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BAQUBAH , Iraq (February 19, 2008) - Terrorist networks in Iraq
have demonstrated their willingness to use women to conduct attacks
against Coalition and Iraqi security forces, as well as innocent
Iraqi citizens. In Diyala province alone, there have been four
female suicide bomb attacks since late November.
To help combat this threat, military policewomen with the 202nd
Military Police Company conducted search-technique training with
Iraqi policewomen at the Iraqi police headquarters in Baqubah Feb.
16.
"One of the biggest issues we face is the cultural difference
between the women here and the women in the states," said Capt.
Mary Newell, 202nd MP commander. "It is inappropriate for a male to
search a female, or for a male to ask a female to lift up her
clothing to look for weapons.
"In Baqubah, female suicide bombers represent a new tactic, and
they have been targeting police and emergency response teams.
Having female IPs to do the searches will help the situation, and
it also maintains the dignity of the females being searched," the
captain said.
The MPs taught their fellow female law enforcement agents how to
properly search a female to find weapons or explosives, how to
properly use a search wand and how to react if something is
found.
"I learned a lot from the training," said Sgt. Nahida Latif
Aziz, a three-year-Iraqi police veteran, through a translator. "I
learned how to use the wand and how to put someone against the
wall. I've never put someone on the ground and searched them
before. We had never done that before in our training."
Col. Ali Sadon, Diyala director of IP training, said the Diyala
Iraqi police chief wants to hire more females.
"We want to have female IPs at all the government buildings in
Diyala," he said through a translator. "We use them to investigate
houses where the only residents are female. We also use the female
IPs to search females because the men cannot do those searches.
They are also valuable at the prisons for when females come to
visit their husbands and sons who have been detained. It's a good
step in the right direction to train the IP females to help
us."
One of the issues brought up during the training was that the
female IPs do not have weapons.
"We should have weapons just like the men," Aziz said.
Sadon responded by noting the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior
recently reversed a decision made earlier this year that female IPs
were not allowed to carry weapons, and the Diyala IP females will
soon be issued weapons.
Throughout Iraq, there are approximately 78,000 members of the
Iraqi police, including approximatley 1,000 females. In Diyala
province, there are approximately 17,500 IPs, including 30
females.
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