Asuicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names,see below) is a deliberateattack in which the perpetratorsintentionally end their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form ofmurder–suicide that is often associated withterrorism orwar. When the attackers arelabelled as terrorists, the attacks are sometimes referred to as an act ofsuicide terrorism.[1] Military use of suicide is not directly regulated byinternational law, but suicide attacks sometimes violate prohibitions againstperfidy ortargeting civilians.[2]
Suicide attacks have occurred in various contexts, ranging from military campaigns—such as the Japanesekamikaze pilots duringWorld War II(1944–1945)—to more contemporaryIslamic terrorist campaigns—including theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001. Initially, these attacks primarily targeted military, police, and public officials. This approach continued with groups likeAl-Qaeda, which combined mass civilian targets with political leadership.[1] While only a few suicide attacks occurred between 1945 and 1980,[3] between 1981 and September 2015 a total of 4,814 suicide attacks were carried out in over 40 countries,[4] resulting in over 45,000 deaths. The global frequency of these attacks increased from an average of three per year in the 1980s to roughly one per month in the 1990s, almost one per week from 2001 to 2003,[5] and roughly one per day from 2003 to 2015.[4] In 2019, there were 149 suicide bombings in 24 countries, carried out by 236 individuals. These attacks resulted in 1,850 deaths and 3,660 injuries.[6]They have been used by a wide range of political ideologies, from far right (Japan and Germany in WWII) to far left (such as thePKK andJRA).[7][8]
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According toBruce Hoffman andAssaf Moghadam, suicide attacks distinguish themselves from other terror attacks due to their heightened lethality and destructiveness.[9][1] Perpetrators benefit from the ability to conceal weapons and make last-minute adjustments, and there is no need for escape plans or rescue teams. There is also no need to conceal their identities.[verification needed][b] In the case of suicide bombings, they do not require remote or delayed detonation.[9] Although they accounted for only 4% of all "terrorist attacks" between 1981 and 2006, they resulted in 32% of terrorism-related deaths at 14,599 deaths. 90% of these attacks occurred inAfghanistan,Iraq,Israel,Palestine,Pakistan, andSri Lanka.[verification needed][10] By mid-2015, approximately three-quarters of all suicide attacks occurred in just three countries:Afghanistan,Pakistan, andIraq.[11]
William Hutchinson describes suicide attacks as a weapon ofpsychological warfare[12] aimed at instilling fear in the target population,[13] undermining areas wherethe public feels secure, and eroding the "fabric of trust that holds societies together." This weapon is further used to demonstrate the lengths perpetrators will go to achieve their goals.[9] Motivations for suicide attackers vary.Kamikaze pilots acted under military orders, while other attacks have been driven byreligious ornationalist purposes. According to analystRobert Pape, prior to 2003, most attacks targeted occupying forces. For example, 90% of attacks in Iraq before thecivil war started in 2003 aimed at forcing out occupying forces. Pape's tabulation of suicide attacks runs from 1980 to early 2004 inDying to Win, and to 2009 inCutting the Fuse.[14][15] According to American-French anthropologistScott Atran, from 2000 to 2004, the ideology of Islamistmartyrdom played a predominant role in motivating the majority of bombers.[16]
The term "suicide bombing" dates back to at least 1940 when aNew York Times article mentioned the term in relation to German tactics.[17][non-primary source needed] Less than two years later, theNew York Times referred to a Japanesekamikaze attempt on an American carrier as a "suicide bombing".[18] In 1945,The Times of London referred to akamikaze plane as a "suicide-bomb".[19] Two years later, it referred to a new British pilot-less, radio-controlled rocket missile as originally designed "as a counter-measure to the Japanese 'suicide-bomber'."[20]
Kamikaze was a term initially used for Japanese suicide pilots inWorld War II, but is occasionally used in other contexts. Some reports at the time labelled the 1972Lod Airport massacre in Israel by theJapanese Red Army (JRA) a "Kamikaze" attack, but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter.[21][22] The Kamikaze were aunit of suicide bombers in for theEmpire of Japan in WWII, which had a very different ideology to the JRA. Researchers fromDuke University described the JRA's motives as "rooted in anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism".[23] In more recent reports the 1972 JRA attack on Lod airport is described in modern terms such as "suicide attack" and "suicide mission", even when referring to the attacker who survived.[8] All three militants intended to die, but one survived.[8] He confessed and hoped to be quickly executed, but some attribute this to retrospective "survivor guilt".[24]
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Suicide attacks include both "suicide terrorism" and attacks targeting combatants. "Terrorism" is often defined as any action "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants" for the purpose of intimidation.[25] This definition is often not used consistently; even those claiming to define terrorism this way sometimes describe attacks on their own military as "terrorism", while attacks on civilians by allied state actors are almost never called terrorism.[26]
An alternative definition provided byJason Burke, a journalist who has lived among Islamic militants, suggests that most define terrorism as "the use or threat of serious violence" to advance some kind of "cause", stressing that terrorism is a tactic.[27]This definition is often referred to by the euphemism "political violence".[28][29]
AcademicFred Halliday has written that assigning the descriptor of "terrorist" or "terrorism" to the actions of a group is a tactic used by states to deny "legitimacy" and "rights to protest and rebel".[30]Israeli diplomacy has been very influential in defining terrorism as a concept.[26][31][32]This was largely led byMenachem Begin, who himself has been labelled as a terrorist leader, as commander of theIrgun militant group before Israel was recognized as a nation state byWestern powers.[31][32]
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The definition of "suicide" in this context is also a matter of debate. Suicide terrorism itself has been defined byAmi Pedahzur, a professor at theUniversity of Haifa,[33] as "violent actions perpetrated by people who are aware that the odds they will return alive are close to zero".[34] Other sources exclude from their work "suicidal" or high risk attacks, such as theLod Airport massacre or a "reckless charge in battle".[35][36]Despite theLod Airport massacre being explicitly planned as a suicide attack, and modern mainstream Israeli and international media describing the event as a "suicide attack" or "suicide mission".[8]Yoram Schweitzer, from theInternational Institute for Counter-Terrorism (an Israeli think tank), focuses only on true "suicide attacks", where the odds of survival are not "close to zero" but required to be zero, because "the perpetrator's ensured death is a precondition for the success of his mission".[35]The narrower definition would also exclude the actions of groups such as those by theHashishiyeen, by theMoro juramentado, and inAceh during WWII (see below).Adam Lankford also excludes from the definition are "proxy bombings", which may have political goals and be designed to look like a suicide bombing. The difference is that the "proxy" is forced to carry a bomb under threat, or the proxy isn't fully aware that they are delivering a bomb that will kill them. The definition also generally excludesmass shootings in which the perpetrators commit suicide, as the shooter committing suicide is a separate act from shooting their victims. Further distinction is how many of such shootings are driven by personal and psychological reasons, rather than political, social or religious motives, such as theColumbine High School massacre, theVirginia Tech shooting orSandy Hook Elementary School shooting in theUnited States.[37][better source needed]However, in 1999 theColumbine High School massacre was widely labelled as a suicide attack: both attackers shot themselves, but they planned the attack as a bombing.[38][39] It is also a commontrope that Muslim attackers are defined as terrorists while others are defined as mentally ill.It may not always be clear to investigators which type of killing is which as suicide attack campaigns sometimes useproxy bombers, as alleged in Iraq,[40] or manipulate the vulnerable to become bombers.[36][41]Adam Lankford, also argues that the motivation to kill and be killed connects some suicide attackers more closely to "suicidal rampage" murderers than is commonly thought.[37]
AllAbrahamic religions forbid suicide.[42][43]Suicide and suicide attempts have been decriminalised in most of the western world, but remain criminalised in some countries, such as Afghanistan,[44] Nigeria,[45] Palestine,[46] and others.[47][48][49]Terminology relating to this sin or crime is used by Jews, Christians, and Muslims to condemn suicide attackers (see also above), different terminology is usually used to describe self sacrifice that they believe is justified, including actions their enemies label suicide attacks (see below).
Among Muslims, secular Arabs, and related cultures, the term martyr orshaheed has a broad meaning and can refer to leaders who have been assassinated or executed, civilian casualties of war, and combatants who did not intend to die.[50]
Victims of suicide bombings andthe bombers are both commonly referred to asmartyrs, by opposing groups, or when referring to different attacks.Some Arabic speaking militant groups and their supporters call suicide attacks "martyrdom operations" (Arabic:للعمليات الاستشهادية,romanized: aleamaliaat alistishhadia).[51] The term "suicide" is avoided by people who think an attack was justified, becauseIslam forbids taking one's own life in most circumstances.[citation needed]The concept ofmartyrdom in Islam is broad including people who died in plagues and women who died in childbirth, as well as fallen combatants who did not intend to die.[52] According to Israeli academicAssaf Moghadam, the term "martyrdom operation" has been used byHamas,Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,Fatah'sAl Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and other Palestinian factions.[53][verification needed]The term "martyrdom operation" was also used inMarch 2003 by theIraqi administration to referred to suicide attacks on invading troops during the2003 Iraq war, and in particular their promise to retake theBaghdad airport.
Victims of suicide attacks are also referred to as martyrs by a wide variety of cultures.Benazir Bhutto, the leader of thePakistan People's Party, is the most famous example of a progressive Muslim who is regarded as a martyr after being murdered in a suicide attack. Bhutto wasassassinated in 2007 by a teenage Islamic extremist.[54][55]After her death many things in Pakistan, mostly related to education, were named or renamed in her honour, referring to her by the title"shaheed" (martyr).[c]
Whenan ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up atRafah crossing in 2017, he was described as a suicide bomber (فجر انتحاري), not a martyr. The border guard who was killed attempting to stop him crossing into Egypt, a member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, was described as a martyr (Arabic:الشهيد نضال الجعفري,romanized: al-Shaheed Nidal al-Jaafari) and his death was described as martyrdom (Arabic:استشهاد,romanized: Istishhad,Arabic:استشهاد نضال جمعة,lit. 'Martyrdom of Nidal al-Jaafari').[56][57] This language was used by Palestinian media, some international media, and even the bomber's family. His family condemned him publicly, describing his actions as unpatriotic and criminal, and announced they would not be holding funeral services for him.[58][56] Gaza's clans referred to the bombing as suicide terrorism (Arabic:العمل الإرهابي الانتحاري).[58]
In Israel, acts of self sacrifice in battle are referred to by quotingSamson's words, fromJudges 16:30 (Hebrew:תמות נפשי עם פלשתים,lit. 'let me die with the Philistines',BiblicalHebrew:תָּמוֹת נַפְשִׁי עִם-פְּלִשְׁתִּים).[62][63][64] The same biblical quote is used in both praise and criticism of this approach to warfare.[62][65] Prior to Israel, this story was used by two of theanti-British pre-state militant groups to refer topremeditated plans.[66] One leader claimed that two militants who blew themselves up had not committed suicide, as such, due toallegedly mitigating circumstances.[67][68] Their modern critics claim the situation itself was largely self-inflicted.[69]Some within Israel view the Samson in a very negative light.[70]People from Christian backgrounds, or within majority-Christian communities, have carried out suicide attacksin Eastern Europe,Lebanon,the United States,New Zealand, and elsewhere (see below), but have not used religious language to explain or justify their actions. They have been part of secular movements, or have beenisolated incidents that the attacker did not explain at length.[71][72][73][citation needed]
Some efforts have been made to replace the term "suicide bombing" with"homicide bombing", based on the assertion that "homicide" is a more apt adjective than "suicide" since the primary purpose of such a bombing is to kill other people. The only major media outlets to use it were theFox News Channel and theNew York Post, both of which are owned byNews Corporation and have since mostly abandoned the term.[74][75] Robert Goldney, a professor emeritus at theUniversity of Adelaide, has argued in favor of the term "homicide bomber". Goldney argued that studies show that there is little in common between people who blow themselves up intending to kill as many people as possible in the process and actual suicide victims.[76] Fox News producer Dennis Murray argued that a suicidal act should be reserved for a person who does something to kill only themselves.CNN producer Christa Robinson argued that the term "homicide bomber" was not specific enough, stating that "A homicide bomber could refer to someone planting a bomb in a trash can".[53][77][78]
"Genocide bombing" was coined in 2002 byIrwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian parliament, in an effort to focus attention on thealleged intention ofgenocide by militantPalestinians in their calls to "wipe Israel off the map".[79][80]
In German-speaking areas the term "sacrifice bombing" (German:Opferanschlag) was proposed in 2012 by German scholarArata Takeda [de].[81]This is different to the German word used by Nazi Germany to refer to self sacrifice attacks.[citation needed]
Romas Kalanta was a 19-year-old Lithuanian student who self-immolated in 1972 to protest against theSoviet regime in Lithuania, sparking the1972 unrest in Lithuania; another 13 people self-immolated in that same year.[82][additional citation(s) needed]Hunger strikes are another use of self harm, and actual or potential suicide, that is used by some militant groups.[examples needed]
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During the2006 Lebanon War,IDF MajorRoi Klein and his unit took part in theBattle of Bint Jbeil. During aHezbollah ambush, ahand grenade was thrown over the wall that was between Hezbollah militants and Klein and his unit. Klein jumped on the live grenade and muffled the explosion with his body. The soldiers reported that Klein recited the Jewish prayer,Shema Yisrael, as he jumped on the grenade. After the grenade exploded and critically wounded him, he reported his own death, yelling "Klein's dead, Klein's dead" over the radio. In the following minutes, as he lay dying, he ordered soldiers who came to administer first aid and evacuate him to focus on Lieutenant Amichai Merhavia, another soldier who had been hit (and later died also) instead. He then handed over his encoded radio to another officer, who took command of the force, and died.[83][84][85][86][87] According toThe Telegraph he yelled "Long live Israel",[88] although this was probably a misinterpretation of "Shema Yisrael" (שמע ישראל).[89]
During theFirst Jewish–Roman War, the letter of theSicarii determined that the people in thebesieged city ofMasada should commitmass suicide, and even murder family members, to avoid capture during theSiege of Masada.[70]Thestory of Masada is prominent in Israeli culture.[70]TheSicarii Jewish sect are also sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies (see below).[90]
Other than as a way to cause enemy casualties, another situation in which some militaries and related bodies (such as intelligence agencies) encourage their own members to commit suicide is too avoid being captured by the enemy. The concept also often includes the use of intentionalfriendly fire.[65] Either to avoid disclose of military secrets,avoid theneed for a prisoner exchange, or for more intangible ideological motives.[90] Individuals are encouraged by a perception that capture is a fate worse than death, and the likelihood oftorture is strongly emphasised in internal propaganda. Sometimes, to the point that even civilians embrace the concept of dying (or killing people on their own side) to avoid capture.[91][92]
In some cases,special forces of Western militaries have been provided withsuicide pills to take if they are at risk of capture.[93][94]Some militaries of nation states avoid equipping their troops with any means specifically designed to facilitate suicide, but imply that soldiers are obliged to resort to extreme measures to avoid capture including taking their own lives, or killing their comrades, with whatever means are available.[65][95][96] Hand grenades have been repeatedly used or recommended.[97][65]In 1952, three Chinese soldiers reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid capture.[97][additional citation(s) needed]Military commanders have reportedly recommended explosives such as hand grenades as a means of suicide, for the advantage of killing as many of the would-be captors as possible, thus converting the situation into an improvised suicide attack.[65]
