Document lists 6,000 al-Qaeda suicide bombers in Iraq (Extra)

May 6, 2008, 10:47 GMT

Baghdad - Iraqi security forces found documents purported to belong to the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Diyala province, which include names of 6,000 alleged suicide bombers in Iraq, an official newspaper said Tuesday.

'The documents reveal that 6,000 people, most of them Arab and Afghan nationals, were involved in suicide bombings in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003,' Sheikh Sabah Shukr al-Shumary, the spokesman for the Awakening Councils of Baquba Clans, was quoted by al-Sabah newspaper as saying.

Awakening Councils are police units set up by clans and backed by the US military to fight Sunni extremist insurgents loyal to al-Qaeda mainly in Sunni-dominated provinces.

The spokesman said the documents revealed that widows of suicide bombers in Diyala were invited to join al-Qaeda.

Al-Shumary added that intelligence information indicated the presence of training camps in the Hamrin mountains in Baquba, where 15 women are being trained for suicide bombing operations.

Four suicide bombings were carried out by women in the last two months in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, 60 kilometres north-east of Baghdad.