DUBAI, 13 March 2003 — The Al-Qaeda network has set up squads of female suicide bombers who take orders from Osama Bin Laden and will target the United States, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, published an e-mail interview with a woman calling herself “Um Osama”, or the mother of Osama, and “leader of the women Mujahedeen of Al-Qaeda.”
She told the daily her instructions came from the suspected terrorist mastermind and “brothers in Al-Qaeda and the Taleban” via mullah “Seif Edin.”
“We communicate mainly via internet,” she added.
The women bombers include Afghans, Arabs, Chechens and others nationalities “who are present in all the countries of the world. “We are preparing for the new strike announced by our leaders and I declare that it will make America forget ... the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001,” Um Osama said.
“The idea of women kamikazes came from the success of martyr operations carried out by young Palestinian women in the occupied territories.
“Our organization is open to all Muslim women wanting to serve the (Islamic) nation ... particularly in this very critical phase,” as the United States moves toward an invasion of Iraq.
“Our female fighters are training to use weapons such as the Kalashnikov, grenades and assault rifles,” she said.
“Besides martyr operations, our mission is to provide logistical support to the Mujahedeen and intelligence on the hypocrites wanted by the Mujahedeen”, she explained.
“We intend to set up training camps in areas where there are large numbers of female Mujahedeen such as the Arabian peninsula,” she said.