Some sources define "suicide terrorism" and "suicide attack" broadly to include attackers who are killed by other people.[98]At the opposite extreme, militant leaders of fromJewish orIslamic militant groups –both religions thatforbid suicide – claim that directly causing one's own death sometimes is not suicide (see above:suicide andreligious terminology).However, followers of these religiously derived ideologies define their enemies as suicidal, even if their opponent uses the same technique, such as when anISIS-linkedsuicide bomber killedal-Qassam border guardNidal al-Jaafari atRafah crossing (see above).During the colonial era and up toWorld War II, Muslims inAceh andMoro, now part of Indonesia and the Philippines, attacked much more powerful opponents – principally the Dutch, the Japanese, and the Americans – despite near certain death. Some authors have characterised these as predecessors of modern suicide bombings.[99]Other sources say that suicide bombings in places like the Philippines arrose only recently, due to foreign influence from international cultists such as ISIS.[100][101][102]
TheSicarii Jewish sect are sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies.Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD JewishSicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill"Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators.[90]An article inBBC Arabic originally called theSicarii the first group to carry out suicide attacks.[additional citation(s) needed]In September 2023, over a year after initial publication, this attracted controversy in English language Israeli media, when a complaint led to a change in the article.[103][104]The Jerusalem Post classified the article under "antisemtitism".[103] TheSicarii sect play a central role inIsraeli mythology.[70]The Sicarii killed themselves and their familiesto avoid capture (see above), but in their attacks they werekilled by their opponents.[70] The Sicarii carried out attacks knowing it would lead to their own executions.[103]The revised BBC article claimed the first suicide attacks were by theOrder of Assassins, who are alsokilled by their opponents (see next section).[103][104]
TheOrder of Assassins (Arabic:حَشّاشِین,romanized: Hashishiyeen;Persian:حشاشين,romanized: Ḥaššāšīn) were from a sect ofIsmailiShi'a Muslims. They assassinated twoCaliphs, as well as many viziers, Sultans, andCrusade leaders over 300 years,[when?][105] before being annihilated byMongol invaders.Hashishiyeen were known for targeting the powerful, using the dagger as a weapon (rather than something safer for the assassin such as a crossbow), and for not attempting to escape after completing their killing.[106]
Juramentado, inPhilippinehistory, refers to a maleMoroswordsman (from theTausug tribe ofSulu) who attacked and killed targeted occupying and invadingpolice andsoldiers. Death was expected, and consideredmartyrdom, undertaken as a form ofjihad.[107][108][109][110][111][verification needed]
Moro people who performed suicide attacks were calledmag-sabil, and the suicide attacks were known asparang-sabil.[112] The Spanish called themjuramentados. The idea of thejuramentado was considered part ofjihad in the Moros' Islamic religion. During an attack, ajuramentado would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such asbarongs andkris until he was killed. The Moros performedjuramentado suicide attacks against the Spanish in theSpanish–Moro conflict of the 16th to the 19th centuries, against the Americans in theMoro Rebellion from 1899 to 1913), andagainst the Japanese in World War II.[113]
The Moro (Spanish:juramentados) launched suicide[verification needed] attacks on the Japanese, Spanish, Americans and Filipinos, but did not attack the non-Muslim Chinese as the Chinese were not considered enemies of the Moro people.[114][115][116][117][118] The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all known family members and relatives of the attackers.[119]
According to historianStephan Dale, the Moro were not the only culture who carried out suicide attacks "in their fight against Western hegemony and colonial rule". In the 18th century, suicide tactics were used on theMalabar Coast of southwestern India, and inAceh in NorthernSumatra as well (see above).[35][120][clarification needed]
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MuslimAcehnese from theAceh Sultanate performed suicide attacks known asparang-sabil against Dutch invaders during theAceh War (1873–1904).[verification needed] It was considered part of personaljihad in Islam. The Dutch called itAtjèh-moord, (lit. Aceh murder).[121][122][123] The Acehnese work of literature theHikayat Perang Sabil provided the background and reasoning for theAtjèh-moord as Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch.[124][125][126][verification needed] The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms areAceh bodoh,Aceh pungo,Aceh gila, orAceh mord.[127]
Atjèh-moord was also used against the Japanese by theAcehnese during theJapanese occupation of Aceh.[128] TheAcehneseUlama (Islamic Scholars) fought against both the Dutch and the Japanese, revolting against the Dutch in February 1942 and against Japan in November 1942. The revolt was led by the All-Aceh Religious Scholars' Association (PUSA). The Japanese suffered 18 dead in the uprising while they slaughtered either up to 100 or over 120 Acehnese.[129][130]The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school.[131][132][133][134]During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese underTeungku Abduldjalil (Tengku Abdul Djalil) inBuloh Gampong Teungah on 10 November andTjot Plieng on 13 November.[135][136] In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again.[137]
Supreme Allied CommanderLord Mountbatten claimed high casualties were justified during theDieppe Raid, "For every man that died atDieppe, ten were saved onD-Day".[94][138]From one frito of twelve (11 Canadians and one British), only two returned alive, the others were killed or captured.[93] One of the survivors was aBritish radar expert, who had been given acyanide pill to take if he was captured.[93]
Some people who are killed by police are described in sources sympathetic to the police as having committed "suicide by cop", an alleged phenomenon of individuals attacking or threatening police with the primary goal of ending their own life by supposedly forcing police to kill them.The concept arose in the United States where police violence is extremely prevalent.[139]In the United States over 1365 people were killed by police in 2024.[140]The terminology has now spread to other places such as Canada and Australia.[141]
Several different events have been described as the first suicide attack in different sources.[142][143]
The oldest story that is widely described as a suicide attack or martyrdom operation in modern sources is the biblical story ofSamson's destruction of thePhilistine temple inGaza inJudges 16:30.[144][145][146][147]A study by German scholarArata Takeda [de] analyzes analogous behavior represented in literary texts from the antiquity through the 20th century, these beingAjax,Samson Agonistes,The Robbers, andThe Just Assassins. The study concluded "that suicide bombings are not the expressions of specific cultural peculiarities or exclusively religious fanaticisms. Instead, they represent a strategic option of the desperately weak who strategically disguise themselves under the mask of apparent strength, terror, and invincibility".[147][146]Other writers have also interpreted Samson's deathas suicide attack.[148][149][150] A few have compared him to the hijackers who were responsible for theSeptember 11 attacks.[148][149]
An article inBBC Arabic claimed theSicarii were the first group to carry out suicide attacks. In September 2023 the BBC responded to a complaint, deleted the Sicarii and reworded the second example so that the revised article called theOrder of Assassins (IsmaeliShia) the first.[103][104] However, both groups werekilled by their opponents (see above).
Arnold von Winkelried was considered a hero in the Swiss struggle for independence for sacrificing himself at theBattle of Sempach in 1386.[citation needed]
In 1780, anIndian woman namedKuyili appliedghee and oil onto her body and set herself ablaze. She then jumped into an armoury of theEast India Company, causing it to explode. This suicide attack helped to secure victory for her queen,Velu Nachiyar, in the battle.[151][142][143][152][153]
In the late 17th century,Qing officialYu Yonghe recorded that injuredDutch soldiers fighting againstKoxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner.[154] However, Yu may have confused such suicidal tactics with the standard Dutch military practice of undermining and blowing up overrun positions, which almost cost Koxinga his life during theSiege of Fort Zeelandia.[155]
On 5 February 1831, during theBelgian Revolution, a gale blew a Dutchgunboat under the command ofJan van Speyk into the quay of theport of Antwerp. As the ship was stormed by Belgians, van Speyk refused to surrender, instead igniting the ship's gunpowder with either his gun or cigar, blowing up the ship. The explosion killed 28 out of the 31 crewmen and an unknown number of Belgians.[156][additional citation(s) needed]
A Russian man namedIgnaty Grinevitsky (also spelled:Ignacy Hryniewiecki) is sometimes described as the first known suicide bomber.[157][158] The invention of dynamite in the 1860s presented revolutionary and terrorist groups in Europe with a weapon nearly 20 times more powerful than gunpowder. However, using dynamite required overcoming the technical challenges of detonating it at the right time. One solution was to use a human trigger, which was the technique used to assassinate TsarAlexander II of Russia in 1881.[159][160] A would-be suicide bomber killed Russian Minister of the InteriorVyacheslav von Plehve, in St Petersburg in 1904, but survived with major injuries.[161]
The earliest known non-military suicide attack occurred inMurchison, New Zealand, on 14 July 1905. When a long-standing dispute between two farmers resulted in a court case, defendant Joseph Sewell arrived with sticks ofgelignite strapped to his body. During the court proceedings, Sewell shouted "I'll blow the devil to hell, and I have enough dynamite to do just that." He was then ushered out of the building and when a police officer tried to arrest him on the street, Sewell detonated the charge, killing himself. No one other than Sewell was killed by the attack.[73][162][163][164][165][166][167]
The first reported car bombing was theBath School bombings inMichigan, USA in 1927. Multiple separate explosions on the same day killed 45 people, including the bomber, and half of a school was destroyed.[according to whom?]The bombings were all carried out byAndrew Kehoe, motivated by apersonal grievance.His death was possibly an intentionalsuicide, but the cause of the explosion was a gun shot that might not have been intended to set off the load. The explosion itself did not seem to form part of a suicide attack on a specific planned target other than possibly himself and his truck.The explosives in his truck detonated when he saw two men nearby had a gun, after he set off multiple other bombs.[168][169]The explosion may have been set off indirectly by him firing his own gun at the men.[170][171]Most of the deaths were caused by the earlier bombs.[172][173]
There are a few reports of suicide bombers during the civil war in the 1930s.[145][additional citation(s) needed]
During theXinhai Revolution and theWarlord Era of theRepublic of China, "Dare to Die Corps" (traditional Chinese:敢死隊;simplified Chinese:敢死队;pinyin:gǎnsǐduì;Wade–Giles:Kan-ssu-tui) or "suicide squads".[174] were frequently used by Chinese armies.[verification needed]China deployed these suicide units against the Japanese during theSecond Sino-Japanese War.[verification needed]
In 1938 300 Chinese troops reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid being captured.[175]Hand grenade suicide to avoid capture has also been used by other militaries (see above), and allegedly the recommended by theGolani Brigades leader.[65]
In theXinhai Revolution, manyChinese revolutionaries became martyrs in battle. "Dare to Die" student corps were founded for student revolutionaries wanting to fight againstQing dynasty rule.Sun Yat-sen andHuang Xing promoted the Dare to Die Corps. Huang said, "We must die, so let us die bravely."[176] Suicide squads were formed by Chinese students going into battle, knowing that they would be killed fighting against overwhelming odds.[177]
The72 Martyrs of Huanghuagang died in the uprising that began theWuchang Uprising. They were recognized as heroes and martyrs by theKuomintang party and theRepublic of China.[178] The martyrs in the Dare to Die Corps who died in battle wrote letters to family members before heading off to certain death. TheHuanghuakang was built as a monument to the 72 martyrs.[179] The deaths of the revolutionaries helped the establishment of the Republic of China, overthrowing the Qing dynasty.[180] Other Dare to Die student corps in the Xinhai revolution were led by students who later became major military leaders in Republic of China, likeChiang Kai-shek[181] andHuang Shaoxiong with the MuslimBai Chongxi against Qing dynasty forces.[182][183]Dare to Die troops were used by warlords.[184] The Kuomintang used one to put down an insurrection in Canton.[185] Many women joined them in addition to men to achieve martyrdom against China's opponents.[186][187] They were known as烈士 (lit-she; martyrs) after accomplishing their mission.[188]
During theJanuary 28 Incident (28 January – 3 March 1932), a Dare to Die squad struck against the Japanese.[citation needed]
Suicide bombing was also used against the Japanese. A Dare to Die Corps was effectively used against Japanese units at theBattle of Taierzhuang. They used swords[189][190] and wore suicide vests made out of grenades.[191][192]
A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese soldiers atSihang Warehouse. Chinese troopsstrapped explosives such as grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up.[193] This tactic was used during theBattle of Shanghai, to stop a Japanese tank column when an attacker exploded himself beneath the lead tank,[194] and at the Battle of Taierzhuang where Chinese troops with dynamite and grenades strapped to themselves rushed Japanese tanks and blew themselves up,[195][196][197][198] in one incident obliterating four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles.[199][200]
During the1946–1950Communist Revolution,coolies fighting the Communists formed Dare to Die Corps to fight for their organizations.[201] During the1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, protesting students also formed "Dare to Die Corps" to risk their lives defending the protest leaders.[202]
In 1941, some newspapers reported that, "While two New Zealand officers stood on a bridge in Greece holding up advancing Germans with their revolvers, a New Zealand sergeant placed two bared wires together and blew the bridge, the officers, and himself to smithereens".[203]
Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff intended to assassinateAdolf Hitler with a suicide bombing in 1943, but was unable to complete the attack.[204]
During theBattle for Berlin theLuftwaffe flew "self-sacrifice missions" (German:selbstopfereinsätze) against Soviet bridges over theRiver Oder. These "total missions" were flown by pilots of theLeonidas Squadron. From 17 to 20 April 1945, using any available aircraft, theLuftwaffe claimed the squadron had destroyed 17 bridges. However, military historianAntony Beevor believes this claim was exaggerated and only the railway bridge atKüstrin 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 atJüterbog.[205][verify]
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The most overt and prolific use of suicide attacks duringWorld War II was byEmpire of Japan. It remains the most intense and deadly, campaign of suicide attacks in history.[7]Kamikaze pilots onsuicide missions flew aircraft full of bombs andimprovised missiles at enemy targets.[7] The attacks used 2600 aircraft to kill 7000 allied naval personnel and 4000 Japanese suicide operatives.[7][206]
Kamikaze was a ritual[verification needed] act of self-sacrifice carried out by Japanese pilots of explosive-ladenaircraft against Allied warships which occurred on a large scale at the end of World War II.About 3000 attacks were made and about 50 ships were sunk.[207]
Later in the war, as Japan became more desperate, this act became formalised and ritualised. Planes were outfitted with explosives specific to the task of a suicide mission.[208]Kamikaze strikes were a weapon ofasymmetric war used by theEmpire of Japan againstUnited States Navy andRoyal Navyaircraft carriers, although thearmoured flight deck of the Royal Navy carriers diminishedkamikaze effectiveness. Along with fitting existing aircraft with bombs, the Japanese also developed theOhka, a purpose-built suicide aircraft that was air-launched from a carrying bomber and propelled to the target at high speed using rocket engines. The Japanese Navy also used pilotedtorpedoes calledkaiten (heaven shaker) on suicide missions. Although sometimes calledmidget 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 toinfiltrateshore defenses and return to amother ship after firing their torpedoes. Although extremely hazardous, these midget submarine attacks were not technically suicide missions, as the earlier midget submarines had escape hatches.Kaitens, however, provided no means of escape.[209][210]
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Some passengerairline pilots appear to have committedmassmurder-suicide, or attempted to, with no apparent political motives.[211][212][213]
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After theSurrender of Japan, at theend of World War II in Asia, there was a massive reduction in the number of suicide attacks. The few that did occur were sometimes carried out by individuals forpersonal reasons such aspilot suicides in commercial aircraft (see above).For most of theCold War suicide attacks were only sporadic, but suicide attacks began to become more frequent towards theend of the Cold War (see below).
