Everything about Suicide Attack totally explained
» This article is about suicide attacks for political and/or military reasons.:
For criminal, personal, and/or non-political killings ending in suicide, see Mass murder or List of massacres.
A
suicide attack is an attack upon a military or civilian target, in which an attacker intends to kill others, knowing that he or she'll either certainly or most likely die in the process (see
suicide). The means of attack have included vehicles filled with explosives, passenger planes carrying large amounts of fuel, and individuals wearing vests filled with explosives. Synonyms include suicide-homicide bombing, martyrdom operations, predatory martyrdom. Strictly speaking, an attack may not be considered a suicide attack if the attacker isn't killed (although they might hope and plan to be), or if there's some question as to whether their intention is to be killed (even if the attack is certain to kill them).
Although use of suicide attacks has occurred throughout history — particularly with the Japanese
kamikaze pilots of
World War II — its main notoriety as a specific kind of attack began in the 1980s and involved explosives deliberately carried to the target either on the person or in a civilian vehicle and delivered by surprise. Following the success of a
1983 truck bombing of two barracks buildings in Beirut that killed 300 and helped drive American and French
Multinational Force troops from Lebanon, the tactic spread to insurgent groups like the
Tamil Tigers of
Sri Lanka, and
Hamas, a Palestinian group.
During this time the number of suicide attacks has grown rapidly, from an average of less than five a year in the 1980s to 180/year in the first half of the 00s, and from 81 suicide attacks in 2001 to 460 in 2005. Particularly hard-hit by attacks have been military and civilian targets in
Sri Lanka, Israeli targets in
Israel since 1994, and
Iraqis since the
US-led invasion of that country in 2003.
Observers believe suicide attacks have become popular because of their lethal effectiveness, but attackers motivation is disputed. One scholar,
Robert Pape, attributes over 90% of attacks prior to the Iraq Civil War to a goal of withdrawal of an occupying forces; while another,
Scott Atran, argues that since 2004 the overwhelming majority of bombers have been motivated by the ideology of Islamist martyrdom, and that these attacks have been much more numerous. In just two years - 2004-2005 - there have been more suicide attacks, "roughly 600, than in Pape's entire sample."
Frequency and verification of suicide attacks
Determining the exact number of suicide bomber attacks is a nearly impossible task. Attacks are so frequent that neither the global media, nor native police forces forensically and exhaustively investigate each attack. Even if reporters were to follow up, most incidents that are attributed to suicide bombers are unverifiable (as the alleged bomber will have destroyed himself in the blast and any remains will be over-mixed with other human remains). In most reports, troops or police of the targeted state are the sole source for the allegation of a suicide bomber attack, and eyewitness accounts are, understandably, unreliable.
Further muddying the waters are reports that have surfaced of undercover intelligence operatives arrested with explosives and remote control detonators as part of
false flag operations
(External Link
). This raises the possibility that at least some of these attacks are remotely detonated bombs and not suicide attacks.
Tactical advantages
A major reason for the popularity of suicide attacks despite the sacrifice involved for its perpetrators is its tactical advantages over other types of terrorism. The ability to conceal weapons, make last-minute adjustments, increased ability to infiltrate heavily guarded targets, lack of need for remote or delayed detonation, escape plans or rescue teams. Robert Pape observes: "Suicide attacks are an especially convincing way to signal the likelihood of more pain to come, because if you're willing to kill yourself you're also willing to endure brutal retaliation. "... The element of suicide itself helps increase the credibility of future attacks because it suggests that attackers can't be deterred."
It must also be realized that in the military calculus of kill ratios, when suicide bombing missions are the only way to kill more of the enemy's forces than the enemy will kill of your forces, then they're highly likely to be used. In Iraq, the kill ratio of coalition forces versus all others is around 100:1, although it has dropped since the early days of the war. That is a dramatically higher ratio than was experienced between armies with muskets fighting peoples armed with bows and arrows and spears. It is unprecedented historically. Military calculation for the insurgent forces is the primary driving force behind the bombing tactics in Iraq. In other engagements where the enemy wasn't invulnerable, the same forces have not use suicide bombing attacks, but instead used classical military methods.
Types and tactics
The attacks can be either a military tactic, a political one, or a mixture of the two. It may qualify as
terrorism when the intention is to kill, maim or terrorise a predominantly civilian target population, or fall within the definition of an act of war when it's committed against a military target under war conditions. Suicide attacks often target poorly-guarded, non-military facilities and
personnel.
Examples of different suicide attacks include:
In some cases a nuclear attack on a nuclear power may be considered a suicide attack in the wider sense, with the attacking country being sure or almost sure of suffering many fatalities in a retaliation. This is called
mutually assured destruction.
Profile and motivation of attackers
Pathology as cause
One initial reaction to contemporary suicide bombing was to assume that the bombers were motivated by despair, and likely to come from a
poor, neglected segment of
society. This has been expressed by president
George W. Bush and the
Dalai Lama among others.
