Belgian Woman Identified As an Iraq Bomber

A woman reads Belgium's newspaper 'La Derniere Heure' that headlines 'This is our Belgian Kamikaze killed in Iraq' and shows a picture of Muriel Degauque from the southern city of Charleroi, Belgium, in Brussels, Thursday Dec. 1, 2005. Belgians were trying to come to terms Thursday with the news that a working class woman from an industrial southern city had turned from a "nice" shop assistant into a suicide bomber who blew herself up in Iraq. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Belgian Woman Identified As an Iraq Bomber

By RAF CASERTThe Associated Press
Thursday, December 1, 2005; 1:40

PMMONCEAU-SUR-SAMBRE, Belgium -- Authorities have identified a woman who carried out a suicide attack against a U.S. patrol in Iraq as a 38-year-old Belgian who had two marriages to radical Muslim men.

Muriel Degauque, who grew up near the industrial city of Charleroi, entered Iraq from Syria last month and carried out a suicide bombing against U.S. troops. She was the only one killed in the blast.

Her mother, Liliane Degauque, told Belgian 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.