In the 1930s, Zionist insurgents in Palestine usedproxy bombing andanimal-borne bomb attacks intheir attacks on civilian targets such asHaifa vegetable market.[215][216]By the 1940s they explored the possibility of using humans on their own side, resulting in at least two deaths.[217][60]TheLehi militant group usedJudges 16:30 in discussions about potential suicide attacks. In a meeting about ways to assassinate GeneralEvelyn Barker, the British Army commander inMandatory Palestine, ayoung woman volunteered to do the assassination as asuicide bombing.[217]They referred to it as a "Let my soul die with the Philistines" proposal (Hebrew:תמות נפשי עם פלשתים), or a "Samson option".[217][64]On that occasion other members of the group allegedly rejected her offer.[e]However, the Lehi collaborated with theIrgun militant group on at least one joint "martyrdom operation" or "suicide operation" that killed one militant from each group, during theirinsurgency against the British (before the1948 Palestine war).[219][66] The plan, namedOperation Samson (Hebrew:מבצע שמשון,romanized: Mivtsa Shimshon), was intended to be a suicide attack, but the two militants werethe only casualties.[60][220][221]A Lehi militant and an Irgun militant blew themselves up inJerusalem Central Prison.[222][223][224][219]They usedimprovised grenades that had been constructed by another Lehi prisoner. The explosives were disguised as oranges to hide them from the guards, and smuggled in with the prisoners' food.[225][226][66][224][227]The plan was to use the grenades as they were taken to the gallows to kill themselves, the executioners, and British officials who attended hangings.[225][228][229]But the explosives detonated early, while the two of them were alone together in their cell.[60]Allegedly when the pair learned thatRabbi Goldman [he] would be present at their hanging, they changed the plan and committed suicide alone together before they were scheduled to be taken to the gallows.[230][f]The Lehi militant who built the IEDs, later had a leadership role in the Israeli military'snuclear, chemical, and biologicalweapons division (Hebrew:אב״כ).[g][h][i]The story of their deaths has featured in multiple speeches byLikud leaders.[j]In 2007,The Jerusalem Post described the double suicide as "One of the best-known stories of heroism leading to the creation of the State of Israel".[242]
North Korean tanks were attacked bySouth Koreans with suicide tactics during theKorean War.[244][245]
American tanks in Seoul were attacked by North Korean suicide squads, who used satchel charges.[246] North Korean soldierLi Su-Bok is considered a hero for destroying an American tank with a suicide bomb.[247]
In 1952, three Chinese soldiers reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid capture.[97]
In January 1953 at a magistrate's Court inWest Virginia, 47-year-old Donzel McCray "turned himself into ahuman bomb" with sticks of dynamite strapped to his waist.[248][o] He killed himself and injured his ex-wife and her lawyer.[249][251][252][248] The couple had six children and had divorced the previous September.[72]
Some Israelis romanticize acts of self sacrifice in battle by analogy to theBiblical heroSamson, particularly if they take place inGaza, where Israelis believe hecommitted suicide andkilled thousands of enemyPhilistines in the process.[62] In situations where death or severe injury is already difficult to avoid, it is seen as heroic to abandon efforts to save one's self and instead focus on causing as much harm as possible to the enemy, in the process of effectively committing suicide.[63] This includes some anecdotes of events during their wars with Egypt.[62]
According to Egyptian media,[who?] during theSuez Crisis in 1956, anArab Christian military officer from Syria,Jules Jammal, sunk a French ship with a suicide attack.[253]However, none of the French ships named by the sources were harmed during the crisis. It is unclear which actual ship he is supposed to have sunk. One source calls the ship at issue the "linerJean D'Arc"[254] and another the "French warship,Jeanne D'Arc".[255] There was aFrench cruiserJeanne d'Arc in service at that time, but it was decommissioned in 1964 rather than sunk. Some sources name thebattleshipJean Bart.[256]
On 21 March 1968, in response to persistentPalestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raids againstIsraelis, Israelattacked the town ofKarameh, Jordan, the site of a major PLO camp. The goal of the invasion was to destroy theKaramehrefugee camp and captureYasser Arafat in reprisal for the attacks by the PLO against Israelis.[citation needed]The PLO attacks had culminated in an Israeli school bus hitting a mine in theNegev.[257][258]According to a biography of an autobiography byTass Saada – an alleged former PLO sniper whoconverted toChristianity in the United States – this battle marked thefirst known deployment ofsuicide bombers by Palestinian (Arab) forces.[259][260][additional citation(s) needed]Modern academics describe aspects of the way theBattle of Karameh is remembered as a "myth" or "distortion".[261]
On 27 December 2018, theGreen Bay Press-Gazette interviewed veteran[clarification needed] Mark Bentley, who had trained for theSpecial Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) program to manually place and detonate a modified version of theW54 nuclear bomb. The report stated that he and other soldiers training for the program knew this was a suicide mission because either it would be unrealistic to outrun the timer on the bomb, or that soldiers would be obligated to secure the site before the timer went off. However, in theory the timer could be set long enough to give the team a chance to escape. Bently claimed:[262]
We all knew it was a one-way mission, a suicide mission […] You set your timer, and it would click when it went off, or it went ding or I forget what, but you knew you were toast. Ding! Your toast is ready, and it's you. […] The Army is not going to set a bomb like that and run away and leave it, because they don't know if someone else would get ahold of it. They have to leave troops there to make sure it's not stolen or compromised, and that would just be collateral damage. You didn't go out with the thought that it was anything other than a one-way mission. If you're Bruce Willis, you get away, but I ain't Bruce Willis.
However, employment manuals for atomic demolition munitions specifically describe the firing party and their guard retreating from the emplacement site, at which point the device is protected through a combination of passive security measures including concealment, camouflage and the use of decoys, as well as active security measures including booby-traps, obstacles such asconcertina wire and landmines, and long ranged artillery fire.[263] Further, the SADM included a Field Wire Remote Control System (FWRCS). This device enabled the sending of safe/arm and firing signals to the weapon via a wire for safe remote detonation of the weapon.[264]
Israel'salleged nuclear strategy, the "Samson Option", takes its name fromSamson's suicide inGaza City, the sameBiblical story that theLehi andIrgun militant group used to describe potential and attempted suicide attacks (see above).[217]The story is about anIsraelitejudge namedSamson, who kills himself and thePhilistines who captured him by pushing apart the pillars of aDagon temple, bringing down the roof crushing everyone.[265][266]The Lehi militant who built the bombs intended thesuicide attack in Jerusalem Central Prison in 1947, later had a leadership role in the Israeli military'snuclear, chemical, and biologicalweapons division (Hebrew:אב״כ).[h][p][i]
One of the first incidents to be labelled "suicide terrorism" was themass shooting at the airport inLod, Israel's international airport.[citation needed][q] Two of the attackers died during the attack, one of whom deliberately committed suicide using a hand grenade.[269]According toFrance 24 andAFP, "The massacre was planned as a suicide attack and all three Japanese militants had intended to mutilate their faces with their grenades to makeidentification more difficult".[8]
It was carried out by three foreign fighters from theJapanese Red Army (a communist militant group from Japan) in corroboration with thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) division, led byWadie Haddad, a rebellious offshoot of thePFLP.[270]Some reports at the time labelled the incident a "Kamikaze" attack,[21] but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter.[22] The Kamikaze were aunit of suicide bombers in the airforce ofimperial Japan in WWII, theEmpire of Japan had a very different ideology to the JRA. Researchers fromDuke University described the JRA's motives as "rooted in anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism".[23]In 2010,Ze'ev Sarig, the former manager ofLod Airport, compared the attack to theSeptember 11 attacks in New York, "This attack was for Israelis what the September 11th attacks were for Americans", when trying to sue North Korea for the attack in a United States court inPuerto Rico in 2010.[269]
The Revolt, written byMenachem Begin before he becamePrime Minister, tells the story of theLehi (referred to by their translated name's acronym, F.F.I. "Freedom Fighters of Israel" in early English editions) and Begin's ownIrgun fighters during theJewish insurgency in Palestine.[274]The Revolt influenced groups from a wide variety of ideologies.[275]Some of these groups were the groups began using suicide attacks in the 1990s.The book was allegedly foundOsama bin Laden'sal-Qaeda organization.[275]Begin praised his militants' willingness to die, "These two wonderful young men greeted the sentence with the singing ofHatikvah".[276]The "two wonderful young men" we're the two who blew themselves upin 1947, he described their deaths, "even before they put on their red uniforms. They too held their heads high when they faced their judges… But they did not reach the gallows. They too sang on the threshold of death — a song of faith in God: 'Lord of the world who reigned before creation'. But their song ended with a great explosion which shattered the silence of the prison in occupied Jerusalem".[277][s]In 1977 the author became prime minister, after previously being in opposition.[278] Historical militants featured prominently in his political speeches.[279][280][281] He praised the actions of his militants during theinsurgency in Palestine in the 1940s, including the leader of the cell whobombed the King David Hotel (killing 91 people and 1 terrorist). His favourites were, again, the two young militants who blew themselves up in Jerusalem prisonin 1947.[280][281][282]
The Turner Diaries is a work of fiction, but is confirmed to have inspired terrorist attacks and far right extremist movements.[citation needed]In the final scene before the epilogue, the main character carries out a suicide attack onThe Pentagon, in an aircraft carrying a nuclear bomb.However, that specific scene is rarely linked to any specific attacks.