The results of at least one study are consistent with despair being a cause of the attacks. A 2007 study in
Afghanistan, one country with a growing number of suicide bombings, found "80%" of the suicide attackers had some kind of physical or mental disability. A study of the remains of 110 suicide bombers for the first part of 2007 by Afghan pathologist Dr.
Yusef Yadgari, found 80% were missing limbs, suffered from cancer, leprosy, or some other ailments. Also in contrast to earlier findings of suicide bombers, the Afghan bombers were "not celebrated like their counterparts in other Arab nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs."
Many subsequent studies of suicide attackers' backgrounds have not shown such a
correlation. Forensic psychiatrist Marc Sageman found a lack of antisocial behavior, mental illness, early social trauma or behavioral disorders such as rage, paranoia, narcissism among the 400 members of the
Al Qaeda terror network he studied.
Anthropologist Scott Atran found in a 2003 study that this isn't a justifiable conclusion. A recently published paper by
Harvard University Professor of Public Policy
Alberto Abadie "cast[s] doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom." More specifically this is due to the transition of countries towards democratic freedoms. "Intermediate levels of political freedom are often experienced during times of political transitions, when governments are weak, political instability is elevated, so conditions are favorable for the appearance of terrorism". and the occupiers and grassroots support for the attacks. Attackers were disproportionately from the educated middle classes. Characteristics which Pape thought to be correlated to suicide bombing and bombers included: Islam, especially the influence of Salafi Islam; brutality and cruelty of the occupiers; competition among militant groups; and poverty, immaturity, poor education, past history of suicide attempts, or social maladjustment of the attackers.
Other researchers have argued that Pape's analysis of the data is fundamentally flawed, however, particularly his contention that democracies are the main targets of such attacks.
Scott Atran found that non-Islamic groups have carried out very few bombings since 2003, while bombing by Muslim or Islamist groups associated with a "global ideology" of "martyrdom" has skyrocketed. In one year, in one Muslim country alone - 2004 in Iraq - there were 400 suicide attacks and 2000 casualties. Still others argue that perceived religious rewards in the hereafter are instrumental in encouraging Muslims to commit suicide attacks.
Some aspects of suicide bombing vary. Suicide operatives are overwhelmingly male in most groups, but among the Chechen rebels and the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) women form a majority of the attackers.. So too some groups use teams all or most of the time (Al-Qaeda and Chechen), and others infrequently or never (Palestinians, Lebanese, and
PKK). The ritualistic communion of the
extremist groups to which they belong ("lone wolf" suicide bombers are rare), in addition to their strongly-held beliefs, helps motivate their decision to commit suicide.
In his book,
Dead for Good, Hugh Barlow describes recent suicide attack campaigns as a new development in the long history of martyrdom, that he dubs
predatory martyrdom. Some individuals who now act alone are inspired by emails, radical books, the internet, various new electronic media, and a general public tolerance of extreme teachers and leaders with
terrorist agendas.
Islamic motivation
224 of 300 suicide terror attacks from 1980 to 2003 compiled by the
Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism involved Islamist groups or terrorist acts in Muslim-majority lands. Another tabulation found a massive increase in suicide bombings in the two years following Papes study and that the overwhelming majority of these bombers were motivated by the ideology of Islamist martyrdom. According to still another estimate, as of early
2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in
Iraq alone.
Muslim views
Some
Sunni scholars reject suicide. However, some top authorities do support suicide attacks on perceived enemies of Islam. Sheikh
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, sometimes called "the world's most quoted independent Islamic jurist", has called martyrdom operations:
the greatest of all sorts of Jihad in the Cause of Allah. A martyr operation is carried out by a person who sacrifices himself, deeming his life less value than striving in the Cause of Allah, in the cause of restoring the land and preserving the dignity.
Other clerics have supported attacks mainly in connection with Palestine. Sunni Iraqi Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Qubeisi has proclaimed that "those who commit martyrdom [for examplesuicide] operations who are, by Allah, the greatest martyrs in Islamic history..." Amongst others the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis,, the former President of Al-Azhar University, Ahmad 'Omar Hashem and Cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris of Gaza have all urged on suicide operations by Muslims. Sayed Mohammed Musawi, head of the World Islamic League in London, condemning the
London bombings, but insisted "there should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime." There have been conflicting reports about the stand of Sheikh
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, the top Egyptian cleric of
Al Azhar University, and the mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al Tayyeb. Shortly after 9/11 the Sheikh Tantawy issued a statement apposing suicide attacks. But a translation from
Al Azhar website quotes him as supporting suicide attacks on Jews in Israel as part of the Palestinian struggle "to strike horror into the hearts of the enemies of Islam." Then in mid-2003 he was quoted again as saying "groups which carried out suicide bombings were the enemies of Islam."
