ISIS Women Suicide Bombers Facts: Female Militants Target Iraqi Troops, Kill 1 Soldier In Mosul

In what is being seen as the latest tactic by the Islamic State group (ISIS) to strike back at Iraqi forces in Mosul, two female suicide bombers targeted Iraqi troops and killed one soldier Monday morning.

The women, who were hiding among a group of fleeing civilians, also injured several other soldiers, the Associated Press reported citing an Iraqi officer.

ISIS has lost majority portion of its territory during the battles being fought by the group and Iraqi forces. It is now controlling just over one square kilometer in all, or about 0.40 square miles. Regarding Monday's killing, Sgt. Ali Abdullah Hussein told the AP that using women as suicide bombers was apparently the latest tactic by the terrorist group.

“They appeared from the basement (of a building) and they blew themselves up,” Hussein said of the bombers, who attacked in the vicinity of the destroyed al-Nuri Mosque.

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Reports began surfacing early last year that ISIS has begun using female fighters and suicide bombers for the first time. In February 2016, at least seven female terrorists were in custody and more than three had been killed in one week in Libya.

Here are some of the facts about ISIS women suicide bombers.

1. ISIS reportedly turned its attention to train women when they started running out of children to use as shields in their fight. Sources inside the city of Raqqa said in 2015 ISIS started training female fighters as they were less likely to arouse suspicion, reported the Express,

2. According to a report compiled by activist group "Raqqa is being Slaughtered Silently," a woman from Raqqa, known only as Farah, claimed that an ISIS woman approached her to join the regime that needed women for "battles to protect Raqqa." Farah was told that it was her "duty to the city," Express reported.

Farah said: "The conversation of this woman started to evolve trying to convince me to join ISIS, but what more surprised me was that she asked me to join a new women battalion of ISIS and their mission is not to fight, but to carry out a suicidal operations being the enemy of ISIS."

3. Sally Jones, 47, from Britain, also known as Umm Hussain al-Britani, has issued repeated terror threats against the UK, U.S. and Europe and called for supporters to carry out attacks. She was married to an ISIS hacker who was killed in 2015 in a drone strike. She is one of the most prolific propagandist for the Islamic State group and has published “kill lists” of targets and announced her wish to behead Christians online, the Independent reported.

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4. There are around 600 Western female ISIS recruits, but the number of non-Western women is believed to be much higher. Around 700 women from Tunisia alone have reportedly travelled to Syria to join the terrorist organization, according to Time.