TheWhite Wolves, a loosely affiliated and semi mythical group of pro-apartheid terroristsin South Africa, expressed an overt willingness to die during attacks.[283][284][285][286][additional citation(s) needed]The White Wolves were thought to be theperpetrators of the Strijdom Square massacre.[citation needed]
Sunni Muslims were possibly the last major branch of theAbrahamic religions to resort to overt suicide attacks.Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 1979–1989Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union,[287] an asymmetrical war where themujahideen foughtSoviet warplanes, helicopters and tanks primarily with light weapons. According to authorSadakat Kadri, "the very idea that Muslims might blow themselves up for God was unheard of before 1983, and it was not until the early 1990s that anyone anywhere had tried to justify killing innocent Muslims who were not on a battlefield". After 1983, the process was limited among Muslims toHezbollah and otherLebanese Shia factions for more than a decade.[288]
The early 1980s saw an increase in the use ofterrorist tactics in the Middle East, by ideologically diverse groups.The bookThe Revolt, written by the formerIrgun commanderMenachem Begin before he becamePrime Minister, influenced groups from a wide variety of ideologies, allegedly includingOsama bin Laden'sal-Qaeda organization.[275]InRise and Kill First Israeli journalistRonen Bergman wrote thatHezbollah's 1983 campaign of coordinatedterrorist attacks against United States, French, and Israeli military installations inBeirut drew inspiration from theIrgun's 1946bombing campaign against the British created an atmosphere of fear which eventually forced the British to withdraw.[289][verification needed]Bergman further asserts that the influence ofIsraeli-sponsored terrorist operations on the emerging Islamists was also of operational nature: the Israeli proxyFront for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners had carried out multiple deadlytruck bombings in Lebanon long before theemergence of Hezbollah, aMossad agent told Bergman: "I saw from a distance one of the cars blowing up and demolishing an entire street. We were teaching the Lebanese how effective acar bomb could be. Everything that we saw later with Hezbollah sprang from what they saw had happened after these operations".[289]
The 1980s saw the first suicide attacks by Arabs, and bystricter definitions of suicide attack, the first suicide attacks in the Middle East. Earlier examples were the three Japanese foreign fightersin 1972, only one of whom killed himself as planned, theAshkenazi andKurdish-Iraqui duo who blew themselves up before reaching their targetin 1947 (see above).[280][281]As well as stories such asJules Jammal whose suicide attacks probably happened only in myth.[additional citation(s) needed]TheIslamic Dawa Party'scar bombing of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in December 1981 andHezbollah'sbombing of the U.S. embassy in April 1983 andattack on United States Marines and French barracks in October 1983 brought suicide bombings international attention and began the modern suicide bombing era.[290]Other parties to the civil war were quick to adopt the tactic, and by 1999 factions such as Hezbollah, theAmal Movement, theBa'ath Party, and theSyrian Social Nationalist Party had carried out a total of roughly 50 suicide bombings.[citation needed] The Syrian Social Nationalist Party sent thefirst recorded female suicide bomber in 1985.[291][292][293][294]
One of the first bombing campaigns utilizing primarily suicide attacks had considerable political success. In the early 1980s, Hezbollah used these bombing attacks, targeting first foreign peacekeepers and then Israel. The result in both cases was the targets withdrawing from Lebanon.[295][better source needed]
Some of the first 1980s suicide bombings were by individuals, for both political andpersonal motives, for example:
Yangquan theatre bombing was a suicide bombing that killed 32 people, in a cinema inYangquan,Shanxi,China, on 22 July 1981.On 22 July 1981, 24-year-oldGao Haiping invited a girl, who had dumped him previously, to a film screening inYangquan.[t]He intended to kill them both with a bomb made of about 3 kg ofammonium nitrate and an electric detonator in a metal box.When the woman did not show up, Gao entered the theatre alone and took his place in seat 25 in the second row. At about 8 p.m., he put the bomb on his lap and detonated it, killing himself and 31 other people, wounding another 127, and severely damaging the theatre.[verification needed]Gao Haiping was an only child. He worked as a miner and was described as a loner who was pessimistic and dissatisfied with his life.[296]A suicide note and letters to his parents were found in a drawer in his home, as well as explosives wrapped in paper.[296][297]
Not allpolitically motivated suicide attacks targeted other people.On 18 November 1982,Neil Roberts carried out asuicide bombing inWhanganui,New Zealand.[298]His target was a facility housing the main computer centre of theNational Law Enforcement Database belonging toNew Zealand Police,Courts,Ministry of Transport, and other law enforcement agencies, inWhanganui. The power of the explosion made it so that police were initially unable to determine the gender of the perpetrator.[299]The attacker, 22-year-old Neil Roberts, a "punk rock"anarchist, was the only person killed, and the computer system was undamaged.[300][301][better source needed]He had written on a piece of cardboard before the explosion, "Heres [sic] one anarchist down. Hopefully there is a lot more waking up. One day we'll win – one day". A public toilet nearby had the slogan "We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity" painted on it, a slogan which the police believe Roberts had painted,[302] and borrowed from the Revolutionary Proclamation of theJunta Tuitiva of 1809.[303]The phrase is still closely linked with the bombing by the New Zealand public.[304]
During theSri Lankan civil war, theTamil Tigers (LTTE) adopted suicide bombing as a tactic, using bomb belts andfemale bombers. The LTTE carried out their first suicide attack in July 1987.[u][306] TheirBlack Tiger unit committed 83 suicide attacks from 1987 to 2009, killing 981 people.[307] Those killedincluded former Indian Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi[308][309][310] and the president of Sri Lanka,Ranasinghe Premadasa.[311][312][313][314]
TheLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were thought[who?] to have mastered[tone] the use ofsuicide attacks and had a separate unit, "TheBlack Tigers", consisting "exclusively of cadres who have volunteered to conduct suicide operations".[315]The first prominent suicide bombing by the LTTE occurred in 1987 whenCaptain Miller drove atruck laden with explosives into a Sri Lankan army camp killing 40 soldiers.[316][317]
Use of suicide by the LTTE had mixed results. TheLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pioneered the use of suicide bombings against civilian and political targets. In 2000, Yoram Schweitzer called the LTTE "unequivocally the most effective and brutal terrorist organization ever to utilize suicide terrorism".[35] Their struggle for anindependent state in theNorth andEast of the island lasted for 26 years and led to the deaths of two heads of state or government, several ministers, and up to 100,000 combatants and civilians, from by aUN estimate.[318] Politically, its attacks succeeded in halting the deployment of the Indian peace keeping troops to Sri Lanka and the subsequent postponement of the peace-talks in Sri Lanka.[35] Nonetheless, the conflict ended in May 2009 not with an independentEelam, but with the overrunning of LTTE strongholds and the killing of its leadership by the Sri Lankan military and security forces.[citation needed]
| Country | Event[A] | Weapon | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Attack onBankstown Airport by Philip HenrykWozniak in a stolen light aircraft | Aircraft | 16 Sep 1982 |
| New Zealand | Suicide bombing ofWanganuiComputer Centre byNeil Roberts | Bomb | 18 Nov 1982 |
| United States (WV) | Mason County jail bombing | Bomb | 2 Mar 1976 |
| USSR andpost-Soviet states | TheDissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) marked the end of theCold War era, and the United States became the only remainingsuperpower. | 26 Dec 1991 | |
| Group[verification needed] | 1982 to mid‑2015[320] | |
|---|---|---|
| Attacks | Deaths | |
| Islamic State[v] | 424 | 4949 |
| Al-Qaeda (Central) | 20 | 3391 |
| Taliban (Afghanistan) | 665 | 2925 |
| Al-Qaeda in Iraq | 121 | 1541 |
| Tamil Tigers (LTTE) | 82 | 961 |
| Al-Shabab | 64 | 726 |
| Hamas | 78 | 511 |
| Al-Qaeda (Arabian Peninsula) | 23 | 354 |
| Ansar al-Sunna (Iraq) | 28 | 319 |
| Palestinian Islamic Jihad | 50 | 225 |
| Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades | 40 | 107 |
| Taliban (Pakistan) | 7 | 92 |
| Ansar Bait al‑Maqdis | 10 | 84 |
| PKK (Turkey)[verification needed] | 10 | 32 |
| Hezbollah | 7 | 28 |
| Other groups or unidentified attackers | 2547 | 22877 |
| Country | 1982 to mid‑2015 | |
|---|---|---|
| Attacks[321] | Deaths[321] | |
| Iraq | 1938 | 20084 |
| Pakistan | 490 | 6287 |
| Afghanistan | 1059 | 4748 |
| United States | 4 | 2997 |
| Syria | 172 | 2058 |
| Sri Lanka | 115 | 1584 |
| Nigeria | 103 | 1347 |
| Yemen | 87 | 1128 |
| Lebanon | 66 | 1007 |
| Somalia | 91 | 829 |
| Russia | 86 | 782 |
| Israel | 113 | 721 |
| Algeria | 24 | 281 |
| Indonesia | 10 | 252 |
| Egypt | 21 | 246 |
| Kenya | 2 | 213 |
| Iran | 8 | 160 |
| Libya | 29 | 155 |
| India | 15 | 123 |
| Turkey | 29 | 115 |
| United Kingdom | 5 | 78 |
| Palestine | 59 | 67 |
| All other countries | 99 | 674 |
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Suicide bombing became a popular tactic amongPalestinian militant organizations such asHamas,Islamic Jihad, theAl-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and occasionally by thePFLP.[322] The first suicide bombing in post-independence Israel was done by "Hamas" in 1994.[323][better source needed] Attacks peaked from 2001 to 2003 with over 40 bombings and over 200 killed in 2002.[324][325] Bombers affiliated with these groups often use so-called "suicide belts",explosive devices which often includedshrapnel designed to be strapped to the body under clothing. To maximize the loss of life, the bombers seek out enclosed spaces, such as cafés or citybuses crowded with people atrush hour.[326] Less common are military targets such as soldiers waiting for transport at the roadside. These bombings have had more popular support than in other Muslim countries. Moremusic videos and announcements that promiseeternal reward for suicide bombers can be found on Palestinian television, according toPalestinian Media Watch.[327][328][better source needed] Israeli sources observed that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah operate "Paradise Camps", training children as young as 11 to become suicide bombers.[329][330] In 2004, due to increased effectiveness in Israel's security measures and stricter checkpoint protocols, terrorist organizations began employingwomen andchildren more frequently as operatives, assuming that they would raise fewer suspicions and undergo less rigorous inspections.[331][332]
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and their militant wingal-Qassam, were formed in the 1980s but avoided using suicide in theirpolitical violence until the following decade.The group have utilized suicide intermittently in specific situations.[333]Suicide attempts are a criminal offense in Palestine and many other majority Muslim countries.[46][47][48][49][44]
Hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign from 2003 to 2004 involved several members of Hebron'sMasjad (mosque) al-Jihad soccer team. Most lived in the Wad Abu Katila neighborhood and belonged to the al-Qawasmehhamula (clan). Several were classmates in the neighborhood's local branch of the Palestinian Polytechnic College. Their 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. Al-Qawasmeh was 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 133 October 2004. In retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leaders SheikhAhmed Yassin on 22 March 2004 andAbdel Aziz al-Rantissi on 17 April 2004, Imad al-Qawasmeh dispatched Ahmed al-Qawasmeh and Nasim al-Ja'abri for a suicide attack on two buses in Beer Sheva. The attack took place on 31 August 2004. In December 2004, Hamas declared a halt to suicide attacks.[334]
On 15 January 2008, the son ofMahmoud al-Zahar, the leader of Hamas in theGaza Strip, was killed. Another son had been killed in a 2003 assassination attempt on Zahar. Three days later, Israel Defense MinisterEhud Barak ordered theIsrael Defense Forces to seal all border crossings with Gaza, cutting off the flow of supplies to the territory in an attempt to stop rocket barrages on Israeli border towns. Nevertheless, violence from both sides only increased. On 4 February 2008, friends Mohammed Herbawi and Shadi Zghayer, who were members of the Masjad al-Jihad soccer team, staged a suicide bombing at a commercial center in Dimona, Israel. Herbawi had previously been arrested as a 17-year-old on 15 March 2003 shortly after a suicide bombing on Haifa bus, which was done by Mamoud al-Qawasmeh on March 5, 2003. Herbawi had coordinated suicide shooting attacks on Israeli settlements by others on the team, such as on 7 March 2003 with an attack by Muhsein, Hazem al-Qawasmeh, Fadi Fahuri, and Sufian Hariz. He was also involved with another set of suicide bombings in Hebron and Jerusalem on 17 and 18 May 2003 by Fuad al-Qawasmeh, Basem Takruri, and Mujahed al-Ja'abri. Although Hamas claimed responsibility for theDimona attack, the politburo leadership in Damascus and Beirut was initially unaware of who initiated and carried out the attack. It appears that Ahmad al-Ja'abri, military commander of Hamas'sIzz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza, 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.[334][335]
It is more difficult to determine whether Palestinian suicide bombings have proved to be a successful political tactic. Hamas "came to prominence" after the first intifada as "the main Palestinian opponent of theOslo Accords", the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.[336] according to the BBC.[336][337] The accords were sidetracked after the 1996 election of right-wing Israeli leaderBenjamin Netanyahu. From 1994 to 1997, there were 14 suicide attacks that killed 159, not all of which were attributed to Hamas.[338] Hamas's suicide bombings of Israeli targets "were widely" credited for the popularity among Israelis of the hardline Netanyahu, from Menachem Begin'sLikud party.[336]
The efficacy of suicide bombing, however, does not appear to have been demonstrated by theal-Aqsa Intifada. During this Intifada, the number of suicide attacks increased markedly. In the first campaign from 1994 to 1997, there were 14 suicide attacks, in the second from 2001 to 2005, there were 93 attacks.[339]
The drop in suicide bombings in Israel has been explained by the many security measures taken by the Israeli government,[340][341] especially the building of the "separation barrier",[342][343] and a general consensus among Palestinians that the bombings were a "losing strategy".[343] The suicides and other attacks on civilians had "a major impact" on the attitudes of the Israeli public.[344] Instead of creating demoralization, the attacks generated even greater support for the right-wingLikud party which brought to office another hardliner, the former generalAriel Sharon. In 2001, 89% of Israeli Jews supported the Sharon government's policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants involved in terrorism against Israel, the number rising to 92% in 2003.[344] Opinion polls of the Jewish Israelis found 78–84% supported the "separation barrier" in 2004.[345]
TheKurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a secular group, have also been involved in suicide attacks.[citation needed]Their first militant action was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinateMehmet Celal Bucak [tr;ku].[346]
The PKK began their insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984.[clarification needed] However, they did not carry out their first suicide attack until the 1990s.
