Updated: 11:04 AM EST
'Belgian Kamikaze' Shocks a Nation
Local Woman Dies in Failed Attack Against U.S. Troops in Iraq
By RAF CASERT, AP
Belgian Muriel Degauque may have been influenced to become a suicide bomber in Iraq after her marriage to an Algerian man.
MONCEAU-SUR-SAMBRE, Belgium (Dec. 1) - How could a young woman turn from Belgian baker's assistant to Baghdad suicide bomber?
Belgium has been shocked by revelations that Muriel Degauque, an unassuming woman who grew up near the rust belt city of Charleroi, had entered Iraq from Syria and detonated explosives strapped to her body in a failed attack against U.S. troops.
The 38-year-old woman's mother, Liliane Degauque, told local TV networks that her daughter was "so nice'' - but began to change when she married an Algerian man and turned to Islamic fundamentalism.
The case underscored the growing reach of international terrorism.
"It is the first time that we see that a Western woman, a Belgian, marrying a radical Muslim, and is converted up to the point of becoming a jihad fighter,'' federal police director Glenn Audenaert said.
In her younger years, Muriel Degauque lived a conventional life in an industrial belt of southern Belgium. Media reports said she finished high school before taking on several jobs, including selling bread in a bakery. They also said that as an adolescent she had run into problems with drugs and alcohol.
Authorities say Degauque went on to become a member of a terror cell that embraced al-Qaida's ideology. It included her second husband, a man of Moroccan origin who died in a separate terror attack in Iraq.
"This is our Belgian kamikaze killed in Iraq,'' read the headline of Thursday's La Derniere Heure newspaper, over a picture of a smiling young woman looking into the camera.
When Liliane Degauque saw police coming to her doorstep on Wednesday, she immediately knew what it was about. She had heard reports the evening before there had been a terrorist attack on Nov. 9 by a Belgian woman.
"For three weeks already I tried to contact her by telephone but I got the answering machine,'' she told the RTBF network on Thursday.
Authorities on Thursday formally arrested 5 of the 14 suspects detained in dawn raids the day before and charged them with involvement in a terrorist network that sent volunteers to Iraq, including Muriel Degauque.
Nine were released. Those placed under arrest were a Tunisian and four Belgians, three of whom had North African roots.
"This action shows how international terrorism tries to set up networks in western European nations, recruit for terror attacks in conflict areas and look for funds to finance terrorism,'' said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
In France on Wednesday, police in the Paris region arrested a 15th suspect, a 27-year-old Tunisian man thought to have had contacts with the Belgian group.
Authorities said the Belgian network had been planning to send more volunteers to Iraq for attacks.
The raids in Brussels and three other cities across the country involving more than 200 police officers followed media reports of the Belgian woman's suicide.
Nine of the 14 suspects were Belgian citizens. Three were Moroccan and two were Tunisian.
Police carried out raids and detained 11 people in the capital Brussels, and one each in southern Charleroi, northern Antwerp and eastern Riemst.
Belgium has been mentioned as a breeding ground for terrorists in the past and there are currently 13 Belgian and Moroccan nationals on trial for allegedly being members of an Islamic group suspected in recent bomb attacks in Spain and Morocco.
Islamic radical groups linked to al-Qaida terror network are suspected of setting up networks in Belgium and other European nations with large Muslim communities.
For many in Belgium though, Wednesday's arrests were a chilling reminder that no one is immune.
"Belgium is directly involved in the terrorist threat,'' said Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
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