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A suicide attack is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators suicide as part of the attack. These attacks are often associated with terrorism or War and are considered a form of murder–suicide. Suicide attacks involving bomb are commonly referred to as suicide bombings. In the context of terrorism, they are also commonly referred to as an act of suicide terrorism. While generally not inherently regulated under international law, suicide attacks in their execution often violate international laws of war, such as prohibitions against perfidy and targeting civilians.
Suicide attacks have occurred in various contexts, ranging from military campaigns—such as the Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II —to more contemporary Islamic terrorist campaigns—including the September 11 attacks in 2001. Initially, these attacks primarily targeted military, police, and public officials. This approach continued with groups like al-Qaeda, which combined mass civilian targets with political leadership. While only a few suicide attacks occurred between 1945 and 1980, between 1981 and September 2015 a total of 4,814 suicide attacks were carried out in over 40 countries, 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, and roughly one per day from 2003 to 2015. 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.
Suicide attacks distinguish themselves from other terror attacks due to their heightened lethality and destructiveness. Perpetrators benefit from the ability to conceal weapons, make last-minute adjustments, and the lack of need for escape plans, rescue teams, efforts to conceal their identities or evade capture afterwards. In the case of suicide bombings, they do not require remote or delayed detonation. 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 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. By mid-2015, approximately three-quarters of all suicide attacks occurred in just three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.(Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location". Afghanistan (1059) Iraq (1938) and Pakistan (490) have a total 3487 attacks out of a total of 4620 worldwide.)
William Hutchinson describes suicide attacks as a weapon of psychological warfare aimed at instilling fear in the target population, undermining areas where the 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. Motivations for suicide attackers vary. Kamikaze pilots acted under military orders, while other attacks have been driven by religious or Nationalism purposes. According to analyst Robert Pape, prior to 2003, most attacks targeted occupying forces. According to American-French anthropologist Scott Atran, from 2000 to 2004, the ideology of Istishhad played a predominant role in motivating the majority of bombers.: " During 2000–2004, there were 472 suicide attacks in 22 countries, killing more than 7,000 and wounding tens of thousands. Most have been carried out by Islamist groups claiming religious motivation, also known as jihadis. Rand Corp. vice president and terrorism analyst Bruce Hoffman has found that 80 percent of suicide attacks since 1968 occurred after the September 11 attacks, with jihadis representing 31 of the 35 responsible groups."
as "violent actions perpetrated by people who are aware that the odds they will return alive are close to zero". Other sources exclude from their work "suicidal" or high risk attacks, such as the Lod Airport massacre or a "reckless charge in battle".
Instead, focusing 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".
Also excluded from the definition are "", 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 excludes 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 the Columbine High School massacre, the Virginia Tech shooting or Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in the U.S.
It may not always be clear to investigators which type of killing is which as suicide attack campaigns sometimes use proxy bombers, as alleged in Iraq, or manipulate the vulnerable to become bombers. At least one researcher, Adam Lankford, argues that the motivation to kill and be killed connects some suicide attackers more closely to "suicidal rampage" murderers than is commonly thought.
This is a reference to the concept of Martyrdom in Islam (). They call the suicide attacker shahid ( shuhada; witness or martyr). The idea being that the attacker died to testify his faith in God, such as while waging jihad]] (jihad by the sword). The term "suicide" is avoided because Islam forbids taking one's own life in most circumstances. The concept of martyrdom 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. According to Israeli academic Assaf Moghadam, the term "martyrdom operation" has been used by Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and other Palestinian factions.
Victims of attacks are also referred to as martyrs. Among Muslims, secular Arabs, and related cultures, the term martyr or shaheed 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. This includes the victims of suicide terrorism, such as Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, who was assassinated in 2007 by a teenage Islamic extremist. Many things in Pakistan, mostly related to education, were named or renamed in her honour, referring to her by the title "shaheed" (martyr).
In Israel, acts of self sacrifice in battle are referred to by quoting Samson's words, , from Judges 16:30 (, Biblical Hebrew ). The same biblical quote is used in both praise and criticism of this approach to warfare. Prior to Israel, the story of Samson's suicide was used by two of the anti-British pre-state militant groups to refer to premeditated plans. One leader claimed that two militants who blew themselves up had not committed suicide, as such, due to Olei Hagardom. Their modern critics claim the situation itself was largely self inflicted. Some within Israel view the Samson in a very negative light.
