Baghdad, Iraq – A suicide car bomber and gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying female U.S. Marines in Fallujah, killing two Marines and leaving four other American troops presumed dead, the military said Friday. At least one woman was killed, and 11 of the 13 injured were female.
The terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed it carried out the bombing, one of the single deadliest attacks against the Marines – and against women – in this country.
The high number of female casualties spoke to the lack of any real front lines in Iraq, where U.S. troops are battling a raging insurgency and American women soldiers have taken part in more close-quarters combat than in any previous military conflict.
The women were part of a team of Marines who were assigned to various checkpoints around Fallujah.
Female Marines are used at the checkpoints to search Muslim women “in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities,” a military statement said. It is considered insulting for a male Marine to search a female Muslim.
Current Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat roles – in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example.
The Marines were returning to their base, Camp Fallujah, when the ambush took place Thursday night 40 miles west of Baghdad. Fallujah is a former insurgents’ fortress that was invaded by U.S. forces at great cost last November. On Nov. 2, 2003, two female Army soldiers were in a Chinook helicopter shot down over Fallujah.
