Muriel Degauque was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 woman from Charleroi

Charleroi

Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 and a convert to Islam.
La Derniere Heure

La Dernière Heure

La Dernière Heure and "Les Sports" is a French general daily newspaper in Belgium....

, a Belgian newspaper, claimed on December 1, 2005 that she was a suicide bomber in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. According to Belgian authorities, a Belgian woman committed a suicide car bomb

Car bomb

A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...

 attack on November 9, 2005 against a U.S. military convoy south of Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

. The Belgian was the only person killed, but one American soldier was injured.

Belgian authorities subsequently questioned her family and determined Degauque as the bomber. A bakery

Bakery

A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...

 worker, she married a Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 man and quickly became radical in her religious views. The couple moved into Iraq from the Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n border, presumably to join the Iraqi insurgency

Iraqi insurgency

The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...

. Degauque's husband failed to detonate his explosive belt

Explosive belt

An explosive belt is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers...

 and was killed in a separate incident by US troops.

External links

• "Raised as Catholic in Belgium, She Died as a Muslim Bomber" by Craig S. Smith
  Craig S. Smith
  Craig S. Smith is an American journalist. Until January, 2000, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, most notably covering the rise of the religious movement Falun Gong in China. He joined The New York Times as Shanghai bureau chief in 2000 and wrote extensively about the practice of harvesting...
  
  , New York Times December 6, 2005