Authorities will issue an order to round up Baghdad’s mentally ill and homeless to keep them from being used by insurgents and Al-Qaeda operatives for suicide bombings. This report has come from the Iraqi Interior Ministry. This follows after the February 1 bombing where almost 100 people were dead.
United States and Iraqi authorities said that two major pet markets were hit by two suicide bombers. Both of the bombers were women that were deemed as mentally handicapped with explosives strapped. The explosive vests were activated via a remote control.
This campaign will result in the police handing in beggars, vagrants, and the mentally handicapped to facilities that can provide shelter and care according to information that CNN had received.
“Militant groups, like al Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocents because they do not raise suspicions, said Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf of Iraq’s Interior Ministry in an interview with The Associated Press. He added by saying: “These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers.”
It was reported by the United States military that the operatives in Iraq recruited the female patients from two of Baghdad’s psychiatric hospitals. They were assisted by the hospital staff. However, it is unknown if the two women knew what they were doing. It would look as if there will need to be an investigation launched into those mental hospitals.