Baghdad college bomber was female

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A suicide bomber who killed 42 people in an attack in Baghdad on Sunday was a woman, security officials say.

The bomber blew herself up at the entrance to a college in the city's east. Another 55 people were injured.

Hours after the bombing, Iraqi Shia militia leader Moqtada Sadr said the US-backed security crackdown in Baghdad was doomed to fail.

He said no security plan would work unless the government assumed full responsibility for protecting citizens.

Mr Sadr, whose militia controls the College of Administration and Economics, where most of Sunday's deaths occurred, once again called on the Americans to withdraw from Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said on Saturday that sectarian killings had fallen as a result of the US-backed security surge. But bombings have nonetheless continued.

On Monday an explosion at the Ministry of Public Works killed ten people, state TV reported.

Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi was inside the ministry for a meeting at the time, but was unharmed.

It is not yet clear whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or a mortar attack.

Minorities targeted

Higher Education Minister Abed Dhiab al-Uljaili said most of Sunday's victims were students who had gone to sit exams and that five guards were among the dead, AFP news agency reported.

FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN IRAQ 28 Sept 2005 - Eight killed in attack on army recruits in Tal Afar, northwestern Iraq9 Nov 2005 - Belgian-born Muslim convert blows herself up in attack on US military convoy in Baghdad6 Dec 2005 - Two women blow themselves up in classroom at Baghdad's police academy killing 27

The college is part of the al-Mustansiriyah university, Baghdad's second largest, and had received threats warning it to close.

It is not the first time the university has been targeted.

Last month, more than 100 students were killed in a co-ordinated attack involving two car bombs and a suicide bomber at the university's main building.

And as Iraq's sectarian violence continues a London-based think tank has warned that minority groups such as Turkomans, Christians and Baha'is are facing unprecedented levels of violence.

Their religious buildings are being destroyed, the report says, and non-Muslims are undergoing conversion to Islam under threat of death, rape and forced marriage.

They could soon be eradicated unless their plight is recognised immediately and acted upon, it adds.