BRUSSELS, 2 December 2005 — Investigators probing a suicide bombing by a Belgian woman in Iraq are holding five people thought to be connected with her on suspicion of participating in terrorist activities, a spokesman said yesterday.

The 38-year-old convert to Islam, nicknamed by Belgian media as the “Belgian kamikaze,” blew herself up on Nov. 9 on the outskirts of Baghdad in what security sources believe was the first suicide attack in Iraq by a European woman.

The mother of the woman identified by media as Muriel Degauque described her in a newspaper interview as a runaway who dabbled in drugs before becoming “more Muslim than Muslims” when she married a Belgian of Moroccan descent.

Investigators were holding three Belgians of North African descent, a Tunisian and a Belgian after receiving intelligence about a suspected terrorist cell operating in the country, the federal prosecutor general’s office said.

They were among 14 people arrested on Wednesday when police raided homes in Brussels, Antwerp, and near Paris. One of them was given conditional freedom while eight others were freed unconditionally, a spokesman for the office said by telephone.

Police said they had evidence the suspects provided logistics and support for attacks against US targets in Iraq, adding the arrests may have headed off further attacks against US targets.

They are also suspected of forgery and using false papers, although formal charges have not yet been laid.

Muriel’s mother said she had a sneaking suspicion her daughter was responsible for the attack when she heard the news of a Belgian convert being involved.

“I had a bad feeling,” she told the French daily Le Parisien. “For three weeks, I had tried to call her but there was no answer.” The mother said Muriel’s connection with Islam began in 2000 when she became involved with North African men and eventually married a Belgian of Moroccan descent, whom she blamed for “brainwashing” her daughter.

“She became more Muslim than Muslim,” she said. “When she first converted, she wore a simple veil. That was not so far from normal even if it is strange for a Belgian. But, with her last husband...she wore a chador.” A chador is a head-to-toe dress worn by devout Muslim women.

“The religion was totally ingrained in her. She only lived for that. She had learned Arabic,” she said.

Muriel gradually became estranged from the family and failed to visit her mother when she was hospitalized.

“When I got out (of the hospital), I asked her if she remembered that she had a mother,” she said. “She answered she did not have time for that.”

The mother said she had not expected Muriel to go as far as blowing herself up in Iraq. “I did not see it coming. She was very secretive, with a very independent character. I am angry at those who manipulated her,” she said.