According to Professor Charles A. Kimball, chair of the Department of Religion at
Wake Forest University in
Winston-Salem, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide", Verse 4:29 of the
Qur'an. It reads
O you who believe! Do not consume your wealth in the wrong way-rather through trade mutually agreed to, and don't kill yourselves. Surely God is Merciful toward you. Some commentators believe that the phrase "do not kill yourselves" is better translated "do not kill each other", and some translations (for example
Shakir) reflect that view.
Mainstream Islamic groups such as the European Council for Fatwa and Research use the Quran'ic verse Al-Anam 6:151 (
And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law) as further reason to prohibit suicide. In addition, the
hadith unambiguously forbid suicide.
A contrary view is presented by Faisal Bodi who has written in
The Guardian that, "in the Muslim world, then, we celebrate what we call the martyr-bombers. To us they're heroes defending the things we hold sacred. Polls in the Middle East show 75% of people in favour of martyr-bombings."
Irshad Manji, in a conversation with one leader of Islamic Jihad noted their ideology.
"What's the difference between suicide, which the Koran condemns, and martyrdom?" I asked. "Suicide," he replied, "is done out of despair. But remember: most of our martyrs today were very successful in their earthly lives." In short, there was a future to live for--and they detonated it anyway.
Since the four suicide bombings in London, there have been many scholastic refutations of suicide bombings from Sunni Muslims. Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam, titled 'The Hijacked Caravan', which concluded that, "The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation." The Oxford-based Malayist jurist, Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti, issued his landmark fatwa on suicide bombing and targeting innocent civilians, titled 'Defending the Transgressed, by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians', where he states suicide bombing in its most widespread form, is forbidden: 'If the attack involves a bomb placed on the body or placed so close to the bomber that when the bomber detonates it the bomber is certain [yaqin] to die, then the More Correct Position according to us is that it does constitute suicide. This is because the bomber, being also the Maqtul [theone killed], is unquestionably the same Qatil [theimmediate/active agent that kills] = Qatil Nafsahu [suicide]"
In January of 2006, one of
Shia Islam's highest ranking
marja clerics,
Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei also decreed a
fatwa against suicide bombing, declaring it as a "terrorist act".
Nationalist motivation
Various scholars and analysts, however, dispute the claim that Muslim suicide bombers are driven by religion.
Research of Professor
Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago suggests that foreign occupation is the principal factor motivating suicide:
Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [suchterror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism. ... Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, al-Qaida is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands.
From 1980 to early 2004, 95% of suicide attacks had the central objective of compelling a democratic state with military forces on territory that the terrorists prize to take those forces out.
Much of the discourse that frames or responds to suicide bombing addresses or attempts to uncover the rationality of the action itself. Generally, the suicide bomber is understood as irrational —driven beyond the boundaries of rational thought by environmental, religious, political, and/or social factors —therefore capable of setting aside the "common sense" of self-preservation.
The Pentagon released a study tasked with pinpointing motivation:
"His actions provide a win-win scenario for himself, his family, his faith and his God," The document explains. "The bomber secures salvation and the pleasures of Paradise. He earns a degree of financial security and a place for his family in Paradise. He defends his faith and takes his place in a long line of martyrs to be memorialized as a valorous fighter. And finally, because of the manner of his death, he's assured that he'll find favor with Allah," the briefing adds. "Against these considerations, the selfless sacrifice by the individual Muslim to destroy Islam's enemies becomes a suitable, feasible and acceptable course of action."
Recent published research on the rationale of suicide bombing as an effective technique to kill enemies has highlighted the importance of motivation as a driving force.While some scholars uncover the interplay of such conduct with political and socio-economic factors,others agree that religion is a driving force to encourage suicide bombers.This mainstream puts forward that religion provides the framework for suicide bombing precisely because acting in the name of Islam is regarded as a form of martyrdom.Since "martyrdom"is widely seen as a step towards Heaven, those who commit suicide whilst discarding their community from a common enemy believe that that'll reach an ultimate salvation after they die.
Terrorists claiming that bombers will be greeted by "72 virgins" are referring to
Houri and this is a common supposed motivation.
The briefing – produced by a little-known Pentagon intelligence unit called the
Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA – cites a number of passages from the Quran dealing with jihad, or "holy" warfare, martyrdom and Paradise, where "beautiful mansions" and "maidens" await martyr heroes. In preparation for attacks, suicide terrorists typically recited passages from the Quran.
Various scholars and analysts, however, dispute the claim that Muslim suicide bombers are driven by religion.
