Widad Ali Hussein in central Baaquba, where she was planning to wage an attack in the city,” Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi told IraqiNews.com. He did not give more details. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian borders. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad . It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. Later on, the Iraqi security forces had launched a wide-scale security campaign in Diala province. The operation, codenamed Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), is aimed at tracking down members of al-Qaeda network in Diala , Iraq ‘s most restive city, after the armed group lost its strongholds in the western Iraq predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, where tribesmen fought its members and flushed them out of the city. AmR (S) 1