People from Christian backgrounds, or within majority-Christian communities, have carried out suicide attacks in 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 been isolated incidents that the attacker did not explain at length.
Some efforts have been made to replace the term "suicide bombing" with "", 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 the Fox News Channel and the New York Post, both of which are owned by News Corporation and have since mostly abandoned the term. Robert Goldney, a professor emeritus at the University 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. 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".
In German-speaking areas the term "sacrifice bombing" () was proposed in 2012 by German scholar Arata Takeda.
On 5 February 1831, during the Belgian Revolution, a gale blew a Dutch gunboat under the command of Jan van Speyk into the quay of the port 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.
Moro people who performed suicide attacks were called mag-sabil, and the suicide attacks were known as parang-sabil. The Spanish called them . The idea of the juramentado was considered part of jihad in the Moros' Islamic religion. During an attack, a juramentado would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such as barongs and kris until he was killed. The Moros performed juramentado suicide attacks against the Spanish in the Spanish–Moro conflict of the 16th to the 19th centuries, against the Americans in the Moro Rebellion from 1899 to 1913), and against the Japanese in World War II.
The Moro () launched suicide 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. The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all known family members and relatives of the attackers. Schmidt, 1982 , p. 161.
According to historian Stephan 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 the Malabar coast of southwestern India, and in Aceh in Northern Sumatra as well." Religious Suicide in Islamic Asia," Stephen Fredric Dale, Department of History Ohio State University.
In the Xinhai Revolution, many Chinese revolutionaries became martyrs in battle. "Dare to Die" student corps were founded for student revolutionaries wanting to fight against Qing dynasty rule. Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing promoted the Dare to Die Corps. Huang said, "We must die, so let us die bravely." Suicide squads were formed by Chinese students going into battle, knowing that they would be killed fighting against overwhelming odds.
The 72 Martyrs of Huanghuagang died in the uprising that began the Wuchang Uprising. They were recognized as heroes and martyrs by the Kuomintang party and the Republic of China. The martyrs in the Dare to Die Corps who died in battle wrote letters to family members before heading off to certain death. The italics=no was built as a monument to the 72 martyrs. The deaths of the revolutionaries helped the establishment of the Republic of China, overthrowing the Qing dynasty. Other Dare to Die student corps in the Xinhai revolution were led by students who later became major military leaders in Republic of China, like Chiang Kai-shek and Huang Shaoxiong with the Muslim Bai Chongxi against Qing dynasty forces.
Dare to Die troops were used by warlords. The Kuomintang used one to put down an insurrection in Canton. Many women joined them in addition to men to achieve martyrdom against China's opponents.
During the January 28 Incident (28 January – 3 March 1932), a Dare to Die squad struck against the Japanese.
Suicide bombing was also used against the Japanese. A Dare to Die Corps was effectively used against Japanese units at the Battle of Taierzhuang. They used swords and wore suicide vests made out of grenades.
A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese soldiers at Sihang Warehouse. Chinese troops Explosive belt and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up. This tactic was used during the Battle of Shanghai, to stop a Japanese tank column when an attacker exploded himself beneath the lead tank, and at the Battle of Taierzhuang where Chinese troops with dynamite and grenades strapped to themselves rushed Japanese tanks and blew themselves up,
During the Communist Revolution, Coolie fighting the Communists formed Dare to Die Corps to fight for their organizations. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, protesting students also formed "Dare to Die Corps" to risk their lives defending the protest leaders.
Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff intended to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a suicide bombing in 1943, but was unable to complete the attack.Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler. Jonathan Cape, pp. 191–193 (2006); .
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. Kamikaze strikes were a weapon of asymmetric war used by the Empire of Japan against United States Navy and Royal Navy , although the armoured flight deck of the Royal Navy carriers diminished kamikaze effectiveness. Along with fitting existing aircraft with bombs, the Japanese also developed the Ohka, 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 piloted called kaiten (heaven shaker) on suicide missions. Although sometimes called , these were modified versions of the unmanned torpedoes of the time and are distinct from the torpedo-firing midget submarines used earlier in the war, which were designed to shore defenses and return to a mother 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.
The Irgun and Lehi militant groups collaborated on at least one intended suicide attack during their insurgency against the British (before the 1948 Palestine war). However, two of their own militants were the only casualties of their best documented plan. A Lehi militant and an Irgun militant blew themselves up in Jerusalem Central Prison, using improvised 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.
