Chilling footage shows female suicide bomber holding baby before detonating bomb

An Iraqi TV station has released a chilling footage of an ISIS suicide bomber cradling a baby in her arms seconds before she blew herself and the child up.

Initially, it appeared as if the woman was fleeing the city of Mosul in Iraq, which has now fallen from ISIS control, with her child. But the video shows the woman clutching a trigger she detonates seconds later.

A number of civilians and two Iraqi soldiers were injured in the explosion but the woman and child were the only ones to die. The footage was captured when the woman passed close to the Iraqi troops as they flushed out ISIS fighters from the last remaining shred of the old city by the Tigris River.



She attempted to detonate the explosive vest hidden under her clothes as she passed the soldiers, but it failed to go off immediately, and exploded some distance away from them, according to Al-Mawsleya TV.

The TV station had been filming the battle and the camera crew had not realised what they were capturing until they reviewed the footage later. More than 20 female suicide bombers hide among civilians and are believed to have detonated explosive devices in the last fortnight as the battle for control of the city reached its endgame.

A photo emerged of a Mosul woman with her baby before detonating a bomb. Screen grab from Al-Mawsleya TV

In a bid to identify the suicide bombers, soldiers are ordering women on the streets to remove their niqabs, which cover everything but the eyes. Popularly known as “militant brides”, these female supporters of ISIS usually stay at home to look after their children, but experts believe women are becoming more active.



Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul on Sunday to congratulate the armed forces for their ‘victory’ over Isis after nine painful months of warfare, and bringing and to three long years of militant control of the city. The battle for Mosul – the largest city to fall under the militants’ control – has devastated large areas and damaged regions, killed thousands of civilians and displaced a million people.

This article originally appeared on The Independent