According to theChicago Project on Security and Terrorism'sSuicide Attack Database, as of 2015, ten suicide attacks by the PKK from 1996 to 2012 killed 32 people and injured 116.[347][needs update]
On 12 May 2025, the Kurdistan Workers' Party announced it would disband as part of a peace initiative with Turkey.[348]
Al-Qaeda carried out its first suicide attack in the mid-1990s.[323][better source needed]
Analysis of the 9/11al-Qaeda attackers found almost all had joined the group with someone else. About 70% of them joined with friends and 20% with kin. Interviews with friends of the 9/11 hijackers reveal they were not "recruited" into al-Qaeda. They were Middle Eastern Arabs isolated even among the Moroccan and Turkish Muslims who are predominate in Germany. Seeking friendship, they began socializing after services at theMasjad al-Quds and other nearby mosques inHamburg, in local restaurants and the dormitory of the Technical University in the suburb of Harburg.Mohamed Atta,Ramzi bin al-Shibh, andMarwan al-Shehhi lived together as they self-radicalized. They wanted to go toChechnya, thenKosovo.[334]
The perpetrators of themassacreboth killed themselves during the attack.[38][39]The attack inspirednumerouscopycats, many of which were alsosuicidal attacks or suicide bombings.[349]
In early 2000, analystYoram Schweitzer saw a pause in bombing campaigns and argued that "most of the groups that were involved in suicide terrorism either stopped using it or eventually reduced it significantly".[35]
The number of attacks using suicide tactics grew from an average of fewer than five per year during the 1980s to 81 suicide attacks in 2001 and 460 in 2005.[350] By 2005, the tactic had spread to dozens of countries.[351]The absolute number increased despite a narrowing of the definition of suicide attacks.TheUnited States government defined "modern" suicide bombing has been defined as "involving explosives deliberately carried to the target either on the person or in a civilian vehicle and delivered by surprise".[352][verification needed]Noah Feldman's definition excludes attacks, such as theLod Airport massacre (see above), where "the perpetrator's ensured death" was not "a precondition for the success of his mission"[35] (despite theLod Airport attack being overtly planned as a suicide attack, and often referred to as such,[8] as well as the surviving attacker wanting the death penalty for himself).[24]
TheSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, orchestrated byal-Qaeda, were the deadliest attacks on American soil since the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor which thrust the United States intoWorld War II.[353] They involved the hijacking of four large passengerjet airliners. Unlike earlier airline hijackings, the primary focus was the planes instead of the passengers because their long transcontinental flight plans meant they carried more fuel, allowing a bigger explosion on impact.[71]American Airlines Flight 11 andUnited Airlines Flight 175 were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of theWorld Trade Center inNew York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers in less than two hours.American Airlines Flight 77 was flown intothe Pentagon (U.S. Department Of Defense Headquarters) inArlington County, Virginia, causing severe damage to the west side of the building. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 221 people (including the 15 hijackers) on board the three planes as well as 2,731 more in and around the targeted buildings.[354]United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field nearShanksville, Pennsylvania after a revolt by the plane's passengers, killing all 44 people (including the four hijackers) on board.[355][356][357] In total, the attacks killed2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 others.[w]The U.S. stock market closed for four trading days after the attacks in the first unscheduled close since the Great Depression.[358] Nine days after the attack,U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush called for a "war on terror".[359][360][361][362][363] Shortly thereafter he launched theWar in Afghanistan to find and captureOsama bin Laden, the leader ofal-Qaeda.[364][365] A copy ofThe Revolt, memoir of the Irgun commander, was found in one ofal-Qaeda's training bases.[271][366]
Other major locations of suicide attack are Afghanistan, with 1,059 attacks as of mid-2015,[11] and Pakistan, with 490 attacks.[11]In the first eight months of 2008, Pakistan overtook Iraq and Afghanistan in suicide bombings, with 28 bombings killing 471 people.[367]Suicide bombings have become a tactic inChechnya, first being used in the conflict in 2000 inAlkhan Kala.[368] and spreading to Russia, notably with theMoscow theater hostage crisis in 2002 and theBeslan school hostage crisis in 2004.[369][better source needed]
Shaheed (martyr)Benazir Bhutto, formerPrime Minister of Pakistan and leader of thePakistan People's Party (PPP), wasassassinated in a terrorist attack on 27 December 2007.[54][370][371] Benazir and 23 other people were killed by a 16-year-oldsuicide bomber using anexplosive belt andused a gun.[55]Bhutto had already survived a previousassassination attempt inKarachi.[372][373][374]Following this, many schools and universities were named in honour of her martyrdom.[c]
After theinvasion of Iraq in 2003 led by the U.S.,Iraqi and foreign insurgents carried out waves of suicide bombings. More attacks have been carried out in Iraq than in any other country, with 1,938 as of mid-2015.[11]
In addition toUnited States military targets, they attacked many civilian targets such asShiitemosques as well as international offices of theUN and theRed Cross. Iraqi men waiting to apply for jobs with the new army andpolice force were targets. In the lead up to theIraqi parliamentary election on 30 January 2005, suicide attacks upon civilian and police personnel involved with theelections increased. There were also reports of the insurgents co-opting disabled people as involuntary suicide bombers.[375]
The self-declared "Islamic State" (ISIS)[x] use suicide attacks against government targets before they attack. The attackers use a wide range of methods, from suicide vests and belts to bomb trucks and cars and APCs filled with explosives. Usually, the suicide bomber involved in a "martyrdom operation" will record his last words in a martyrdom video before they start their attack, which will be released after the suicide attack is done.[citation needed]A study published byThe Guardian in 2017 analyzed 923 attacks done between December 2015 and November 2016 and compared the military tactic to those used bykamikaze operations.[379]Charlie Winter, the author of the study, said that ISIS had "industrialized the concept of martyrdom". 84% of suicide attacks were directed towards military targets, usually with armed vehicles. About 80% of the attackers were of Iraqi or Syrian origin.[379] According to theInstitute for National Security Studies, there were fewer suicide attacks worldwide in 2017, but more female suicide bombers participated in them. According to the institute, ISIS and al-Qaeda led the suicide terrorism.[380]
In 2017 and 2019, during theSinai insurgency, there were suicide bombings in theGaza Strip by local ISIS sympathizers. ISIS are a global extremist group, with an ideology that fundamentallyopposes thePalestiniannationalism of Hamas and the other groups above.[381] In 2017 twoHamas government border guards were killed while attempting to intercept an ISIS suicide bomber atRafah Crossing.[382][383] The Hamas government responded to that bombing with a crackdown on followers of "deviant ideologies" (meaning ISIS andsimilar groups).[384][385]In 2018, members ofISIS in the Sinai "declared war" on Hamas, demanding Hamas release ISIS militants held inGaza's prisons.[386] Then in 2019, another suicide attack – also attributed to ISIS – directly targetedGaza Strip police.[387] Three police officers were killed,[388][389][390] all three victims were allegedly members of Hamas.[391] Gaza's Security forces responded by arresting ten people whom they suspected were members of the cell who arranged the attack.
In the following years, ISIS members also carried out suicide attacks in different locations. In December 2018, according to the director of theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights,Rami Abdel Rahman, at least three suicide bombers blew themselves up inside the city ofAs-Suwayda in theJabal al-Druze of southernSyria. This was in addition to suicide bombers who attacked seven villages in the surrounding suburbs.[392] According toThe Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, In January 2019, ISIS carried out a suicide bombing attack using a car bomb against a joint American-Kurdish patrol.[393]2021 Kabul airport attack was suicide bombing attack. In January 2021, ISIS claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in aBaghdad market that killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100. It was the first major suicide attack by the Islamic State group in the previous three years.[394]In June 2025, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced a suicide attack carried out by a member of the Islamic State cult inChurch. According to the statement, he shot at worshippers in a church and then blew himself up inside.[395][396]
Since 2006,al-Shabaab has carried out major suicide attacks inSomalia,[397] the worst year so far being 2016 with 28 attacks.
In Europe, fourIslamist suicide bombers exploded home-made peroxide explosives on three London underground trains and a bus on7 July 2005, during the morning rush hour. These "7/7" bombings killed 52 civilians and injured 700.[398]
On 22 May 2017, theManchester Arena bombing occurred which resulted in 23 deaths and 1,017 injuries. The attack was carried out as people were leaving anAriana Grande concert.[399]
On 25 December 2020, asuicide bombing occurred inNashville, Tennessee.[citation needed]
On 17 May 2025, a 2010 silverFord Fusion sedan loaded with explosivesdetonated outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic inPalm Springs, California, resulting in the death of the perpetrator, 25-year-oldGuy Edward Bartkus, and injuries to four others.[400][401][402] Nearby buildings were damaged and windows were shattered.[403][404] Atripod and camera were found at the scene.[405][402] The FBI called it an "intentional act of terrorism".[406][403] Bartkus reportedly identified himself as the perpetrator of the bombing in avideo posted online, an audio recording, andmanifesto in which he described himself as a "pro-mortalist" and said people did not give consent to exist.[407] A 32-year-old man named Daniel Jongyon Park was arrested for possible involvement.[408][409] Park was expelled from Poland to face prosecution on the United States.[410]
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Suicide bombings are often followed by heightened security measures andreprisals by their targets. Because a deceased suicide bomber cannot be targeted, the response is often a targeting of those believed to have sent the bomber. Because the threat of retaliation cannot deter future attacks if the attackers were already willing to kill themselves, pressure is great to employ intensive surveillance of virtually any potential perpetrator, "to look for them almost everywhere, even if no evidence existed that they were there at all".[411]
In theWest Bank, theIDF has at timesdemolished homes that belong to families whose children or landlords whose tenants had volunteered for such missions, whether completed or not.[412] An internal review starting in October 2004 brought an end to the policy, but it was resumed in 2014.[413] Other military measures taken during the suicide attack campaign included: a widescale re-occupation of the West Bank and blockading of Palestinian towns; "targeted assassinations" of militants, an approach used since the 1970s; raids against militants suspected of plotting attacks; mass arrests; curfews; stringent travel restrictions; and physical separation from Palestinians via the 650 kilometres (400 mi)Israeli West Bank barrier in and around the West Bank.[341][414] TheSecond Intifada and its suicide attacks are often dated as ending around the time of an unofficial ceasefire with some of the most powerful Palestinian militant groups in 2005.[341] A new "knife intifada" started in September 2015. Still, although many Palestinians were killed in the process of stabbing or attempting to stab Israelis, their deaths were not "a precondition for the success" of their mission and so are not considered suicide attacks by many observers.[35]
In the United States, the element of suicide in the 9/11 attacks persuaded many that previously unthinkable, "out of the box" strategic policies in a "war on terrorism" were necessary. This included "preventive war" against countries not immediately attacking the U.S., to almost unlimited surveillance of virtually any person in the United States by the government without normal congressional and judicial oversight.[411] These responses "produced their own costs and risks—in lives, national debt, and America's standing in the world".[411]
The "heightened security measures" also affected the target populations. During the bombing campaign, Israelis were questioned by armed guards and given a quick pat down before being let into cafés.[415] In the U.S., the post-9/11 era meant "previously inconceivable security measures—in airports and other transportation hubs, hotels and office buildings, sports stadiums and concert halls".[415]
In the case of the9/11 attacks in the U.S., at least in the short term, the results were negative for Al-Qaeda, as well as theTaliban. Since the attacks, Western nations have diverted massive resources towards stopping similar actions, as well as increasingborder security, and military actions against various countries believed to have been involved with terrorism.[416]Critics of thewar on terrorism suggest the results were negative, as the subsequent actions of the United States and other countries has increased the number of recruits and their willingness to carry out suicide bombings.[citation needed]
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Studies of who becomes a suicide attacker and what motivates them have often come to different conclusions. According to Riaz Hassan,[10]
apart from one demographic attribute—that the majority of suicide bombers tend to be young males—the evidence has failed to find a stable set of demographic, psychological, socioeconomic and religious variables that can be causally linked to suicide bombers' personality or socioeconomic origins.
AnthropologistScott Atran wrote,"[Terrorists] are not sufficiently different from everyone else. Insights into homegrown jihadi attacks will have to come from understanding group dynamics, not individual psychology. Small-group dynamics can trump individual personality to produce horrific behavior in otherwise ordinary people.[5]Atran's research has found that the attacks are not organized from the top down, but occur from the bottom up. It is usually a matter of following one's friends and ending up in environments that fostergroupthink. Atran is also critical of the claim that terrorists simply crave destruction; rather, they are often motivated by beliefs they hold sacred, as well as their moral reasoning.[417]
A study of the remains of 110 suicide bombers in Afghanistan for the first part of 2007 by Afghan pathologist Yusef Yadgari found 80% were suffering from physical ailments such as missing limbs (before the blasts), cancer, or leprosy. 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".[418]Menachem Begin called his only known suicide militant as "Meir the Stump", a reference to his amputated left arm.[419]
Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, found the majority of suicide bombers came from the educated middle classes. For example,Humam Balawi, who perpetrated theCamp Chapman attack in Afghanistan in 2010, was a medical doctor.[420]
A 2004 paper byHarvard University Professor of Public PolicyAlberto 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", with countries "in some intermediate range of political freedom" more prone to terrorism than countries with "high levels" of political freedom or countries with "highly authoritarian regimes". "When governments are weak, political instability is elevated, so conditions are favorable for the appearance of terrorism".[421][422] A 2020 study found that while well-educated and economically well-off individuals are more likely to be behind suicide terrorism, it is not because these individuals self-select into suicide terrorism, but rather because terrorist groups are more likely to select high-quality individuals to commit suicide terrorist attacks.[423]
