Bombings kill dozens in Baghdad, Kirkuk

BAGHDAD — Four female suicide bombers attacked religious pilgrims in Baghdad and political protesters in ethnically mixed Kirkuk on Monday, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds in a reminder of how raw Iraq's divisions remain despite a sharp drop in violence.

A four-year low in attacks has prompted senior U.S. officials in Iraq to describe Sunni Arab militants as a spent force no longer capable of toppling Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government. But Monday's attacks on Shiites in the capital and Kurdish protesters, which ignited ethnic clashes in oil-rich Kirkuk, showcased extremists' enduring ability to cause damage.

The bombings also highlighted a sharp increase this year in the number of women who kill themselves in such attacks.

The incidents appeared to be the deadliest since a truck bombing in June killed 63 people in the Shiite neighborhood of Hurriya, an attack the U.S. Army blamed on a militant Shiite group. A suicide strike two weeks ago in the northeastern province of Diyala claimed the lives of 28 Iraqi military recruits.

According to U.S. Army figures, 27 suicide attacks this year have been carried out by women, compared with eight in all of 2007, when there were 242 such bombings. A tally by The Times indicates that about a quarter of all suicide attacks this year in Iraq have been conducted by women.

U.S. officers believe militants have sought new tactics in response to the military's successes, including its alliance with former insurgents and the proliferation of concrete walls sealing off districts and markets. In some cases, the military believes, Al Qaeda in Iraq uses tribal ties with the men and women it drafts to carry out suicide attacks. Officials say revenge for the deaths of relatives also is sometimes a motive.

The increase in the number of women parallels an increase in the proportion of suicide bombers who are Iraqis. A sizable number of suicide attackers once were foreign men who came to fight the U.S., but that number has dropped because neighboring countries have tightened their borders with Iraq and because Afghanistan's and Pakistan's tribal areas are more attractive destinations.

A woman strapped with explosives shouted "God is great!" and blew herself up at a demonstration in Kirkuk, where the ambition of Kurds to annex the territory to their semiautonomous northern region has sparked the ire of the area's Arabs and Turkmens.