- The first known female suicide bomber may have been 16-year-old Sana'a Youcef Mehaidli, a member of the secular Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Also known as Sana Khyadali, she drove a vehicle into an Israeli Defense Force convoy in southern Lebanon, killing two soldiers.

- Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, a female militant with the Tamil Tigers, carried out a suicide bombing killing Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election campaign rally in southern Tamil Nadu state.

- He sent more than 50,000 Indian soldiers to enforce a peace accord between the LTTE and Colombo in 1987. It quickly collapsed and the Indians ended up fighting the LTTE before being withdrawn in 1990.

March 16, 1999 - At least four people were killed and five wounded when a female suicide bomber blows herself up in a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The bomber jumped in front of a car carrying Chief Inspector Mohammed Nilabdeen of the police terrorist investigation unit. Nilabdeen was wounded.

- As well as the bomber, the dead included a man who swallowed a cyanide capsule when apprehended at the blast site.

- Two Chechen women drove a truck laden with explosives into an army base at Alkhan-Yurt, west of Grozny in Chechnya. At least 27 Russian special forces soldiers were killed.

- Female suicide bomber blew herself up at the Mahane Yehuda market, Jerusalem's main outdoor market, killing six people and wounding nearly 90.

- Two Chechen women suicide bombers killed 15 other people when they blew themselves up at an open-air rock festival at Moscow's Tushino airfield. 60 were injured.

- A female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a Moscow metro station, killing 10 people and injuring 51.

- Sajida Al-Rishawi tried to blow herself up during attacks alongside her suicide bomber husband, who killed himself and others in their coordinated attack on the Radisson hotel during a wedding reception in Amman in Jordan. The attack killed 60 people.

- Two female suicide bombers killed at least 27 police officers and students and wounded another 32 in an attack at the Baghdad Police Academy in Iraq.

Two female suicide bombers killed 99 people in attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda at two popular Baghdad pet markets, the city's worst attacks in six months.

- A female suicide bomber killed at least 27 people and wounded 47 in a rare attack in the holy Shiite city of Kerbala in southern Iraq.

- A female suicide bomber blew herself up among Shiite pilgrims starting their trek to Kerbala for the religious rite of Arbain, killing 41 and wounding 106.

- Two female suicide bombers strike Moscow metro stations during rush hour, killing 39 people and wounding 71, many seriously.

Sources: Reuters, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB408.pdf