The Iraqi military announced the arrest of the woman yesterday, and played reporters video footage of her confessing to her role as a recruiter.

She explains in the footage how she recruited women, took them to an orchard for training, and finally picked them up and led them to their targets.

Later, during an interview from jail, conducted with interrogators standing nearby, the woman told how she helped plan the rapes of young women.

She said she would then step in to persuade the victims to become suicide bombers as their only escape from the shame.

The woman has been identified as Samira Ahmed Jassim, who is nicknamed ''Umm al-Mumineen'', which means the mother of believers.

In her video confession, the woman says she was acting on behalf of insurgents based in the volatile Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

Iraqi military spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi said the suspect had recruited more than 80 women willing to carry out attacks and had admitted masterminding 28 bombings in different areas.

The US and Iraqi militaries have made past claims about efforts by insurgents to recruit vulnerable women and children as attackers, while providing little evidence.

The claims included that two women who blew themselves up last year in Baghdad had Down syndrome, statements later proved to be exaggerated.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims of using rape as a tool to recruit female bombers. But Jassim has given unusual first-hand descriptions of the possible workings behind last year's spike in attacks by female bombers.

Major-General Al-Moussawi said Jassim's arrest was the result of tips and produced the video to lend credence to the allegations. The number of bombings carried out by women has spiked even as overall violence has declined, and US commanders have warned insurgents are actively trying to find more recruits.

At least 36 female suicide bombers attempted or successfully carried out 32 suicide attacks last year, compared with eight in 2007, according to US military figures.

The military said it couldn't provide information on the number of female bombers so far this year. AP