Another disgusting tale of barbarism from our Al Qaeda enemies; but the positive side of stories like these is that they show serious desperation on Al Qaeda’s part: U.S. Military Arrests Man in Training Iraq Women for Bombing Missions.

BAGHDAD  —  The U.S. military announced the capture Saturday of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up — the latest sign that Al Qaeda in Iraq plans to keep using women to carry out the deadly attacks.

The military also said it had killed six insurgents and detained 13 suspects Friday and Saturday during operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern Iraq. In another development, the military said Saturday it had captured a sniper instructor in Baghdad who had been trained by the Iranians.

In the case of the explosive vests, the military said the man was arrested Thursday in an operation near the town of Kan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad in Diyala province — still an al Qaeda hotbed.

“The ringleader was a man trying to recruit women to carry out SVEST (suicide vest) bombings. The cell leader used his wife and another woman, to act as carriers of his next SVEST attack,” the military said in a statement.

Here’s another interesting bit in this story, where the AP attempts to explain their reluctance to highlight the drastically decreased coalition casualty rate:

At least 29 U.S. troops died while serving in Iraq in February, the third-lowest monthly casualty toll for the U.S. military since the American-led invasion in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Troop fatalities declined from 40 in January, and also dropped steeply from February 2007, when at least 81 troops died in Iraq.

Iraqi casualties were up compared with January, however, although violence was reduced substantially from a year ago.

The AP count revealed at least 739 Iraqi security forces and civilians were either killed or found dead last month, up from 610 in January. In February 2007, at least 1,801 Iraqis were killed.

The statistics on Iraqi casualties are considered a minimum, and are based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted.