Taliban use women as suicide bomber in Afghanistan
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Xinhua, June 20, 2011
The Taliban insurgents have been using women as fighters and suicide bombers in the insurgency-hit Afghanistan, the spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Brigadier-General Josef Blotz said on Monday.
"The use of female fighter by the Taliban is new and disturbing, because women are more capable of reaching their intended targets due to cultural sensitivities involving female search procedures," Blotz told a weekly press conference here.
At least three women have carried out suicide attacks over the past one year in the post-Taliban country.
According to Blotz, a woman suicide bomber detonated her explosive vest near a military convoy in Marawara district of the country's eastern Kunar province on June 4, killing three local interpreters with the ISAF troops right on the spot.
"This tactic is another attempt to undermine the security gains of the Afghan government and coalition forces and also puts more Afghan civilians at risk," the spokesman of over 140,000 NATO-led forces added.
Regarding the upcoming security transition from NATO-led ISAF forces to Afghan security force in the coming weeks, Blotz said " We need to look at the conditions on the ground and not at restrict time line" adding it's all about conditions on the ground.
NATO plans to transfer control of seven areas including three provinces and capital Kabul to Afghan security forces in July this year.
The process of security transition responsibility will start in July this year and runs to 2014 in order to pave the way for withdrawal of over 140,000-strong NATO-led ISAF forces with nearly 100,000 of them Americans from the war-torn Afghanistan.
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