Police to Round Up Homeless and Mentally Disabled from Baghdad Streets

BAGHDAD-Police have now been ordered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry to gather the homeless people and the mentally disabled people from the streets of Baghdad. Apparently, authorities say, insurgents have been using them as suicide bombers, and plan to continue to make use of the weakest of the Iraqi population for future suicide bombing attacks.

About three weeks ago, officials say that two suicide bombings against pet markets were carried out by two women. As well, the women were mentally disabled. Believed by authorities to have been suffering from Down Syndrome, they are thought to have been unwilling participants - unknowingly participating due to their inability to rationalize their actions.

The claim that mentally disabled women were unwillingly used in the February 1st suicide bombings against the pet markets was first met with skepticism. Authorities say they based the claims of mental disability and the fact that the women had Down's Syndrome on photos of the bombers' heads. The photographs evidently show that the two women bore similar facial features to those commonly found in Down's Syndrome people.

Both the United States military and the Iraqi government say that the reason the al-Qaeda led Sunni insurgents are using homeless and mentally disabled Iraqi people as suicide bombers is because it is easier for them to pass through checkpoints. Women often are not even searched at checkpoints. The reason women are often not even searched at the checkpoints is because male authorities do not wish to search them due to Islamic sensitivities.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, stated that the insurgents "...have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocent victims because they do not raise suspicions.

"These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers," Major General Khalaf told the Associated Press.

Also, American and Iraqi troops arrested the director of a psychiatric hospital in Baghdad on suspicion of supplying patient information to al-Qaeda. Authorities fear that the information will be used by the al-Qaeda led Sunni insurgents as a way to know who they can use to carry out more suicide bombings.

Officials say the people who are to be gathered from the streets of Baghdad will be protected. The homeless and mentally disabled will be taken to social welfare institutions and psychiatric hospitals that will provide shelter and care for them.