Belgian paper IDs 'suicide bomber'

[sbs]

? (CNN) -- Police say they believe that a Belgian-born woman and convert to Islam, pictured and identified Thursday in a Belgian newspaper, was the first Western woman to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.

A spokesman for the Belgian police's terrorism investigation team confirmed to CNN that Muriel Degauque, identified and pictured by Le Derniere Heure newspaper, was believed to be the suicide bomber who targeted an American patrol November 9.

No one was killed but the bomber, who media reports said left a passport behind identifying her.

Authorities earlier refused to identify the woman but said she was 38.

Le Derniere Heure reported Degauque was born and raised in Charleroi, Belgium. The newspaper quoted her parents as saying that her Moroccan-born husband, Issam Goris, was responsible for her conversion to Islam.

Jean and Liliane Degauque told the newspaper their daughter was brainwashed by Goris.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said that on November 9, a female suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. military patrol just north of Baghdad, killing herself and slightly wounding one soldier.

Goris was killed in Iraq in a separate incident, according to media reports.

Officials on Wednesday said they had arrested a total of 15 people on suspicion of terrorism.

Belgian federal prosecutor Daniel Bernard told reporters that a police investigation "has shown the presence in Belgium of a structure of transportation, logistical backing and infiltration of volunteers willing to fight in Iraq."

Brussels judiciary police director Glenn Audeneert said, "It was through this organization that the lady went to Iraq with her husband, but we only knew about her presence on the war theatre once she was already there."

[razrif]

just fancy that

[Anisa]

What a waste of life

it was only a matter of time...im really not shocked at all.