Small-world factors and group dynamics
According to anthropologist
Scott Atran and former CIA case officer
Marc Sageman,support for suicide actions is triggered by moral outrage at perceived attacks against Islam and sacred values, but this is converted to action as a result of small world factors. There are millions who express sympathy with global jihad (according to a 2006 Gallup study in involving more than 50,000 interviews in dozens of countries, 7 percent of the world's 1.3. billion Muslims - 90 million people - consider the 9/11 attacks "completely justified.") Nevertheless, only some thousands show willingness to commit violence (for example, 60 arrested in the USA, 2400 in Western Europe, 3200 in Saudi Arabia). They tend to go to violence in small groups consisting mostly of friends, and some kin (although friends tend to become kin as they marry one another's sisters and cousins - there are dozens of such marriages among militant members of Southeast Asia's
Jemaah Islamiyah). These groups arise within specific "scenes": neighborhoods, schools (classes, dorms), workplaces and common leisure activities (soccer, paintball, mosque discussion groups, barbershop, café, online chat-rooms).
Three other examples:
1. In
Al Qaeda, about 70 percent join with friends, 20 percent with kin. Interviews with friends of the 9/11 suicide pilots reveal they weren't "recruited" into Qaeda. They were Middle Eastern Arabs isolated even among the Moroccan and Turkish Muslims who predominate in Germany. Seeking friendship, they began hanging out after services at the Masjad al-Quds and other nearby mosques in Hamburg, in local restaurants and in the dormintory of the Technical University in the suburb of Harburg. Three (
Mohammed Atta,
Ramzi Binalshibh,
Marwan al-Shehhi) wound up living together as they self-radicalized. They wanted to go to
Chechnya, then
Kosovo, only landing in a Qaeda camp in
Afghanistan as a distant third choice.
2. Five of the seven plotters in the
11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings who blew themselves up when cornered by police grew up in the tumble-down neighborhood of Jemaa Mezuak in Tetuan, Morocco: Jamal Ahmidan, brothers Mohammed and Rashid Oulad Akcha, Abdennabi Kounjaa, Asri Rifaat. In 2006, at least five more young Mezuaq men went to Iraq on "martyrdom missions": Abdelmonim Al-Amrani, Younes Achebak, Hamza Aklifa, and the brothers Bilal and Munsef Ben Aboud (DNA analysis has confirmed the suicide bombing death of Amrani in Baqubah, Iraq). All 5 attended a local elementary school (Abdelkrim Khattabi), the same one that Madrid’s Moroccan bombers attended. And 4 of the 5 were in the same high school class (Kadi Ayadi, just outside Mezuak). They played soccer as friends, went to the same mosque (Masjad al-Rohban of the Dawa Tabligh), mingled in the same restaurants, barbershops and cafes.
3.
Hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign in 2003-4 involved several buddies from Hebron's Masjad (mosque) al-Jihad soccer team. Most lived in the Wad Abu Katila neighborhood and belonged to the al-Qawasmeh hamula (clan); several were classmates in the neighborhood's local branch of the Palestinian Polytechnic College. There ages ranged from 18 to 22. At least eight team members were dispatched to suicide shooting and bombing operations by the Hamas military leader in Hebron, Abdullah al-Qawasmeh (killed by Israeli forces in June 2003 and succeeded by his relatives Basel al-Qawasmeh, killed in September 2003, and Imad al-Qawasmeh, captured on October 13, 2004). In retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin (March 22, 2004) and
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (April 17, 2004), Imad al-Qawasmeh dispatched Ahmed al-Qawasmeh and Nasim al-Ja'abri for a suicide attack on two buses in Beer Sheva (August 31, 2004). In December 2004, Hamas declared a halt to suicide attacks.
On January 15, 2008, the son of
Mahmoud al-Zahar, the leader of Hamas in the
Gaza Strip, was killed (another son was killed in a 2003 assassination attempt on Zahar). Three days later, Israel Defense Minister
Ehud Barak ordered
Israel Defense Forces to seal all border crossings with Gaza, cutting off the flow of vital supplies to the besieged territory in an attempt to stop rocket barrages on Israeli border towns. Nevertheless, violence from both sides only increased. On February 4, 2008, two friends (Mohammed Herbawi, Shadi Zghayer), who were members of the Masjad al-Jihad soccer team, staged a suicide bombing at at commercial center in Dimona, Israel. Herbawi had previously been arrested as a 17-year-old on March 15, 2003 shortly after a suicide bombing on Haifa bus (by Mamoud al-Qawasmeh on March 5, 2003) and coordinated suicide shooting attacks on Israeli settlements by others on the team (March 7, 2003, Muhsein, Hazem al-Qawasmeh, Fadi Fahuri, Sufian Hariz) and before another set of suicide bombings by team members in Hebron and Jerusalem on May 17-18, 2003 (Fuad al-Qawasmeh, Basem Takruri, Mujahed al-Ja'abri). Although Hamas claimed responsibility for the Dimona attack, the politburo leadership in Damascus and Beirut was clearly initially unaware of who initiated and carried out the attack. It appears that Ahmad al-Ja'abri, military commander of Hamas's
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza (and who is also originally from a Hebron clan) requested the suicide attack through Ayoub Qawasmeh, Hamas's military liaison in Hebron, who knew where to look for eager young men who had self-radicalized together and had already mentally prepared themselves for martyrdom.
