(AFP) – Feb 1, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday held a war council and warned of an imminent battle against Al-Qaeda, a day after two mentally impaired women bombers killed 98 people in Baghdad.

The meeting in Mosul, the capital of northern Nineveh province, was attended by military and political leaders, including US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus and Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, the premier's office said.

"It is time to launch a decisive battle against terrorism," Maliki said, according to a statement.

"The battle that our armed forces will launch will destroy terrorism and the criminal gangs and outlaws in Nineveh."

Maliki called on all Iraqis to support the security forces "so we can get rid of terrorism and the remnants of the former (Saddam Hussein) regime who use Nineveh because of its geographical location as a base for criminal actions against the people."

On January 25, Maliki promised a "decisive battle" against Al-Qaeda after dozens of people including a police chief were killed in bomb attacks in Mosul, the last urban bastion of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In a statement earlier on Saturday, the prime minister said Iraqi security forces "will continue to ... crush the terrorists and target their strongholds."

His comments came as a US general accused Al-Qaeda of using the mentally impaired women as unwitting bombers in Friday's attacks on two Baghdad pet markets because they were less likely to be searched.

Major General Jeffery Hammond, commander of US forces in Baghdad, told a news conference that Al-Qaeda in Iraq was using "its twisted ideology to spread fear in the hearts of people."

He spoke as Iraqi security officials said the toll from Friday's twin bomb attacks had risen to 98 dead and 208 wounded, from 64 killed and 107 wounded reported on Friday.

They could not give a breakdown of the tolls from the attacks which took place with 20 minutes of each other -- one in the popular Al-Ghazl pet market in central Baghdad and the other in a pet market in the southeastern Al-Jadida neighbourhood.

The blasts were the deadliest in the capital since August 1, when three car bombs killed more than 80 people.

Hammond said both bombers were women and closely resembled each other, adding: "There are indications they were mentally handicapped."

"They were used by Al-Qaeda because they were less likely to know what was happening," Hammond said. "They were less likely to be searched."

The woman used in the Al-Ghazl market bombing had been carrying a backpack, while the other had arrived at the Baghdad al-Jadida market wearing a suicide vest, he said. He added that it had not yet been determined whether they had triggered the blasts themselves or the explosives had been remotely detonated.

General Abud Qanbar Hashim, Iraqi chief of Baghdad Operations Command, accused Al-Qaeda leaders during the press conference of using mentally handicapped children and adults to do their "dirty work."

The women were mentally impaired and their features indicated they were suffering Down's Syndrome.

The women, he added, had probably been kidnapped and were unaware they were being sent to their deaths.

People suffering from Down's Syndrome are regarded in Islam as being without sin, and therefore when they die they will go straight to paradise.

"Al-Qaeda have used children in the past," Hashim claimed. "They use any inhuman methods to do their dirty work."

Both generals said Friday's bombings were a direct response by Al-Qaeda to being pushed out of Baghdad and surrounding areas by an extensive security plan launched in last February, known as Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law).

"Al-Qaeda is desperate. This is why they attack innocent people like this," said Hashim.

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