Both militants had been Olei Hagardom. The original plan, which the Lehi called "Operation Samson", was to carry the concealed grenades with them as they were taken to the gallows then use them to carry out a suicide attack against the executioners. But the explosives detonated early, while the two of them were alone together in their cell. Allegedly when the pair learned that Rabbi Goldman would be present at the time of the execution, they changed the plan and committed suicide alone together shortly before they were scheduled to be taken to the gallows. Another version of the story is that the person the militants were unwilling to harm was actually one of the British prison guards.
The Lehi militant, who was 21, was sentenced to death for carrying a grenade during a British imposition of martial law. The Irgun militant had been sentenced to death alongside another militant for their role in the . 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.
The court claimed he was 23, since the boy had served in the British military during World War Two, and the authorities refused to believe they had recruited a minor who was lying about his age.
In 2007, The Jerusalem Post described the event as "One of the best-known stories of heroism leading to the creation of the State of Israel".
In 2009 the Likud-led government introduced controversial changes to the high school curriculum that included a study unit focused on the suicides and other martyred pre-state militants.
In 2010 two Arab Israeli Knesset members were ejected from the chamber after heckling a speech memorializing the militants (the 2 suicides and 10 who were hung), and another member yelled "Haniyeh is waiting for you in Gaza".
American tanks in Seoul were attacked by North Korean suicide squads, who used satchel charges. North Korean soldier Li Su-Bok is considered a hero for destroying an American tank with a suicide bomb.
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 as concertina wire and landmines, and long ranged artillery fire. 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.
During the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) adopted suicide bombing as a tactic, using bomb belts and female bombers. The LTTE carried out their first suicide attack in July 1987. Their Black Tiger unit committed 83 suicide attacks from 1987 to 2009, killing 981 people. Those killed included former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the president of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a secular group, have also been involved in suicide attacks. The PKK began their insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. According to the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism's Suicide Attack Database, as of 2015, ten suicide attacks by the PKK from 1996 to 2012 killed 32 people and injured 116.
Al-Qaeda carried out its first suicide attack in the mid-1990s.
Suicide attacks first occurred in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 1989.
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. By 2005, the tactic had spread to dozens of countries.
Suicide bombing became a popular tactic among Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and occasionally by the PFLP.Pedahzur, pp. 66–69 The first suicide bombing in Israel was done by Hamas in 1994. Attacks peaked from 2001 to 2003 with over 40 bombings and over 200 killed in 2002. Bombers affiliated with these groups often use so-called "Explosive belt", which often included shrapnel 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 city crowded with people at rush hour. Analysis: Palestinian suicide bombings. BBC News (2007-01-29); retrieved 2012-08-19. 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. More music videos and announcements that promise eternity reward for suicide bombers can be found on Palestinian television, according to Palestinian Media Watch. Palestinian Media Watch official website , Pmw.org.il; retrieved 2012-08-19. Israeli sources observed that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah operate "Paradise Camps", training children as young as 11 to become suicide bombers. "Palestinian Summer Camps Teach Terror Tactics, Espouse Hatred; Some Found to Be Funded by UNICEF" , adl.org; retrieved 2012-08-19. Europe's Palestinian Children What Hope for Them? . Eufunding.org; retrieved 2012-08-19. In 2004, due to increased effectiveness in Israel's security measures and stricter checkpoint protocols, terrorist organizations began employing women and children more frequently as operatives, assuming that they would raise fewer suspicions and undergo less rigorous inspections.
The September 11 attacks in 2001, orchestrated by al-Qaeda, were the deadliest attacks on American soil since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which thrust the United States into World War II. They involved the hijacking of four large passenger jet 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. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers in less than two hours. American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon (U.S. Department Of Defense Headquarters) in Arlington 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. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after a revolt by the plane's passengers, killing all 44 people (including the four hijackers) on board. In total, the attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 others. The U.S. stock market closed for four trading days after the attacks in the first unscheduled close since the Great Depression. Nine days after the attack, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a "War on Terror" and shortly thereafter launched the War in Afghanistan to find and capture Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.
After the invasion 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.
In addition to United States military targets, they attacked many civilian targets such as Shiite as well as international offices of the UN and the Red Cross. Iraqi men waiting to apply for jobs with the new army and police force were targets. In the lead up to the Iraqi parliamentary election on 30 January 2005, suicide attacks upon civilian and police personnel involved with the increased. There were also reports of the insurgents co-opting disabled people as involuntary suicide bombers. "Handicapped boy who was made into a bomb", Smh.com.au, February 2, 2005; retrieved August 19, 2012.}
Shaheed (martyr) Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was assassinated in a terrorist attack on 27 December 2007. Benazir and 23 other people were killed by a 16-year-old suicide bomber using a explosive belt and used a gun.
