Suicide bomb fanatic with a baby in arms

AN IRAQI TV station captured a suspected female Islamic State suicide bomber on camera moments before she blew herself up near Iraqi troops in Mosul while holding a baby in her arms.

The woman in black hijab is seen walking out of a newly liberated area of the city with a group of fleeing civilians while appearing to hold a trigger in her right hand.

She had apparently tried to detonate the explosives as she passed the soldiers, but the vest failed to go off until she had walked some distance away, a cameraman for al-Mawsleya TV said.

She was killed along with her child, while two soldiers and several civilians were injured.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has rarely used female suicide bombers in the past but recent atrocities demonstrate the group’s desperation. More than 20 female suicide bombers hiding among civilians are believed to have detonated explosives in the last two weeks in the final throes of the battle for Iraq’s second city.

One general claimed they were even using their own children as human shields. “The women are fighting with their children right beside them,” Lt Gen Sami al-Aridi said. “It’s making us hesitant to use air strikes to advance. If it weren’t for this we could be finished in just a few hours.”

Preventing the attacks is difficult as soldiers do not ask women to lift up their clothes to check for explosives.