Pape found that amongIslamic suicide terrorists, 97 percent were unmarried and 84 percent were male. If theKurdistan Workers' Party was excluded, this changed to be 91 percent male.[3] A study conducted by theU.S. military inIraq in 2008 found that suicide bombers were almost always single men without children aged 18 to 30, with a mean age of 22, and were typically students or employed inblue-collar occupations.[424] In a 2011 doctoral thesis, anthropologist Kyle R. Gibson reviewed three studies documenting 1,208 suicide attacks from 1981 to 2007 and found that countries with higherpolygyny rates correlated with greater production of suicide terrorists.[425][426] Political scientistsValerie M. Hudson and Bradley Thayer noted that countries where polygyny is widely practiced tend to have higherhomicide rates andrates of rape. The pair have argued that becauseIslam is the only major religious tradition where polygyny is still largely condoned, the higher degrees of marital inequality inIslamic countries compared to most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism. Hudson and Theyer contended thatpromises of harems of virgins formartyrdom serves as a mechanism to mitigatein-group conflict within Islamic countries by redirecting their violence towards out-groups.[427]
Along with his research on theTamil Tigers, Scott Atran found that Palestinian jihadist groups such asHamas provide monthlystipends,lump-sum payments, and prestige to the families of suicide terrorists.[428][429] Cognitive scientistSteven Pinker argues inThe Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) that because the families of men in theWest Bank andGaza often cannot affordbride prices and that many potential brides end up in polygynous marriages, the financial compensation of an act of suicide terrorism can buy enough brides for a man's brothers to have children to make the self-sacrifice pay off in terms ofkin selection andbiological fitness.[430]
Motivations vary greatly and are different in the case of each individual. Fanaticism (nationalist, religious, or both) may result from brain-washing, negative experiences regarding "the enemy", and the lack of a perspective in life. Suicide attackers may want to hurt or kill their targets because they hold them responsible for all bad things that have happened to them or in the world, or simply just because they want to escape misery and poverty.[431]Based on biographies of more than seven hundred foreign fighters uncovered at an Iraqi insurgent camp, researchers believe that the motivation for suicide missions at least in Iraq was not "the global jihadi ideology", but "an explosive mix of desperation, pride, anger, sense of powerlessness, local tradition of resistance, and religious fervor".[432]
Criminal justice professor Adam Lankford argues that suicide terrorists are not psychologically normal or stable. They are motivated to suicide and killing to mask their desire to die beneath a "veneer of heroic action" because of the religious consequences of killing themselves outright.[433] He has identified more than 130 individual suicide terrorists, including 9/11 ringleaderMohamed Atta, with classic suicidal risk factors such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, other mental health problems, drug addictions, serious physical injuries or disabilities, having suffered the unexpected death of a loved one, or other personal crises.[434]
According toRobert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, as of 2005, 95 percent of suicide attacks have the same specific strategic goal. This goal is to cause an occupying state to withdraw forces from a disputed territory, making nationalism their principal motivation rather than religion.[435]
Alternately, another source found that in Lebanon from 1983 to 1999, it was Islamists who influenced secular nationalists. Their use of suicide attacks spread to the secular groups. Five Lebanese groups "espousing a non-religious nationalist ideology" followed the lead of Islamist groups in attacking by suicide, "impressed by the effectiveness of Hezbollah's attacks in precipitating the withdrawal of the 'foreigners' from Lebanon".[35] In Israel suicide attacks by Islamist Islamic Jihad and Hamas also preceded those of the secularPFLP and theAl-Fatah-linkedAl-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.[citation needed]However, the first suicide attack in post-independence Israel was in 1972, by foreign fighters from theJapanese Red Army (a secular militant group) allied toPFLP-EO unit (a secular group, led byWadie Haddad).[8][270]
Pape found other factors associated with suicide attacks. This included the government of the targeted country being democratic and the public opinion of the country playing a role in determining policy. He also found that a difference in religion between the attackers and occupiers, and[436] grassroots support for the attacks[437] contributed. Other factors include attackers being disproportionately from the educated middle classes,[438] high levels of brutality and cruelty by the occupiers,[439] and competition among militant groups fighting the occupiers.[440]
Other researchers, such as Yotam Feldner, argue that perceived religious rewards after death are instrumental in encouraging Muslims to commit suicide attacks.[441][442] These researchers contend that Pape's analysis is flawed, particularly his contention that democracies are the main targets of such attacks.[443] Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the causes of suicide terrorism.[444]
Atran argues that suicide bombing has moved on from the days of Pape's study,[438] where non-Islamic groups have carried out very few bombings since 2003. Instead, bombing by Muslim or Islamist groups associated with a "global ideology" of "martyrdom" has skyrocketed. In 2004 in Iraq alone, there were 400 suicide attacks and 2,000 casualties.[445] Other researchers question why prominent anti-occupation secular terrorist groups have not used suicide, such as theProvisional IRA,ETA, oranti-colonialist insurgents in Vietnam, Algeria, and elsewhere.[446][447] They also question Pape omits that the first suicide attack in Lebanon targeted the embassy of Iraq, a country that was not occupying Lebanon.[446]
Mia Bloom agrees with Pape that competition among insurgents groups is a significant motivator, arguing the growth in suicide as a tactic is a product of "outbidding". That is, the need by competing insurgent groups to demonstrate their commitment to the cause to the broader public. This is achieved as making the ultimate sacrifice for the insurgency is a "bid" impossible to top.[448] This explains its use by Palestinian groups, but not that by the Tamil Tigers.[447] Still other researchers have identified sociopolitical factors as more central in the motivation of suicide attackers than religion.[449][450]
According toAtran,[451] and former CIA case officerMarc Sageman,[452] support for suicide actions is triggered by moral outrage at perceived attacks against Islam and sacred values. However, this is converted to action as a result of small-world factors, such as being part of a football club with otherjihadis. Millions express sympathy with globaljihad. According to a 2006 Gallup study involving more than 50,000 interviews in dozens of countries, seven percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims consider the 9/11 attacks "completely justified".[453][454]
Assaf Moghadam also argues that the increase in "suicide terrorism" since 2001 is driven bySalafi jihadist ideology and Al-Qaeda.[455][456][457]
Updating his work in a 2010 bookCutting the Fuse, Pape reported that a close analysis of the time and location of attacks strongly support his conclusion that "foreign military occupation accounts for 98.5%—and the deployment of American combat forces for 92%—of all the 1,833 suicide terrorist attacks around the world" between 2004 and 2009.[458] Pape wrote that, "the success attributed to the surge in 2007 and 2008 was actually less the result of an increase in coalition forces and more to a change of strategy in Baghdad and the empowerment of the Sunnis in Anbar".[459]
The same logic can be seen in Afghanistan. In 2004 and early 2005, NATO occupied the north and west, which was controlled by the Northern Alliance, whom NATO had previously helped fight the Taliban. An enormous spike in suicide terrorism only occurred later in 2005 as NATO moved into the south and east, which had previously been controlled by the Taliban, and locals were more likely to see NATO as a foreign occupation threatening local culture and customs.[460]Critics argue the logic cannot be seen in Pakistan,[446][461][462] which has no occupation and the second highest number of suicide bombing fatalities as of mid-2015.[verification needed]
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What connection the high percentage of suicide attacks executed by Islamist groups since 1980 has to do with the religion of Islam is disputed. Specifically, scholars, researchers, and others disagree over whether Islam forbids suicide in the process of attacking enemies, or the killing of civilians. According to a report compiled by the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, 224 of 300 suicide terror attacks from 1980 to 2003 involved Islamist groups or took place in Muslim-majority countries.[463][original research?] Another tabulation found more than a fourfold increase in suicide bombings in the two years following Pape's study and that the overwhelming majority of these bombers were motivated by the ideology of Islamist martyrdom.[445] For example, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up inIraq.[464]
Sunni Muslims were possibly the last major branch of theAbrahamic religions to resort to overt suicide attacks.Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 1979–1989Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union,[287] an asymmetrical war where themujahideen foughtSoviet warplanes, helicopters and tanks primarily with light weapons.[verification needed]According to authorSadakat Kadri, "the very idea that Muslims might blow themselves up for God was unheard of before 1983, and it was not until the early 1990s that anyone anywhere had tried to justify killing innocent Muslims who were not on a battlefield". After 1983, the process was limited among Muslims toHezbollah and otherLebanese Shia factions for more than a decade.[288]
Since then, according toNoah Feldman, videotaped pre-confession of faith by attackers known as the "vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice" have become part of "Islamic cultural consciousness" and these confessions are "instantly recognizable" to Muslims.[tone][287] The tactic has spread through the Muslim world "with astonishing speed and on a surprising course".[287]"First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. FromLebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly beenShiaIraqis. ... [In]Afghanistan, ... both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodoxSunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital ofHelmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go onpilgrimage toMecca. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in just three years (2003–6) as have Israelis in ten (from 1996 to 2006). Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence;– not just to Westerners but also to Muslims themselves".[287]
Recent research on the rationale of suicide bombing has identified both religious and sociopolitical motivations.[465][466]Those[who?] who cite religious factors as an important influence note that religion provides the framework because the bombers believe they are acting in the name of Islam and will berewarded as martyrs. Since martyrdom is seen as a step towards[clarification needed] paradise, those who commit suicide while discarding[clarification needed] their community from a common enemy believe that they will reach an ultimate salvation after they die.[465]
In the media attention given to suicide bombing during theSecond Intifada and after 9/11, sources hostile to radical Islamism quoted radical scholars promising various heavenly rewards, such as 70 virgins (Arabic:houri) as wives, to Muslims who die as martyrs, specifically as suicide attackers.[467][468] Other alleged rewards for those dying are being cleansed of all sin and brought directly to paradise, and not having to wait for theDay of Judgement.[469][470]
Others, such asAs'ad AbuKhalil, maintain that "the tendency to dwell on the sexual motives" of the suicide bombers "belittles" the bombers "sociopolitical causes", and that the alleged "sexual frustration" of young Muslim men "has been overly emphasized in the Western and Israeli media" as a motive for terrorism.[450]Suicide is criminalised many in majority-Muslim countries (see above).
Islamist militant organizations includingal-Qaeda,Hamas, andPalestinian Islamic Jihad argue that, despite what some Muslims claim is Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder,[471][472]suicide attacks fulfill the obligation ofjihad against the "oppressor", "martyrs" will be rewarded with paradise, and have the support of some Muslim clerics.[who?][citation needed]Clerics have supported suicide attacks largely in connection with the Palestinian issue. Prominent Sunni clericYusuf al-Qaradawi had previously supported such attacks by Palestinians in perceived defense of their homeland as heroic and an act of resistance.[473]Shia Lebanese clericMuhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the spiritual authority recognized by Hezbollah, holds similar views.[287]
The articles maintains thatAbu Huraira, a companion of the Muhammad, andUmar ibn Khattab, the second caliph of Islam, approved acts which Muslims knew would lead to certain death. The Islamic prophet Muhammad also approved of such acts, according to authors Maulana Muawiya Hussaini and Ikrimah Anwar who cited numerousHadith of Muhammad on the authority of Islamic juristMuslim ibn al-Hajjaj. "The Sahaba [companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad] who carried out the attacks almost certainly knew that they were going to be killed during their operations but they still carried them out and such acts were extolled and praised in the sharia."[474]
Others, such as Middle East historianBernard Lewis, disagree:"... a clear difference was made between throwing oneself to certain death at the hands of an overwhelmingly strong enemy, and dying by one's own hand. The first, if conducted in a properly authorized [jihad ], was a passport to heaven; the second to damnation. The blurring of their previously vital distinction was the work of some twentieth-century theologians who outlined the new theory which the suicide bombers put into practice".[106]
The distinction from engaging in an act where the perpetrator plans to fight to the death but where the attack does not require their death is important to at least one Islamist terror group,Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).[where?] While the group extols "martyrdom" and has killed many civilians, LeT believes suicide attacks where the attackers die by their own hand, such as by pressing a detonation button, areharam (forbidden). Its "trademark" is that of perpetrators fighting "to the death" but escaping "if practical". "This distinction has been the subject of extensive discourse among radical Islamist leaders".[475]
Several Western and Muslim scholars of Islam have posited that suicide attacks are a clear violation of classical Islamic law, and characterized such attacks against civilians as murderous and sinful.[476][477]
According toBernard Lewis, "the emergence of the now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition."[477] Islamic legalrules of armed warfare or militaryjihad are covered in detail in the classical texts of Islamic jurisprudence,[287] which forbid the killing of women, children, or non-combatants, and the destruction of cultivated or residential areas.[287][478][479]
For more than a millennium, these tenets were accepted by Sunnis and Shiites. However, since the 1980s militant Islamists have challenged the traditional Islamic rules of warfare to justify suicide attacks.[287][478]
Several respected Muslim scholars have provided scholastic refutations of suicide bombings, condemning them as terrorism prohibited in Islam and leading their perpetrators to hell.[476]In his over 400 page longFatwa on Terrorism condemning suicide attacks, Muslim Islamic scholar MuhammadTahir-ul-Qadri directly disputed the rationale of Islamists. He argues that indiscriminately killing both Muslims and non-Muslims is unlawful, and brings the Muslimummah into disrepute, no matter how lofty the killers intentions.[480]Tahir-ul-Qadri states terrorism "has no place in Islamic teaching, and no justification can be provided to it [...] good intention cannot justify a wrong and forbidden act".[476]
Grand MuftiSaudi Arabia,Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh, issued afatwa on 12 September 2013 that suicide bombings are "great crimes" and bombers are "criminals who rush themselves to hell by their actions". Al Shaykh described suicide bombers as "robbed of their minds [...] who have been used [as tools] to destroy themselves and societies".[481]"In view of the fast-moving dangerous developments in the Islamic world, it is very distressing to see the tendencies of permitting or underestimating the shedding of blood of Muslims and those under protection in their countries. The sectarian or ignorant utterances made by some of these people would benefit none other than the greedy, vindictive and envious people. Hence, we would like to draw attention to the seriousness of the attacks on Muslims or those who live under their protection or under a pact with them|Al Shaykh, quoting a number of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith".[482]Even countries that have a history of suicide attacks, and have regarded them as martyrdom, have condemned them in situations they see as illegitimate.