Bhutto had already survived a previous assassination attempt in Karachi.
Following this, many schools and universities were named in honour of her martyrdom.
Other major locations of suicide attack are Afghanistan, with 1,059 attacks as of mid-2015, and Pakistan, with 490 attacks. In the first eight months of 2008, Pakistan overtook Iraq and Afghanistan in suicide bombings, with 28 bombings killing 471 people.Shahan Mufti. . csmonitor.com. Suicide bombings have become a tactic in Chechnya, first being used in the conflict in 2000 in Alkhan KalaPedahzur, p. 112
and spreading to Russia, notably with the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002 and the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004.
In Europe, four Islamist suicide bombers exploded home-made peroxide explosives on three London underground trains and a bus on 7 July 2005, during the morning rush hour. These "7/7" bombings killed 52 civilians and injured 700.
Since 2006, italics=no has carried out major suicide attacks in Somalia, the worst year so far being 2016 with 28 attacks.
On 22 May 2017, the Manchester Arena bombing occurred which resulted in 23 deaths and 1,017 injuries. The attack was carried out as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert.
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."Pape, Dying to Win, (2005), pp. 28–29 Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the efficacy of suicide terrorism.
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".
Anthropologist Scott Atran wrote,
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 foster groupthink. 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.
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."Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. Disabled Often Carry Out Afghan Suicide Missions, npr.org; retrieved March 22, 2015.
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 the Camp Chapman attack in Afghanistan in 2010, was a medical doctor.Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent, New York: Doubleday, 2011. p. 37
A 2004 paper by Harvard University Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie "casts 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".Alberto Abadie. Freedom squelches terrorist violence . News.harvard.edu; November 4, 2004; accessed August 19, 2012. 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.
Pape found that among Islamic suicide terrorists, 97 percent were unmarried and 84 percent were male. If the Kurdistan Workers' Party was excluded, this changed to be 91 percent male. A study conducted by the U.S. military in Iraq 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 in blue-collar occupations. 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 higher polygyny rates correlated with greater production of suicide terrorists. Political scientists Valerie M. Hudson and Bradley Thayer noted that countries where polygyny is widely practiced tend to have higher homicide rates and Rape statistics. The pair have argued that because Islam is the only major religious tradition where polygyny is still largely condoned, the higher degrees of marital inequality in Muslim world compared to most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism. Hudson and Theyer contended that Houri for Shahid serves as a mechanism to mitigate in-group conflict within Islamic countries by redirecting their violence towards out-groups.
Along with his research on the Tamil Tigers, Scott Atran found that Palestinian jihadist groups such as Hamas provide monthly , Lump sum, and prestige to the families of suicide terrorists. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker argues in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) that because the families of men in the West Bank and Gaza Strip often cannot afford 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 of kin selection and biological fitness.
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.Artur Lakatos, „War, Martyrdom and Suicide Bombers: Essay on Suicide Terrorism", in Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, Issue 14/2010, pp 171–180 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". A study by German scholar Arata Takeda analyzes analogous behavior represented in literary texts from the antiquity through the 20th century, these being Ajax, Samson Agonistes, The Robbers, and The 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."Takeda, Arata (2010), Ästhetik der Selbstzerstörung: Selbstmordattentäter in der abendländischen Literatur (p. 296), Munich: Fink; .
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. He has identified more than 130 individual suicide terrorists, including 9/11 ringleader Mohamed 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.Lankford, Adam. (2013). The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers (p. 61); .
According to Robert 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.Pape, Dying to Win, p. 128
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". In Israel suicide attacks by Islamist Islamic Jihad and Hamas also preceded those of the secular PFLP and the Al-Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
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
Other researchers, such as Yotam Feldner, argue that perceived religious rewards after death are instrumental in encouraging Muslims to commit suicide attacks. These researchers contend that Pape's analysis is flawed, particularly his contention that democracies are the main targets of such attacks. Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the causes of suicide terrorism.
Atran argues that suicide bombing has moved on from the days of Pape's study, 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. Other researchers question why prominent anti-occupation secular terrorist groups have not used suicide, such as the Provisional IRA, ETA, or Anti-imperialism insurgents in Vietnam, Algeria, and elsewhere. They also question Pape omits that the first suicide attack in Lebanon targeted the embassy of Iraq, a country that was not occupying Lebanon.
