U.S. says women bombers in Baghdad probably handicapped

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda probably used mentally handicapped women who did not know what they were doing to carry out bombings that killed 99 people in Baghdad's deadliest attacks in months, a senior U.S. general said on Saturday.

Major-General Jeffery Hammond, commander of American forces in Baghdad, said using two handicapped women to carry out Friday's attacks suggested the Sunni Islamist militants could be using new tactics to circumvent security crackdowns that have brought a sharp reduction in violence in Iraq.

"There are some indications that these two women were mentally handicapped," Hammond told reporters without giving details, although he said he had pictures of them.

"It appears the suicide bombers were not willing martyrs, they were used by al Qaeda for these horrific attacks. These two women were likely used because they didn't understand what was happening and they were less likely to be searched."

The two women were strapped with explosives and blew up at popular pet markets, killing 99 people and wounding more than 150, according to police, making it the deadliest day in Baghdad since last April. The U.S. military gave a much lower figure for the combined death toll.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by Dean Yates)