binFranklin

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 16 - - Somewhere out there is a woman, dead or alive, who is missing a well-manicured finger about 1 inch long. Authorities know where the finger ended up - in a bowl of Wendy's chili - but just how it exploded a bomb in a crowded restaurant northeast of Baghdad at lunchtime on Saturday, killing at least 13, is a mystery.

Anna Ayala's claim that she bit down on the finger in a mouthful of her steamy stew on March 22 initially coincided with other deadly attacks across Iraq and some signs of renewed sectarian tension . But when police and health officials failed to find any missing digits among the kidnapped workers involved in the restaurant's supply chain, suspicion fell on Ayala.


Health officials said it is apparently a woman's finger, because of the long, manicured nail. But investigators will not say which finger on the hand it was. Several Iraqi political figures said Saturday that the finger could be related to rising anger among Sunni Arabs as the new government, dominated by Shiites and Kurds, prepares to take power.


"The Iraqi street is boiling with anger," said Meshaan al-Juburi, a Sunni member of Iraq's new National Assembly. "There is a sense of desperation that has resulted in violence, and now this woman who found the finger in her chili! We are on the verge of a bad time."