BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 12 when she blew herself up at a market in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba on Monday, police said.
There were no further details on the attack in the capitalof Diyala province.
The use of female suicide bombers has become a populartactic of al Qaeda to avoid detection by security forces.
Men make up most of the Iraqi security forces and strongcultural taboos prevent them searching women at checkpoints,which are set up at many markets in the country.
The U.S. military says there have been more than 20 femalesuicide bombings this year in Iraq. It has blamed the attackson Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
Many of the attacks have occurred in Diyala, an ethnicallymixed region that was once overrun by al Qaeda.
Last month, a female suicide bomber blew herself up amongpolicemen outside a restaurant in Baquba, killing 15 people.
Violence in Iraq is hovering at four-year lows but suicidebombers remain capable of carrying out large-scale attacks, theU.S. military has said.
A sustained military campaign against al Qaeda has pushedthe group out of its traditional strongholds in Anbar provinceand Baghdad in the past year. But its fighters remain a threatin the north, especially in northern Nineveh province and itscapital Mosul, as well as in Diyala.
(Writing by Tim Cocks, Editing by Dean Yates)
