Baghdad, 21 July (AKI) - Iraqi authorities have trained 130 women from Sunni tribes to seek out and prevent attacks carried out by al-Qaeda's aspiring female suicide bombers.

According to a report on the London-based Arabic language daily, Al-Hayat, this special team of women are known as "Daughters of Iraq".

The new unit has been set up to deal with the rash of female suicide bomber attacks in the province of Diyala, the most volatile part of the country.

The team of women will work side-by-side with the Awakening Councils, US-funded Sunni groups who have turned against the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The councils are known to have achieved significant success in the fight against terrorism and its members are often targets of the al-Qaeda suicide bombers.

"I don't believe that we will have problems working together with the men in the Awakening Councils because many of them are our relatives and friends," Zakiya, a young women from Baquba told Al-Hayat.

An official within the Iraqi army, Hazim al-Azzawi, criticised the idea of such a unit.

"These women are trained by the American forces for only four days," he said. "This is not sufficient to deal with this danger."

One of the American trainers however said that that the women have been "taught the useful techniques in order to take over the control of the women and to expose the presence of the female suicide bombers and the [training] time is sufficient".

The US forces have been trying for some time to form a women's unit of the Awakening Councils in the Sunni areas of Iraq.

Up until now they have not succeeded in doing so because of social prejudices against women doing such work.

In Diyala's capital city of Baquba, some 16 female suicide bombers have carried out attacks in the past three months.

In the past two weeks, Iraqi security forces have been searching for another three female bombers who are reportedly planning to carry out attacks.