Not Totally False, but Not True Either

Another day, another bad headline, this one from the UK Guardian (and repeated in many other papers). On the unspeakably horrible bombing in Baghdad today:

“Female Suicide Bombers kill 72 people at Baghdad Markets”

So, yes. The people in the market with bombs strapped to them were female. And they too were killed in the explosion. But as Sebastian points out, there’s a lot more to this story:

Remote-controlled explosives were strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome and detonated in coordinated attacks on two Friday morning markets in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 72 people and wounding nearly 150.

…

The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers had Down’s syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating they may not have been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped-up security measures.

While it has not yet been confirmed that the women had Downs Syndrome, it seems at least odd to me that the world’s major newspapers are leading with the fact that the bombers were female and oh, by the way, on a suicide mission, rather than explaining that the bombs were detonated remotely and that there’s a good chance that the women were severely mentally disabled.

Just another case of choosing headlines by circulation and not by fact.