History
Background
The concept of self-sacrifice has long been a part of war. However, many instances of suicide bombing today has intended civilian targets, not military targets alone. "Suicide bombing as a tool of stateless terrorists was dreamed up a hundred years ago by the European anarchists immortalized in Joseph Conrad’s 'Secret Agent.'"
An example of such self-sacrifice in warfare in medieval legend is
Arnold von Winkelried. The earliest reference of a suicide attack outside a context of warfare has been suggested to be in the story of
Samson who died together with his victims as he collapsed a Philistine temple:
"Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' Down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived." (Judges 16:30).
Pedants argue over whether different historical figures were suicide attackers. Historical doubt surrounds the actions of legendary 14th century
Swiss hero
Arnold von Winkelried, which was in any case an act in the heat of battle. Some have cited
Samson's destruction of a
Philistine temple (as recounted in the
Book of Judges) as an ancient example of mass murder-suicide. But it can't qualify as such because Samson was directly dependent on God for the use of his enormous strength, as his temporary loss of it a short time earlier shows.)
An example is from the time of the
Crusades, when the
Knights Templar destroyed one of their own ships, killing 140 Christians in order to kill ten times as many Muslims.
In the late 17th century,
Qing official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured
Dutch soldiers fighting against
Koxinga's forces for control of
Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner.
A modern example of suicide bombing occurred during the
Belgian Revolution, when the Dutch
Lieutenant Jan van Speijk detonated his own ship in the
harbour of
Antwerp to prevent being captured by the Belgians.
During their revolts against the British in late the 1700s, 1818 and 1848 the Sinhalese conducted numerous suicide attacks against the British. The common tactic was to hid inside a hollowed Kitul Palm
Caryota urens tree trunk and blow up onself when the British troops came near.
Another example was the
Prussian soldier Karl Klinke on 18 April 1864 at the
Battle of Dybbøl, when he blew a hole in a
Danish fortification.
The act of deliberately destroying oneself to inflict harm on an enemy, especially civilians, is more restricted to modern times and the era of explosives. The line between the two is considered by some a matter of subjectivity, as in the argument that many WWII soldiers killed were "
martyrs" (in the sense that they were to suffer for the sake of a principle, rather than dying as the penalty for refusing to renounce a belief) because their life expectancy in combat was very low—often averaging only two or three months.
Modern suicide bombing as a political tool can be traced back to the assassination of Czar
Alexander II of Russia in 1881. Alexander fell victim to a
Nihilist plot. While driving on one of the central streets of
Saint Petersburg, near the
Winter Palace, he was mortally wounded by the explosion of hand-made grenades and died a few hours afterwards. The Tzar was killed by the Pole
Ignacy Hryniewiecki, who died while intentionally exploding the bomb during the attack.
The ritual act of self-sacrifice during combat appeared in a large scale at the end of
World War II with the
Japanese
kamikaze bombers. In these attacks, airplanes were used as flying bombs. Later in the war, as Japan became more desperate, this act became formalized and ritualized, as planes were outfitted with explosives specific to the task of a suicide mission. Kamikaze strikes were a weapon of asymmetric war used by the
Empire of Japan against
United States Navy and
Royal Navy aircraft carriers, although the
armoured flight deck of the Royal Navy carriers diminished Kamikaze effectiveness.
The Japanese Navy also used both one and two man piloted
torpedoes called
kaiten on suicide missions. Although sometimes called
midget submarines, these were modified versions of the unmanned torpedoes of the time and are distinct from the torpedo-firing midget submarines used earlier in the war, which were designed to
infiltrate shore defences and return to a
mother ship after firing their torpedoes. Though extremely hazardous, these midget submarine attacks were not technically suicide missions, as the earlier kaitens had escape hatches. Later kaitens, by contrast, provided no means of escape.
After aiming a two-person kaiten at their target, the two crew members traditionally embraced and shot each other in the head. Social support for such choices was strong, due in part to Japanese cultural history, in which
seppuku, honourable suicide, was part of
samurai duty. It was also fostered and indoctrinated by the Imperial program to
persuade the Japanese soldiers to commit these acts.
Suicide attacks were used as a military tactic aimed at causing material damage in war, during the
Second World War in the Pacific as
Allied ships were attacked by
Japanese
kamikaze pilots who caused maximum damage by flying their explosive-laden
aircraft into military targets, not focused on civilian targets.
During the
Battle for Berlin the Luftwaffe flew "Self-sacrifice missions" (
Selbstopfereinsatz) against Soviet bridges over the
River Oder. These 'total missions' were flown by pilots of the
Leonidas Squadron under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Heiner Lange. From
17 April until
20 April 1945, using any aircraft that were available, the Luftwaffe claimed that the squadron destroyed 17 bridges, however the military historian
Antony Beevor when writing about the incident thinks that this was exaggerated and that only the railway bridge at
Küstrin was definitely destroyed. He comments that "thirty-five pilots and aircraft was a high price to pay for such a limited and temporary success". The missions were called off when the Soviet ground forces reached the vicinity of the squadron's airbase at
Jüterbog.