Following the2005 Bangladesh bombings by the banned outfitJama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), chief cleric ofBangladeshUbaidul Haq led a protest ofulema denouncingterrorism.[483] He said:"Islam prohibitssuicide bombings. These bombers are enemies of Islam. [...] It is a duty for allMuslims to stand up against those who are killing people in the name ofIslam".[verify]
In January 2006,ShiaMarja (high ranking cleric)Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei decreed afatwa against suicide bombing, declaring it a "terrorist act".[484][485] In 2005, Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti also issued afatwa "Against The Targeting Of Civilians".[486]
Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam titledThe Hijacked Caravan.[487] The study 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".[488]
American[clarification needed] based Islamic jurist and scholarKhaled Abou Al-Fadl argues, "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 wasmuharibun (those who wage war against society), and the crime is called the crime ofhiraba (waging war against society). The crime ofhiraba 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 ofhiraba 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 ofhiraba. Furthermore, hijacking methods of transportation or crucifying people in order to spread fear are also crimes ofhiraba. Importantly, Islamic law strictly prohibited the taking of hostages, the mutilation of corpses, and torture".[489]
According toWhen Religion Becomes Evil, byBaptist ministerCharles Kimball, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide" (4:29).[490] "O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful".[491][non-primary source needed]
Some commentators posit that "do not kill yourselves" is better translated "do not kill each other", and some translations, such as those by M. H. Shakir, reflect that view. Mainstream Islamic groups such as theEuropean Council for Fatwa and Research also cite the Quranic verseAl-An'am 6:151[492]) as prohibiting suicide: "And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law".[493] TheHadith, including Bukhari 2:445, states: "The Prophet said, '...whoever commits suicide with a piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire', [and] 'A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: 'My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him'".[494][495]
Other Muslims have also noted Quranic verses in opposition to suicide, to taking of life other than by way of justice such as the death penalty for murder, and to collective punishment.[496][better source needed]
The international community considers the use ofindiscriminate attacks on civilian populations[323][497] asillegal under international law.[498]
Araki Yukio was born on 10 March 1928, at the age of fifteen he joined theImperial Japanese Army Air Service's Youth Pilot Training Program.[499] On 27 May 1945, Araki took off from Bansei Airfield, inKagoshima Prefecture, on akamikaze mission, flying aMitsubishi Ki-51.[500] At the age of seventeen, Araki is one of the youngest knownkamikaze pilots. It has been speculated that his plane was one of two that struck the USSBraine, killing 66 of her crew; however, the ship did not sink.[499][501]
There was a heated dispute surrounding the death penalty trial of theIrgun militant whoblew himself up in 1947 (see above).He was sentenced to death alongside another militant for their role in thebombing of Jerusalem Train Station [he], but the other militant later had his sentence commuted to life in prison.[502][503]There was heated debate about the age of the Irgun suicide militant when he was sentenced. His mother and brother claimed he was 17, too young to be executed according to the law of the British authorities.[59][504][505][506][507]The court claimed he was 23, because he had served in the British military during World War II, and the British refused to believe they had recruited a minor who was lying about his age.[504]Yehuda Lapidot and the IDF say he was born on 5 October 1927.[508]Surviving relatives disagree, maintaining that he was born in July 1929.[59]
Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh, a 13-year-old Iranian boy who fought in theIran–Iraq War, is said – by formerCIA operativeRobert Baer – to be the first Muslim to have participated in such an attack in contemporary history.[509][additional citation(s) needed]The boy strappedrocket-propelled grenades to his chest and blew himself up under an Iraqi tank in November 1980.[better source needed]A near identical tactic was used byChinese Nationalists in the 1930s and 1940s (see above).Ayatollah Khomeini declared Fahmideh a national hero.[510]According to Robert Baer, the boy was used as an inspiration for furthervolunteers for martyrdom.[509]The Iranian website,Tebyan Cultural Institute describes the child's death as heroic.[510]According to former CIA officer Robert Baer, "Ayatollah Khomeini's embattled Islamic republic adopted Fahmideh as a national hero and as an inspiration for further bloodshed andmartyrdom".[509]
InLebanon on 9 April 1985,Sana'a Mehaidli, a 16-year-old member of theSyrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured twelve more. She is often described as the firstfemale suicide bomber.[291][292][293][294] She is known as "the Bride of the South".[511][verification needed] During theLebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia, theSouth Lebanon Army.[citation needed]
In some traditions,[who?] women are customarily seen as peace-makers rather than as front-line actors in conflicts.[515] This stereotype has made them useful as suicide bombers, because they might be underestimated and thus be able to enter target areas inconspicuously, leading to more lethal suicide attacks.[516] Whether women's motivations for becoming suicide bombers generally differ from men's remains a pertinent question. Bloom has suggested some salient reasons for women to turn to suicide bombings, such as "to avenge a personal loss, to redeem the family name, to escape a life of sheltered monotony and achieve fame, or to equalize the patriarchal societies in which they live".[517] Some earlier literature suggested that women tend to be motivated by personal trauma rather than by ideological reasons.[517] Other researchers disagree with this assessment and state that it reduces women's political agency, seeing as they are just as capable of making a choice based on ideology.[518] Women's as well as men's usual motivations for becoming suicide bombers should be assumed to be nuanced and complex.[519]
Various groups adapt their strategies to suit specific targets. For example, in the 1980s,Hezbollah favored the use of explosive-laden cars, while theLTTE inSri Lanka employed tactics involving explosive-laden boats. Palestinian organizations in the 1990s refined an approach involving suicide bombers withexplosive belts, influencing groups like theChechens and thePKK. In contemporary Iraq, local factions have utilizedexplosive-laden vehicles to target heavily guarded military facilities.[1]Decades earlier, the Lehi militant group were discovered to have constructed a "coat bomb", with explosives concealed by being stitched inside the coat.[520] They appear to have attempted to use it in a non-suicide bombing, taking it off and leaving it behind in the targeted building, but it failed to detonate for unclear reasons.[521] They also used it for smuggling explosives into England.[520]
According to authorJeffrey William Lewis, success campaigns of suicide bombing require: willing individuals, organisations to train and use them, and a society willing to accept such acts in the name of a greater good.[71] The organisations work to guarantee individual suicide bombers that they "will be remembered as martyrs dying for their communities". By imbuing suicide attacks with "reverence and heroism", it becomes more attractive to recruits.[71] According to Yoram Schweitzer, modern suicide terrorism is "aimed at causing devastating physical damage, through which it inflicts profound fear and anxiety". Its goal is not to produce a negative psychological effect only on the victims of the actual attack, but on the entire target population.[35] Attackers themselves have often framed suicide attacks as acts of courageous self-sacrifice made necessary by the superior military or security strength of the enemy. The technique has also been called "the atomic weapon of the weak".[340] According to SheikhAhmed Yassin, themartyred (assassinated) leader of Hamas, "Once we have 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".[522]
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 such as the ability to conceal weapons, make last-minute adjustments, an increased ability to infiltrate heavily guarded targets, and the lack of need for remote or delayed detonation, escape plans or rescue teams. Robert Pape observed that "Suicide attacks are an especially convincing way to signal the likelihood of more pain to come, because if you are willing to kill yourself you are also willing to endure brutal retaliation. [...] The element of suicide itself helps increase the credibility of future attacks because it suggests that attackers cannot be deterred".[523]Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the efficacy of suicide terrorism.[444]
Bruce Hoffman described the characteristics of suicide bombing as "universal" —"Suicide bombings are inexpensive and effective. They are less complicated and compromising than other kinds of terrorist operations. They guarantee media coverage. The suicide terrorist is the ultimate smart bomb. Perhaps most important, coldly efficient bombings tear at the fabric of trust that holds societies together".[415]
Media related toInterior of the museum of the Underground Prisoners at Wikimedia Commons Media related toGallows at the museum of the Underground Prisoners at Wikimedia CommonsBefore the early 1980s, suicide terrorism was rare but not unknown (Lewis 1968; O'Neill 1981; Rapoport 1984). However, since the attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut in April 1983, there have been at least 188 separate suicide terrorist attacks worldwide, in Lebanon, Israel, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Turkey, Russia and the United States.
The Japanese expended 2600 aircraft in kamikaze attacks, and with them the lives of 4000 airmen. The attacks killed more than 7000 Allied naval personnel.
According to data from the Rand Corporation's chronology of international terrorism incidents, suicide attacks on average kill four times as many people as other terrorist acts.
Terrorism involves the use of force or violence in order to instill fear as a means of coercing individuals or groups to change their political or social positions which means that social influence is the ultimate goal of terrorism. Obviously we could say the same about suicide terrorism. […] An alternative perspective views terrorism, including suicide terrorism, as tool: a means to an end and a tactic of warfare that anyone could use.
... a very specific kind of attack. It does not deal with the very high-risk terror operations that leave only little chance of survival to their perpetrators. Such attacks as theJapanese Red Army's (JRA) attack at Lod airport in 1972,Abu Nidal's attack on a synagogue in Istanbul in 1986 and thePFLP-GC hand-glider attack on an army barracks inKiryat Shmona in 1987 fall outside the scope of this paper. Also excluded were the self-inflicted deaths of members of terrorist organization … a politically motivated violent attack perpetrated by a self-aware individual (or individuals) who actively and purposely causes his own death through blowing himself up along with his chosen target … the perpetrator's ensured death is a precondition for the success of his mission."
First of all let's be clear what kind of attacks we are talking about. Suicide bombings are those that involve the deliberate death of the perpetrator. We're not just talking about a reckless charge in battle. The focus is on those attacks where the perpetrator functions as a sophisticated guidance system for the weapon. They function as part human and part weapon. In this way they are suicide attacks rather than suicidal attacks.
For years, the conventional wisdom has been that suicide terrorists are rational political actors, while suicidal rampage shooters are mentally disturbed loners. But the two groups have far more in common than has been recognized … Although suicide terrorists may share the same beliefs as the organizations whose propaganda they spout, they are primarily motivated by the desire to kill and be killed — just like most rampage shooters.
The two young men who shot and bombed their way through their high school here planned the assault a year in advance, monitored cafeteria crowds to determine the busiest times and scheduledtheir suicide attack for Hitler's birthday, the authorities said today, citing a handwritten diary.
(published 21 April 1999, updated 6 January 2011) Two students in black trench coats swept through their suburban high school with guns and explosives in ahorrifying suicide attack Tuesday that may have left 25 people dead.
in Mosul, Iraqi security forces raided a house and found six Iraqi boys 15 to 18 years old preparing to become suicide bombers, a police official in Mosul said. According to The Associated Press, four of the boys appeared before local reporters at Mosul police headquarters on Monday, including one who wept and said that a Saudi fighter "threatened to rape our mothers and sisters, destroy our houses and kill our fathers if we did not cooperate with him."
In some cases, [children recruited to be Taliban bombers] were given an amulet containing Koranic verses and told it would help them survive. Some handlers gave children keys to hang round their necks and were told the gates of paradise will open for them
… "martyrdom operations". This term is used by radical Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda or Hamas, but also by more secular organizations such as Fatah-Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades or the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine
מאיר פיינשטיין נולד וגדל בירושלים. אם שואלים את אתר הזיכרון הרשמי של חללי צה"ל או את ויקיפדיה, תאריך הלידה שלו הוא 5 באוקטובר 1927. לדברי אחיינו, המועד הנכון הוא יולי 1929.
WESTON, W. Va. "Look what's going to happen here", said Donzel Raymond McCray as he dis-played five or six sticks of dyna-mite strapped to his waist. As five persons, including his divorced wife, looked on in horror yesterday, he touched two small batteries to wires extending from the dynamite. McCray was blown to bits and his wife and her lawyer, Charles N. Bland, were critically injured. The other three witnesses Magistrate W. S. Fults, Linn Mapel Brannon, and 78-year-old J. N. Osborn escaped serious injury. McCray, 47, and his wife were divorced last September. They had six children.
Roi Klein.
(Anthony lived) … with his Israeli-Australian wife and their three children aged under four lived in Kibbutz Be-eri … he thought he would have to make an impossible decision if Hamas fighters found them. "The only thing going through my mind was, 'If they come in here, I'm going to have to kill my kids myself'," Anthony said … "I didn't want my kids to become prisoners, so I thought I was going to have to kill my kids." Scores of Israelis and others were taken to Gaza as hostages…
The Hannibal Directive was reportedly created in the 1980s in response to the increased efforts by terrorist groups to take Israeli soldiers captive. These terrorist groups would use their hostages as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges, where Israel would have to release a disproportionate amount of security prisoners in exchange for their captured soldiers.
… a true story about a Brit namedJack Nissenthall. A radar expert for theRAF, Nissenthall and a contingent of 11 soldiers from theSouth Saskatchewan Regiment were tasked with assaulting the Freya radar station and then, hopefully, learning its capabilities … Fearing what would happen if Nissenthall fell into enemy hands, he was given acyanide capsule and, as added insurance, the men accompanying him had orders to kill him if capture was imminent … Nissenthall thought up a plan to cut all the German telephone lines around the radar station. This, he hoped, would force the Germans to broadcast their radar findings over the radio instead, giving Allied eavesdroppers a chance to listen in and gain valuable insights into Freya's capabilities … Miraculously, he then made it back to the beach where the Allied withdrawal was already underway. The casualties at Dieppe were severe. In just over six hours, over 1,500 Canadians were either killed or wounded, and another 2,000 were captured … Nissenthall would escape unscathed, but his Canadian escort was decimated, with only one man from the Saskatchewans returning alongside him … Nissenthall's efforts proved invaluable. His plan had worked, and the Allies intercepted a number of radio communications that helped assess Freya's strengths.
His expertise was considered so crucial to the success of "Operation Jubilee" that he was accompanied by 11 bodyguards, Canadian soldiers, tasked not only with safeguarding him throughout the perilous assignment but with shooting him should they fall into enemy hands. He also carried acyanide pill, just in case he needed to end his own life … More than half of the 6,086 men who landed as part of the operation were killed, injured, or captured within 10 hours, including ten of his 11 bodyguards.Winston Churchill maintained that the knowledge gained by the operation shaped the success of the subsequentD-Day landings. Supreme Allied CommanderLord Mountbatten later remarked of the raid, "For every man that died at Dieppe, ten were saved onD-Day".
Three Chinese soldiers blew them selves to pieces with gren ades to escape capture by Allied troops who surround ed their platoon near Kum song on the Korean central front on New Year's Eve. The Chinese clasped grenades to their stomachs and pulled the pins before they could be captured.
the "Chicago Project" describes a suicide attack as "an attack in which an attacker kills himself or herself to kill others". However, the Collins dictionary describes a suicide attack as "a terrorist attack which someone undertakes knowing that he or she will die in the attack". I would argue that this definition more accurately describes a suicide attack.
Monday's incident was one of at least six suicide bombings in the past three years, a mode of attack previously rare in the Philippines … Sulu is known as the stronghold of theAbu Sayyaf Group, an armed group that has allied itself with ISIL (ISIS).Abu Sayyaf has long been battling for independence in the southern region ofMindanao, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to the pre-Spanish colonial period.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The Mapping Police Violence found that at least 1,365 people were killed by law enforcement last year — a slight uptick from the 1,329 civilians who died at the hands of police in 2023. The project from police reform advocacy group Campaign Zero has been tracking police killings in the country since 2013.
It is quite possible that Kuyili's act may have been one of the first instances of a suicide bombing in the history of mankind that ended up leaving not one speck of ammunition left for the British to retaliate.
In 1780, she led the charge against her enemies with an army she had built along with the help of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore. She is also credited to have been the first person to use a human bomb - Kuyili, her loyal follower (and some say adoptive daughter), doused herself in oil/ghee and set herself aflame to blow up the ammunition of the British.
On 13 March 1881, Ignaty Grinevitsky watched as his accomplice threw a small bomb at the convoy of Tsar Alexander II outside the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Safely enclosed in a carriage made from bullet-proof material as a gift from Napoleon III, the Tsar stepped out, dazed but unhurt.
[…]Sof'ia Perovskaia […] andAndrei Zheliabov carefully planned another attempt on the life of the Tsar. […] They rented a shop on Malaia Sadovaia, a street frequented by the Tsar, and dug a tunnel from the basement under the street. Zheliabov was arrested on 27 February 1881, and Perovskaia took charge of the assassination, planned for 1 March. This time they got their prey: the explosives placed under the street failed to detonate, but the second of two suicide bombers fatally wounded the Tsar.
...Boris Savinkov recruited Yegor Sazonov, a former medical student, who was willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish the deed. […] On July 15 (28), 1904, a determined Sazonov ran through a crowd of onlookers and positioned himself in front of the approaching carriage just in time. When it swerved to avoid him, he threw his bomb through the side window. The explosion killed Plehve and left Sazonov badly injured.
Uses records of the court case and the inquest to present the story of the Sewell-Neame trial, and the death of Sewell by explosives. Journal (Murchison District Historical and Museum Society), Dec 1992; p.20-24
the world's first strapped-on suicide bombing happened in Murchison. Joseph Sewell was a 57-year-old farmer from Longford when he strapped himself with sticks of gelignite and blew himself up outside the Murchison Courthouse on Friday 14 July 1905. It was an event that got reported worldwide as "The Murchison Tragedy".
New Zealand made its most significant contribution to the practice of terrorism on the global stage, providing the world's first suicide bomber in 1905 ... the first was Joseph Sewell, a 57-year-old farmer who strapped sticks of gelignite to himself and then detonated outside the Murchison court house ... Sewell attached the explosives to himself and then put his coat over the top ... Sewell only blew himself up, and only did it because of a dispute with his neighbour over the ownership of straying animals over unfenced lands, not to make some political point.
