(AKI) - Police in Algeria have broken up a terrorist cell in southern Algeria that they claim was poised to deploy a female suicide bomber in an attack against a military barracks. The terror cell was based in Waraqla and had four members: an engineer, a doctor, a teacher and woman whose profession was unspecified, according to Algerian press reports. Police said they uncovered the cell after phone taps of conversations between suspected members who spoke about an apartment. They traced the apartment and found explosives, weapons and documents inside. One of the documents allegedly contained details of an imminent suicide attack, which the female cell member was planning to carry out against the military barracks.
The woman is reportedly the wife of a suspected Al-Qaeda militant who was killed last year during an offensive by security forces. Observers were cited as saying the planning of Iraq-style suicide attacks by female suicide bombers showed that Al-Qaeda's North African branch was now in disarray.
There have been at least 16 suicide attacks carried out by women in recent months in the volatile Al-Qaeda stronghold of Diyala province, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
American and Iraqi security forces are conducting a major offensive in the province to uproot remnants of Al-Qaeda from their strongholds.