Iraqi 'militant recruiter' held

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Iraqi officials say they have arrested a senior female militant who allegedly recruited women suicide bombers.

Security spokesman Maj Gen Qassim Moussawi said the woman was a leader of Ansar al-Sunna.

Officials released a video allegedly showing the confession of Samira Jassim after her arrest two weeks ago.

In another development, the US military said it has begun releasing Iraqi detainees in accordance with a security pact with the Iraqi government.

The US said it was scheduled to release up to 1,500 detainees each month, according to a statement quoted by Associated Press news agency.

The US still holds about 15,000 detainees in Iraq, and the agreement - which came into force last month - states that all should be released in an orderly manner, or transferred to Iraqi custody.

Hidden explosives

Gen Moussawi alleged that the woman had a direct line of contact to the leaders of Ansar al-Sunna in Diyala province.

"She has confessed to recruiting more than 28 female suicide bombers. They all carried out terrorist acts in various parts of Iraq," he said.

"She sent them to the terrorists, in one of the farms where they provided the suicidal women with bombs. Then Samira took the women to the targeted place."

A female suicide bomber kill 15 people in Diyala province last June

Iraqi militants have increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks, hiding explosives under their clothes as they are less likely to be searched than men.

In the video, which was shown to journalists in Baghdad, the woman said she had prepared the women for suicide before sending them for terror training at insurgent bases.

She said she had to speak to one elderly woman several times before persuading her to blow herself up at a bus station.

She said it also took two weeks to recruit another woman who was a teacher and had problems with her husband and his family, according to the confession.

The new recruit eventually attacked members of government-backed Sunni groups in Diyala, Samira Jassim said.