Following World War II,
Viet Minh "death volunteers" fought against the
French colonial army by using a long stick-like explosive to detonate French tanks, as part of their urban warfare tactics.
In 1972 in the hall of the
Lod airport in
Tel Aviv,
Israel, three Japanese used
grenades and
automatic rifles to kill 26 people and wound many more. The group belonged to the
Japanese Red Army (JRA) a terrorist organization created in 1969 and
allied to the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Until then, no group involved in terrorism had conducted such a suicide operation in Israel. Members of the JRA became instructors in
martial art and
kamikaze operations at several training camps bringing the suicide techniques to the
Middle East .
1980 to present
The first modern suicide bombing—involving explosives deliberately carried to the target either on the person or in a civilian vehicle and delivered by surprise—was in 1981; perfected by the factions of the
Lebanese Civil War and especially by the
Tamil Tigers of
Sri Lanka, the tactic had spread to dozens of countries by 2005 . Those hardest-hit are Sri Lanka during
its prolonged ethnic conflict,
Lebanon during its
civil war,
Israel and the
Palestinian Territories since 1994, and
Iraq since the
US-led invasion in 2003.
The
Islamic Dawa Party's
car bombing of the Iraqi
embassy in
Beirut in December 1981 and
Hezbollah's
bombing of the U.S. embassy in April 1983 and
attack on United States Marine and French barracks in October 1983 brought suicide bombings international attention. Other parties to the civil war were quick to adopt the tactic, and by 1999 factions such as Hezbollah, the
Amal Movement, the
Ba'ath Party, and the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party had carried out around 50 suicide bombings between them. (The latter of these groups sent the
first recorded
female suicide bomber in 1985 . Female combatants have existed throughout human history and in many different societies, so it's possible that females who engage in suicidal attacks are not new.) Hezbollah was the only one to attack overseas,
bombing the Israeli embassy (and possibly the
Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association building) in
Buenos Aires; as its military and political power have grown, it has since abandoned the tactic.
Lebanon saw the first bombing, but it was the LTTE
Tamil Tigers in
Sri Lanka who perfected the tactic and inspired its use elsewhere
(External Link). Their
Black Tiger unit has committed between 76 and 168 (estimates vary) suicide bombings since 1987, the higher estimates putting them behind more than half of the world's suicide bombings between 1980 and 2000
(External Link). The list of victims include former
Indian Prime Minister,
Rajiv Gandhi, and the president of Sri Lanka,
Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Suicide bombing has, since 1993, been a particularly popular tactic amongst some
Palestinian groups, including
Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, and the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Bombers affiliated with these groups often use so-called "
suicide belts",
explosive devices (often including
shrapnel) designed to be strapped to the body under clothing. In order to maximize the loss of life, the bombers may seek out cafés or city
buses crowded with people at
rush hour, or less commonly a military target (for example, soldiers waiting for transport at roadside). By seeking enclosed locations, a successful bomber usually kills a number of people.
Palestinian
television has aired a number of
music videos and announcements that
promote eternal reward for children who seek "
shahada", which
Palestinian Media Watch has claimed is "Islamic motivation of suicide terrorists".
The Chicago Tribune has documented the concern of Palestinian parents that their children are encouraged to take part in suicide operations. Israeli sources have also alleged that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah operate "Paradise Camps," training children as young as 11 to become suicide bombers.
The
Kurdistan Workers' Party has also employed suicide bombings in the scope of its guerrilla attacks on Turkish security forces since the beginning of their insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. Although the majority of
PKK activity is focused on
village guards, gendarme, and military posts, they've employed suicide bombing tactics on tourist sites and commercial centers in Western Turkish cities, especially during the peak of tourism season.
The
September 11, 2001 attacks involved the
hijacking of large passenger
jets which were deliberately flown into the towers of the
World Trade Center in
New York City and
the Pentagon, killing everyone aboard the planes and thousands more in and around the targeted buildings. The passenger jets selected were required to be fully fueled to fly cross-country, turning the planes themselves into the largest suicide bombs in history. The 'September 11' attacks also had a vast economic and political impact: for the cost of the lives of the 19 hijackers and financial expenditure of around US$100,000,
al-Qaeda, the
militant Islamist group responsible for the attacks, effected a trillion-dollar drop in global markets within one week, and triggered massive increases in military and security expenditure in response.
In
December 22 2001,
Richard Reid attempted to destroy the
American Airlines Flight 63 by the means of a bomb hidden in a shoe. He was arrested after his attempt was foiled when he was unable to light the bomb's
fuse.
After the
U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003,
Iraqi and foreign insurgents carried out waves of suicide bombings. They attacked
United States military targets, although many civilian targets (eg.
