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U.S. female troops face combatDespite ban, some women exposed to fighting in Iraq
 Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the Silver Star on June 16, the first female soldier to receive the medal since World War II SPECIAL REPORT
• Interactive: Who's who in Iraq
• Interactive: Sectarian divide
• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- The Pentagon's policy banning women in combat units is being tested in Iraq, where the lack of a defined front line is exposing female troops to combat. On Thursday night, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a vehicle near a U.S. convoy in Falluja. The explosion killed two Marines, one of them a woman, left three Marines and a Navy sailor unaccounted for, and wounded 13, according to the Marine Corps. Eleven of the wounded are women. The Marines were attacked while traveling to Camp Fallujah after working at entry control points in the city, according to a Marine Corps statement. Thirty-seven female U.S. troops have died in Iraq and three female Defense Department employees have been killed while working in Iraq. Six female troops have died while serving in Afghanistan. Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in frontline combat units, like infantry, armor or artillery. But in Iraq, female troops are participating in close-quarters combat more than in any previous conflict. The Marine Corps says that female Marines are helping the military respect cultural sensitivities in Iraq, where men and women do not mix as much as in Western countries. "Female Marines play a vital role providing security at the entry control points in the city," according to the statement. "They search female Iraqi citizens moving through the checkpoints. Female Marines are employed in this role in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities. Their assignment to this mission is in full accordance with Department of Defense and Marine Corps policy." CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with a Marine unit in western Iraq, says that the military is grappling with the issue of having women accompany combat units to search women during raids or at checkpoints. "It's one of the things that the Marines and the Army feel they're lacking right now, particularly the Marines, which have very few women in those roles," Arraf said. Arraf reported that several weeks ago, a Marine was shot and killed by a woman who opened fire on him. The woman was killed by return fire from Marines. "But when we go into houses with the Marines and with the Army, there is almost never a female along who can search women to see if they have weapons on them. It's something they are grappling with in this ever-changing insurgency and the ever-changing tactics of he insurgents and the foreign fighters." Female soldiers and Marines are usually assigned to support units, like logistics or transportation. But even those units are exposed to the same dangers as combat troops due to the guerilla tactics of the insurgents. "They're in convoys, taking the same risks as the male solders and Marines," Arraf said. "The biggest risk here at the moment are those roadside bombs, the explosive devices. They're getting increasingly sophisticated and increasingly powerful. And there seems to be almost a never-ending supply of suicide bombers, all of them said to be foreign fighters still coming through here." Silver Star for female soldierA female National Guard soldier recently was awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor, for her role in a firefight with insurgents. Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester of Nashville, Tennessee, is the first female solder to receive the award since World War II. Hester received the Silver Star in a ceremony at Camp Liberty, Iraq, along with two other soldiers from the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company. Three more soldiers received the Bronze Star. Hester's unit thwarted an insurgent ambush against a coalition convoy on March 20. After a 45-minute firefight, 27 insurgents were dead, six wounded, and one captured. Three soldiers from the 617th were wounded. (Full story) In Falluja, female Marines normally assigned to support units are providing security and searching women and children in an attempt to respect Iraqi cultural differences. According a story on the Marine Corps Web site, six female Marines attached to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team-8, are stationed at entry control points throughout the southern sector of the city. At those check points, Iraqi women and children pass through a search area hidden from male Marines and civilians, where the female Marines, known as the Female Search Force, search them. Iraqi men go to a separate area where male Marines search them. The female Marines also help search vehicles that pass through the checkpoints. Capt. Sean K. Butler, the 36-year-old commander of the battalion's Weapons Company, said the female Marines have an important role in the battalion's operations. "It's out of respect for Iraqi culture," he said. "In this society, men and women don't associate as freely as we do in the states." 
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