Kurdish woman kills self, 5 orphaned

Bahshan Mohammed, left, is comforted by a female relative as she grieves for her husband, Hewa Haweis, a police officer killed outside Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, In Kurdistan on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007. AP

By Yahya Barzanji
The Associated Press

Kurdish woman shot herself after learning that her husband was killed.

Neighbors rushed to the house of a 34-year-old Kurdish woman after learning that her husband - a police officer - was one of three killed in an ambush Sunday near Kirkuk.

But Layla Ridha Mohammed could not be comforted. She went inside, grabbed a pistol and shot herself in the head. The couple's five young children are now orphans.

"Layla has a strong personality, but she must have felt undone by this event and not knowing how she could continue without him," said Bahjat Fattah Mustafa, a police officer and relative of the deceased. "They are a poor family."

The suicide was a grim illustration of how tragedies often compound in a country being ripped apart by sectarian and other violence.

Iraqi policeman collapses in grief outside a hospital morgue after three comrades were killed

Mohammed's husband, Muhsin Ali, and two of his colleagues were killed in a drive-by shooting while on patrol southwest of Kirkuk, a disputed, oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad.

Associated Press photos afterward show a policeman collapsed in grief, still wearing a black bulletproof vest over his blue uniform.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the ambush. Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted by militants who accuse them of collaborating with U.S.-led forces and the Iraqi government.

We, the policemen, and all the relatives will take care of the kids

Mustafa

Mohammed's children, ages 5 to 11, are now staying with an uncle, Mustafa said, promising they would be well cared for by the extended family in the Kirkuk suburb of Daqouq.

"We, the policemen, and all the relatives will take care of the kids," he said. "Their father has three brothers, and his mother and father are still alive."

The wives of the other slain officers - Hewa Haweis and Mahmoud Saber - appeared inconsolable. One fell into the arms of a female relative. The other tore at her hair, a child in her lap.