Shiite mosques, international offices of the
UN and the
Red Cross, Iraqi men waiting to apply for jobs with the new army and
police force) were also attacked. In the lead up to the
Iraqi parliamentary election, on
January 30,
2005, suicide attacks upon civilian and security personnel involved with the
elections increased, and there were reports of the insurgents co-opting disabled people as involuntary suicide bombers. Professor Pape suggests that the bombings of Iraqis by Iraqis target those believed to be in the service of the American occupation.
Suicide bombings have occurred in more than 30 countries:
Afghanistan,
Algeria,
Argentina,
Bangladesh,
China,
Colombia,
Croatia,
Egypt,
India,
Indonesia,
Iraq,
Israel,
Jordan,
Kenya,
Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Morocco,
Pakistan, the
Palestinian territories,
Panama, the
Philippines,
Qatar,
Russia,
Saudi Arabia,
Somalia,
Sri Lanka,
Tanzania,
Tunisia,
Turkey,
United Kingdom,
Uzbekistan, and
Yemen. (Suicide planes were also used in the
United States).
Range of opinions
World leaders, especially those of countries that experience suicide bombings, usually express resolve to continue on their previous course of affairs after such attacks. They denounce suicide bombings and sometimes vow not to let such bombings deter ordinary people from going about their everyday economic business.
Suicide bombings are sometimes followed by
reprisals. As a successful suicide bomber can't be targeted, the response is often a targeting of those believed to have sent the bomber. In targeting such
organizations, Israel often uses military strikes against organizations, individuals, and possibly
infrastructure. In the
West Bank the
IDF formerly
demolished homes that belong to families whose children (or renters whose tenants) had volunteered for such missions (whether successfully or not), though an internal review starting in October 2004 brought an end to the policy.
The effectiveness of suicide bombings—notably those of the Japanese
kamikazes, the Palestinian bombers, and even the September 11, 2001 attacks—is debatable.
Although kamikaze attacks couldn't stop the
Allied advance the
Pacific, they inflicted more casualties and delayed the fall of
Japan for longer than might have been the case using only the conventional methods available to the
Japanese Empire. Subsequently, Japanese leaders acknowledged the great cost in losing many of their best young men in these actions. The attacks reinforced the resolution of the
World War II Allies to destroy the Imperial force, and may have had a significant effect in the decision to use
atomic bombs against
Japan.
In the case of the September 11 attacks, the long-term effects remain to be seen, but in the short term, the results were negative for Al-Qaeda, as well as the
Taliban Movement. Furthermore, since the September 11 attacks, Western nations have diverted massive resources towards stopping similar actions, as well as tightening up
borders, and military actions against various countries that the
U.S. and its allies believe to have been involved with terrorism. However, critics of the
War on Terrorism suggest that in fact the results were profoundly negative, as the proceeding actions of the
United States and other countries has increased the number of recruits, and their willingness to carry out suicide bombings.
It is more difficult to determine whether Palestinian suicide bombings have proved to be a successful tactic. In the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the suicide bombers were repeatedly deployed since the
Oslo Accords.
In 1996, the Israelis elected the conservative candidate
Benjamin Netanyahu who promised to restore safety by conditioning every step in the
peace process on Israel's assessment of the
Palestinian Authority's fulfillment of its obligations in curbing violence as outlined in the Oslo agreements.
In the course of
al-Aqsa Intifada which followed the collapse of the
Camp David II summit between the
PLO and Israel, the number of suicide attacks drastically increased. In response,
Israel mobilized its army in order to seal off the
Gaza Strip and reinstate military control of the
West Bank, patrolling the area with
tanks. The Israelis also began a campaign of targeted
assassinations to kill
militant Palestinian leaders, using jets and
helicopters to deploy
high-precision bombs and missiles.
The suicide missions, having killed hundreds and maimed thousands of Israelis, are believed by some to have brought on a move to the political right, increasing public support for hard-line policies towards the Palestinians, and a government headed by the former
general,
prime minister Ariel Sharon. In response to the suicide bombings, Sharon's government has imposed restrictions on the Palestinian community, making commerce, travel, school, and other aspects of life difficult for the Palestinians, with the average Palestinian suffering due to the choices of the suicide bombers. The
Separation barrier under construction seem to be part of the Israeli government's efforts to stop suicide bombers from entering Israel proper.
Social support by some for this activity remained, however, as of the calling of a truce at the end of June 2003 . This may be due to the economic or social purpose of the suicide bombing and the bombers' refusal to accept external judgements on those who sanction them.
If the objective is to kill as many people as possible, suicide bombing by terrorists may thus "work" as a tactic in that it costs fewer lives than any conventional military tactic and targeting unarmed civilians is much easier than targeting soldiers. As an objective designed to achieve some form of favorable outcome, especially a political outcome, most believe it to be a failure. Terrorist campaigns involving the targeting of civilians have never won a war. Analysts believe that in order to win or succeed, any guerrilla or terrorist campaign must first transform into something more than a guerrilla or terrorist movement. Such analysts believe that a terrorist cause has little political attraction and success may be achieved only by renouncing terrorism and transforming the passions into politics.