Electronic title 'Feuds: first blood' ... Source: New Zealand listener (1994), 4 May 2013; v.238 n.3808: p.22-23Gerard Hindmarsh."First blood".Part Of:New Zealand listener (1994), 4 May 2013; v.238 n.3808:p.22-23 – via natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com.
Description: Revisits and details an incident at the Murchison courthouse 14 Jul 1905, in which accused man Joseph Sewell detonated an explosive that killed him and injured others. Claims it may be the first incident of suicide bombing using explosives strapped to one's body.
In modern times the definition of terrorism remains contested but is generally applied to actions that: — have political aims and motives • are violent or threaten violence • are designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate target • are conducted by an organisation with an identifiable structure. — Some people believe that the term terrorism applies only to actions carried out by groups, and not to the actions of countries or individuals. … The assassination of US President William McKinley in September 1901 by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz sparked calls in the New Zealand press to 'exterminate' anarchists. Assassins and anarchists were identified as 'foreigners' and 'continentals' – generally Italian, German or Russian. From the 1880s, police detectives were assigned to keep watch for the arrival of foreign revolutionaries ... New Zealand has been fortunate to have largely been free of terrorism. There have, however, been a number of incidents that might be seen as terrorist. Most involved the actions of individuals rather than organised groups, and lacked clear political motives. One such action was by farmer Joseph Sewell, who blew himself up outside the Murchison courthouse on 14 July 1905. Sewell was angered by a dispute with another local farmer over the ownership of a heifer. In some cases the actions were clearly aimed at property rather than people. It is therefore questionable how accurately they can be described as terrorism. … TheWanganui Computer Centre bombing: On the night of 18 November 1982, 22-year-old Neil Roberts was killed while attempting to blow up the police computer at the Wanganui Computer Centre. Roberts, an anarchist with a long involvement in the anti-racist and peace movements, appears to have intended to kill himself in the explosion. No one else was harmed in the attack, which targeted the computer rather than police personnel. Roberts's attack was aimed as a blow against what he saw as an oppressive state and society. He left the graffiti message: 'We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity'.
Refusing to surrender, 300 Chinese troops blew them selves to pieces with their own hand-grenades. The self-sacrifice occurred, says a Shanghai message, in the Tientsin-Pukow conflict. The 300 were part of the army of 200,000 who are attempting to stem the Japanese advance. These men swore to die, rather than to surrender their positions. Their commander, Wang Ming-chang, blew out his brains with his revolver after sustaining a wound in the stomach. His men followed him with grenade.
dare to die china.
20 June 1939 — A particularly successful shuk operation: 78 Arabs (and a donkey) are murdered in an explosion in a Haifa open-air market. The donkey was booby-trapped.
In July 1939, Jewish militants placed bombs at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, killing five Arabs and wounding 14. That same month, a donkey mounted with explosives killed 21 Arabs and wounded 24 in the Haifa vegetable market.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Fania then spoke up and volunteered herself. She was sure that for an operation such as this, she would find the strength to stand and walk. "My life is no life anyway" she added. This was a "Let my soul die with the Philistines" proposal, the Samson option. Of course, her suggestion was rejected. Fania Raskin passed away on 20 July 1947, in Jerusalem. She was thirty-one.
Facing the death penalty, two imprisoned Irgun members sacrificed themselves in a "martyrdom operation": they blew themselves up in prison with a smuggled grenade.
The Jewish terrorists Feinstein and Barazini were to have been executed at dawn to-day. However, they blew themselves to pieces shortly before midnight. The two men occupied the same cell. They were visited byRabbi Jacob Goldman [he], Jewish chaplain to prisons, and he administered to them the last rites. Tile men committed suicide shortly after he left. Rabbi Goldman was immediately taken tothe police headquarters. Feinstein and Barazini are reported to have inscribed the Biblical words, "Mene! Mene! Tekel Upharsin!" on the walls of their ceil before killing themselves with hand grenades. The words quoted are those mentioned in theBook of Daniel,chapter five, verse twenty-five.
the two Jewish condemned terrorists,Meyer Feinstein [he] andMoshe Barazani, who were to have been executed before dawn to-day, committed suicide in Jerusalem central prison to-night by blowing themselves to pieces … TheBritish United Press representative states that Feinstein and Barazani are reported to have in scribed the Biblical words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel Uphaisin" on the walls of their cells before killing themselves. The words quoted are mentioned In the Book ofDaniel, chapter 5, verse 25.
JERUSALEM, Tuesday — Two Jewish terrorists who were to have been executed before dawn today committed suicide in their cells shortly before midnight last night. They killed themselves by holding small quantities of explosives against their hearts shortly after they had received the last rites from. Jewish prison chaplain RabbiJacob Goldman [he]. It is not known yet how they detonated the explosive. Rabbi Goldman was taken to police headquarters immediately after the men suicided. The men inscribed the Biblical phrase 'Mene mene tekel upharsin' on the walls of their cells in the Jerusalem central prison be- fore killing themselves. The phrase is from thebook of Daniel,chapter 5. verse 25. Daniel gave the interpretation of mene asGod hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it and tekel asThou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. The two men, Meyer Feinstein and Moshe Barazani, had earlier appealed to the High Commissioner for clemency. Feinstein was sentenced to death for his part in the bomb outrage atJerusalem railway station last October and Barazani was sentenced for having a hand grenade in his possession last month.
Which of us does not remember the almost unbelievable story ofMoshe Barazani and Meir Feinstein? Grenades were smuggled to their prison cells in a basket of oranges. Their original plan was to blow themselves up together as they were being hung. However, it then became clear to them that one of the rabbis of the Jewish community intended to be there as they were executed. In order not to endanger him, the two decided that after his visit, they would take their fate into their own hands. They embraced firmly and exploded the grenades up against their hearts. It is doubtful that anyone could invent such an unbelievable story, a story which expresses supreme heroism, sublime love for country and people. Yes, love of country, love of the homeland, love for their people.
He became known for assembling 'Grenade Filled Oranges' used byMoshe Barazani andMeir Feinstein, who blew themselves up three hours before their British-planned execution. He was released 8 February 1948, and stayed active until joining theIDF 31 May 1948. He was discharged September 1969 ranking Lieutenant-Colonel. Eliezer served in the 8th Brigade, the Engineering Corps, and the Ordnance Corps, from dismantling bombshells to Commanding a Battalion. In 1951 he successfully finished an Engineer Corps Officers' Course and was sent to study at the Technion. He was involved in developing and testing armaments. He graduated Command and HQ School. Among his positions: instructor, sapper, Production Officer, Experimental Branch Head, 276 Battalion Commander, and Head of the Atomic-Biological-Chemical Weapons Branch.
It was termed "Operation Shimshon" after the biblical Samson who brought down with him the crowded Philistine temple, claiming "let me die with the Philistines". Barazani and Feinstein were eager to carry out the plan.Eliezer Ben-Ami [he], an imprisoned Lehi member, assembled hand grenades from pieces that were smuggled into the prison separately…
Police said the incident took place a few minutes after Donzel McGray, 47, and jobless, walked into a Magistrate's office. "Look what's going to happen here", he said as he unbuttoned his coat to display five or six sticks of explosive.
Donzel McCray, 47(The paper is simply called "The News":"News (Adelaide, SA: 1923 - 1954)".trove.nla.gov.au.National Library of Australia. Archived fromthe original on 1 June 2025.
On 6 Feb. 1954 the title changed to 'The S.A. Sunday mail'.)
Don Mccray turned himself into a human bomb setting off several sticks of dynamite strapped to his Waist.[verification needed]
Weston, West 'Virginia, a man turned himself into a human bomb, setting off several sticks of dynamite strapped to his waist. He was blown to pieces and his divorced wife and her lawyer were critically injured. The incident occurred at a court. The magistrate was thrown from his chair, and another lawyer knocked unconscious.
Ben-Ami was quite the character, and knew no fear. Even when he joined the army, he acted on his own terms. "I enlisted under a false name," he said. "I chose to enlist as Eliezer Reznitsky. I took the last name of my girlfriend, who waited for me for five years while I was in prison, and later she became my wife. I knew that the [Ben-Gurion's]Mapai Party didn't want the borders I wanted for the country, and that the IDF wouldn't be the liberation army of the Israeli nation. So, I acted as I did underground, where we had nicknames. I changed my last name so that I wouldn't be recognized, in case I needed to fight beyond the borders that the IDF set. Only when I received the rank of sergeant did I return to my original last name." Ben-Ami enlisted in the 8th Armored Brigade … he transferred to the Combat Engineering Corps, then to the Technology and Maintenance Corps, and then back to engineering. He enlisted in the first Engineering Officers Course, in which he excelled, and went on to fulfill various roles: sapper, explosives instructor, and also higher-ranking roles.(Note, this is an English version, not a direct translation of the story in Hebrew edition)
Wadie Haddad (Abu Hani), the Palestinian who was the primary organizer of the attack and later organized the Entebbe airport attack in Uganda, was poisoned to death by Mossad in early 1978.
The Haifa Massacre - 25/7/1938 A car bomb was planted by the Irgun Zionist gang in an Arab market in Haifa which killed 35 Arab civilians and wounded 70.
Iraq militants turn to women for suicide attacks
Rosemary Skaine writes about Sana'a Mehaidli the first suicide bomber and first women [sic?] bomber for the Syrian Socialist Network Party ...
…the suicide attack by Neil Roberts on the National Law Enforcement Database, known as the Whanganui Computer, at the Whanganui Computer Centre.
On November 18, 1982 at 12.35 a.m., Neil Roberts, a 22 year old punk anarchist, walked up to the entrance of the building which housed the Wanganui police computer.
When the bombing occured [sic], [director William] Keddell was angered by the media reaction to "what was clearly a politically motivated suicide": "The 'misguided youth' stuff just swept the real issues under the carpet. The Wanganui Computer was worth protesting about. It represented a profound and sad change in New Zealand. " (citing: Film scholar Russell Campbell, quoting director William Keddell in The Journal of New Zealand Studies no 8, 2009)
Daniel Jeffrey, Assistant Researcher, Middle East & North Africa Programme
Palestinian terrorism during the second Intifada clearly affected the political preferences of the Israeli electorate. Sharon's resounding victory in the 2001 election was one indication of this effect. Another was the Likud party's decisive win in the 2003 Knesset elections, doubling the number of its seats in parliament (from 19 to 38), while the rival pro-negotiation center-left Labor party lost seven seats (dropping from 26 to 19 seats). Not only did Palestinian terrorism boost the electoral appeal of the political right in Israel, it also helped to bring about a rightward shift in the political positions of the Israeli public. In general, more Israelis identified themselves as right-wing and fewer as left-wing. ... Palestinian terrorism ... had a major impact on their attitudes towards the use of force against Palestinians. Israeli Jews became much more militant and 'hawkish.' ... Angry and embittered by the seemingly endless series of gruesome Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel, the vast majority of the Israeli public staunchly supported the Sharon government's offensive military measures against the Palestinians. In 2001, for instance, 89 percent of Israeli Jews supported the Sharon government's policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants involved in terrorism against Israel
It was later discovered that the straight-A student had plans for an attack he referred to as "Columbine III", according to police … Police searching the family home found bomb-making materials, a pipe bomb and a detailed summary for a suicide attack.
On March 29, 2002, after a suicide bomber killed 30 people, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. Israel's troops re-entered Palestinian cities and refugee camps, hunting down terrorists and often leaving massive destruction in their wake. Three months later, in mid-June 2002, two more suicide bombings struck Israel. Sharon announced Israel would immediately begin a policy of taking back land in the West Bank, and holding it, until the terror attacks stopped.
In August, 2001, the American television channel CBS aired an interview with a Hamas activist Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: 'I described to him how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness.'
According to widespread Islamic belief, warriors killed in jihad are rendered free of sin and go directly to Paradise, ...
Lt. Gen.Gordon H.A. MacMillan, Palestine military commander, today confirmed the death sentences imposed on two Palestine Jews and commuted the sentence of a third to life imprisonment. Under amendments to the Emrgency Defense Regulations published yesterday there is no appeal from his decision. The condemned men areMoshe Barazani, 21, andMeir Feinstein, whose age the prosecution claims is 23. The third youth isDaniel Azulai. Barazani is a self-confessedSternist, who told the military court which convicted him that "you will not frighten us with your gallows". Feinstein's mother insists that her son, a veteran of theBritish Army, is only 17. Barazani was captured in Jerusalem during theimposition of martial law with hand grenade in his possession. The other two youths were charged with having participated in anattack on the Jerusalem central railroad station [he] last October.
Feinstein was sentenced to death following a government "expert's" testimony that he was at least 18 years old. The death sentence may not be imposed on anybody under that age. His brother attempted several times to tell the court that he was only 17, but he was refused permission to testify. Since the defendant's birth certificate was missing, the "expert" was ordered to estimate his age.
Now regarding the age of my brother Meir. So far the Prosecutors has tendered the following evidence on the subject: 1. A Birth Certificate issued by the Health Department, Government of Palestine, stating that the age of my brother Meir is 17 years 8 months. 2. My mother's sworn affidavit to the same effect. Medical Report by the Government Medical Officer, who was instructed to examine my brother at the request of the prosecutor, stating that my brother's age is 17½ yearв. Evidence by two military doctors that the age of my brother is 23-26 years.
This affidavit is sworn in support of an application for a judgment declaring that my said son Meir was born in Jerusalem on the 30th day of July 1929, or alternatively that on the 3rd day of April, 1947 he had not yet attained the age of 18 years.
FormerCIA officerRobert Baer … "The origins of suicide bombing lie among the Shi'ite in Iran. A 13-year-old child,Hossein Fahmideh, strapped rocket-propelled grenades to his chest and blew himself up under an Iraqi tank in November 1980.Ayatollah Khomeini's embattled Islamic republic adopted Fahmideh as a national hero and as an inspiration for further bloodshed and martyrdom".
Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh, was a 13 year old boy who is praised by Iranians as a true patriot… Hossein knew that his time would be up sooner or later; therefore he grabbed a hand grenade off one of the nearby bodies and pulled the pin out as he ran and jumped underneath an enemy tank, killing himself and disabling the tank … Ayatollah Khomeini declared Fahmideh Iranian national hero, calling him 'our leader'…
Taysir Abu Saada. All rights reserved. Adapted from the book Ich kämpfte für Arafat, published by Brunnen Verlag Basel under t ISBN 978-3-7655-1408-1.
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