Israeli ultra-right politician and author Obadiah Shoher declared terrorism proper and efficient military tactics, and called for the Jews to answer in kind. Shoher praised
Baruch Goldstein who massacred Palestinian worshippers inside a mosque.
Often extremists assert that, because they're outclassed militarily, suicide bombings are necessary. For example, the former leader of
Hamas Sheikh Ahmad Yassin stated: "Once we've warplanes and missiles, then we can think of changing our means of legitimate self-defense. But right now, we can only tackle the fire with our bare hands and sacrifice ourselves."
Such views are challenged both from the outside and from within Islam. According to Islamic jurist and scholar
Khaled Abou Al-Fadl,
The classical jurists, nearly without exception, argued that those who attack by stealth, while targeting noncombatants in order to terrorize the resident and wayfarer, are corrupters of the earth. "Resident and wayfarer" was a legal expression that meant that whether the attackers terrorize people in their urban centers or terrorize travelers, the result was the same: all such attacks constitute a corruption of the earth. The legal term given to people who act this way was muharibun (those who wage war against society), and the crime is called the crime of hiraba (waging war against society). The crime of hiraba was so serious and repugnant that, according to Islamic law, those guilty of this crime were considered enemies of humankind and were not to be given quarter or sanctuary anywhere.
...
Those who are familiar with the classical tradition will find the parallels between what were described as crimes of hiraba and what is often called terrorism today nothing short of remarkable. The classical jurists considered crimes such as assassinations, setting fires, or poisoning water wells - that could indiscriminately kill the innocent - as offenses of hiraba. Furthermore, hijacking methods of transportation or crucifying people in order to spread fear and terror are also crimes of hiraba. Importantly, Islamic law strictly prohibited the taking of hostages, the mutilation of corpses, and torture.
Usage of "suicide bombing" and related terms
The usage of the term "suicide bombing" dates back to at least 1940 . An
August 10,
1940 New York Times article mentions the term in relation to
German tactics. A
March 4,
1942 article refers to a Japanese attempt at a "suicide bombing" on an American carrier.
The Times (London) of April 15, 1947, page 2, refers to a new pilotless, radio-controlled rocket missile thus: "Designed originally as a counter-measure to the Japanese 'suicide-bomber,' it's now a potent weapon for defence or offence."
The quotes are in the original and suggest that the phrase was an existing one. An earlier article (Aug 21, 1945, page 6) refers to a
kamikaze plane as a "suicide-bomb."
The term with the meaning "an attacker blowing up himself or a vehicle to kill others" appeared in 1981 when it was used by Thomas Baldwin in an
Associated Press article to describe the bombing of the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut.
In order to assign either a more positive or negative connotation to the act, suicide bombing is sometimes referred to by different terms. Islamists often call the act a
isshtahad (meaning
martyrdom operation), and the suicide bomber a
shahid (pl.
shuhada, literally 'witness' and usually translated as 'martyr'). The term denotes one who died in order to testify his faith in God (
Allah), for example those who die while waging
jihad bis saif; it's applied to suicide bombers, by the
Palestinian Authority among others, in part to overcome Islamic strictures against suicide. This term has been embraced by
Hamas,
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
Fatah and other Palestinian factions engaging in suicide bombings. (The title is by no means restricted to suicide bombers and can be used for a wide range of people, including innocent victims;
Muhammad al-Durra, for example, is among the most famous
shuhada of the Intifada, and even a few non-Palestinians such as
Tom Hurndall and
Rachel Corrie have been called
shahid.)
"Homicide bombing"
Some effort has been made to replace the term
suicide bombing with the term
homicide bombing by conservative commentators and news outlets. The first such use was by
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in April 2002. The
Fox News Channel and the
New York Post, both owned by
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation, are two media organizations that have adopted the term. Fox News began using the term after it was suggested by former
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an interview.
Supporters of the term
homicide bombing argue that since the primary purpose of such a bombing is to kill other people rather than merely to end one's own life, the term
homicide is a more accurate description than
suicide. Others argue that
homicide bombing is a less useful term, since it fails to capture the distinctive feature of suicide bombings, namely the bombers' use of means which they're aware will inevitably bring about their own deaths. For instance,
Timothy McVeigh and
Theodore Kaczynski could both ostensibly be called "homicide bombers," but neither could be called a "suicide bomber." To this extent it has also been argued that most bombings are "homicide bombings", as loss of life is their inherent aim.
"Genocide bombing"
Another attempted replacement is
genocide bombing. The term was coined in 2002 by Canadian member of parliament
Irwin Cotler, in an effort to replace the term
homicide bomber as a substitute for "suicide bomber." The intention was to focus attention on the alleged intention of
genocide by militant
Palestinians in their calls to "Wipe Israel off the map."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Suicide Attack'.
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