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.Bloom, Mia, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (2005), p.94-98 This explains its use by Palestinian groups, but not that by the Tamil Tigers. Still other researchers have identified sociopolitical factors as more central in the motivation of suicide attackers than religion.Galtung, Johan. "11 September 2001: Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy", In: Searching for peace – the road to TRANSCEND, Galtung, Johan, Jacobsen, Carl, Brand-Jacobsen, Kai, London: Pluto Press, 2002, pp. 87–102
According to Atran and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman, support for suicide actions is triggered by moral outrage at perceived attacks against Islam and sacred values. However, this is converted to action as a result of small-world factors, such as being part of a football club with other jihadis. Millions express sympathy with global jihad. 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".An estimated 7–14% of Muslims worldwide (depending on the poll taken) supported the Al Qaeda strike against the United States.
Assaf Moghadam is also arguing that the increase in suicide terrorism since 2001 is driven by italics=no ideology and Al-Qaeda.
Updating his work in a 2010 book Cutting 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. 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."
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. Critics argue the logic cannot be seen in Pakistan,Max Boot, " Suicide by Bomb," The Weekly Standard, Aug 1, 2011. which has no occupation and the second highest number of suicide bombing fatalities as of mid-2015.
Since then, videotaped pre-confession of faith by attackers known as the "vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice" have become part of "Islamic cultural consciousness". These confessions are "instantly recognizable" to Muslims, according to Noah Feldman. The tactic has spread through the Muslim world "with astonishing speed and on a surprising course".
Recent research on the rationale of suicide bombing has identified both religious and sociopolitical motivations.Olivetti, Vincetto (2002), Terror's Source; Esposito, John (2003) Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam; Ayubi, Nazih (1991) Political Islam; Mohammed Hafez, 2003 Those 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 be rewarded as martyrs. Since martyrdom is seen as a step towards paradise, those who commit suicide while discarding their community from a common enemy believe that they will reach an ultimate salvation after they die.
In the media attention given to suicide bombing during the Second Intifada and after 9/11, sources hostile to radical Islamism quoted radical scholars promising various heavenly rewards, such as 70 virgins () as wives, to Muslims who die as martyrs, specifically as suicide attackers. Other alleged rewards for those dying are being cleansed of all sin and brought directly to paradise, and not having to wait for the Day of Judgement.
Others, such as As'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.
The articles maintains that Abu Huraira, a companion of the Muhammad, and Umar 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 numerous Hadith of Muhammad on the authority of Islamic jurist Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. "The Sahaba companions 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."
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). 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, are haram (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."
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. Muslim scholar's fatwa condemns terrorism , Articles.cnn.com; retrieved August 19, 2012.Lewis, Bernard & Buntzie Ellis Churchill. "Islam: The Religion and the People" (p. 53), Wharton School Publishing, 2008.
According to Bernard 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." Islamic legal rules of armed warfare or military jihad are covered in detail in the classical texts of Islamic jurisprudence, which forbid the killing of women, children, or non-combatants, and the destruction of cultivated or residential areas.Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill, Islam: The Religion and the People, Wharton School Publishing, 2008, pp. 145–53.Muhammad Hamidullah, The Muslim Conduct of State (Ashraf Printing Press (1987); , pp. 205–08
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.
Several respected Muslim scholars have provided scholastic refutations of suicide bombings, condemning them as terrorism prohibited in Islam and leading their perpetrators to hell. In his over 400 page long Fatwa on Terrorism condemning suicide attacks, Muslim Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri directly disputed the rationale of Islamists. He argues that indiscriminately killing both Muslims and non-Muslims is unlawful, and brings the Muslim ummah into disrepute, no matter how lofty the killers intentions. 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".
Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh issued a fatwa 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 to destroy themselves and societies".
In 2005, following a series of bombings by the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), chief cleric of Bangladesh Ubaidul Haq led a protest of ulema denouncing terrorism. He said:
In January 2006, italics=no (high ranking cleric) Yousef Sanei decreed a fatwa against suicide bombing, declaring it a "terrorist act".Noah Feldman, "Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age", New York Times, October 29, 2006 In 2005, Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti also issued a fatwa "Against The Targeting Of Civilians". Defending the Transgressed Fatwa against suicide bombing by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti; accessed 22 March 2015.
Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam titled The Hijacked Caravan. The Hijacked Caravan , ihsanic-intelligence.com; retrieved August 19, 2012. The study concluded that,
American based Islamic jurist and scholar Khaled Abou Al-Fadl argues,
According to theologian Charles Kimball, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide" (4:29): "O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only in business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful."
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 the European Council for Fatwa and Research also cite the Quranic verse Al-An'am 6:151)] as prohibiting suicide: "And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law". The Hadith, 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.'" Hadith 2:445, sacred-texts.com; retrieved August 19, 2012.Adil Salahi Committing Suicide Is Strictly Forbidden in Islam, Aljazeerah.info, June 22, 2004; retrieved August 19, 2012.
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. Suicide Bombers – Why do they do it, and what does Islam say about their actions? ; accessed 22 March 2015
The international community considers the use of indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations as illegal under international law.
Muslim support for suicide bombings against civilian targets to defend Islam has varied over time and by country. The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of the Muslim public found that support has declined over the years since a high point immediately after 9/11. The highest support for suicide bombings has been reported in the occupied Palestinian territories, where in 2014, 46% of Muslims thought that such attacks were often or sometimes justified.
Female suicide bombers have been observed in many predominantly nationalist conflicts by a variety of organizations against both military and civilian targets. In February 2002, however, religious leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin issued a fatwa permitting women to participate in suicide attacks.
During the 1980s, the greatest number of female suicide attacks in any single year was five. By contrast, in 2008 alone there were 35 female suicide attacks and in 2014 there were 15 such attacks according to the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST) Suicide Attack Database.
In Lebanon on 9 April 1985, Sana'a Mehaidli, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured twelve more. She is believed to have been the first female suicide bomber. She is known as "the Bride of the South". During the Lebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army.
Sri Lanka's militant organization, the Black Wing Tigers, executed 330 suicide bombing attacks which were executed mainly by women. The group was formed in 1987 and was disbanded in 2009.
On 21 May 1991, former Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Approximately 30% of the organization's suicide bombings were carried out by women.
The Chechen people have attacked Russian troops in Chechnya and Russian civilians elsewhere. For example, in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.
Women of the PKK have carried out suicide bombings primarily against Turkish Armed Forces. In some cases they strapped explosives to their abdomen to simulate pregnancy.Cragin, Kim; Daly, Sara A. (2009). Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs, ABC-CLIO; accessed March 22, 2015.
Wafa Idris, under the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, became the first Palestinian female suicide bomber on 28 January 2002, when she blew herself up on Jaffa Road in Central Jerusalem.
On 27 February 2002, Darine Abu Aisha carried out a suicide bombing at the Maccabim checkpoint of the Israeli army near Jerusalem. On the same day, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the religious leader of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, issued a fatwa that permitted women to participate in suicide attacks and stated that they would be rewarded in the afterlife.Cook, Bernard A. (2006). Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present, ABC-CLIO; accessed March 22, 2015.
Ayat al-Akhras, the third and youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber at age 18, killed herself and two Israeli civilians on 29 March 2002 by detonating explosives belted to her body in a supermarket. She had been trained by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to the armed branch of Fatah. The killings gained widespread international attention due to Ayat's age and gender and the fact that one of the victims was also a teenage girl.
Hamas deployed its first female suicide bomber, Reem Riyashi, on 14 January 2004. Al-Riyashi attacked Erez Crossing, killing 7 people.
Two female attackers attacked U.S. troops in Iraq on 5 August 2003. Whereas female suicide bombers are not typically introduced in initial stages of a conflict, this attack demonstrated the early and significant involvement of Iraqi women in the Iraq War.
On 29 March 2010, two female Chechen terrorists bombed two Moscow subway stations killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 60 people.
The Taliban has used at least one female suicide bomber in Afghanistan. "Female suicide bomber kills 15 at crowded Afghan market", CBC News, May 15, 2008; retrieved April 29, 2012.
On 25 December 2010, the first female suicide bomber in Pakistan detonated her explosives-laden vest, killing at least 43 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan. "Female suicide bomber kills dozens at Pakistan food center after militants killed near Afghan border", nydailynews.com, December 25, 2010; retrieved April 29, 2012.
On 29 December 2013, a female Chechen suicide bomber detonated her vest in the Volgograd railway station killing at least 17 people.
On 23 December 2016, the first female suicide bomber in Bangladesh detonated her explosive during a police raid.
According to a report issued by intelligence analysts in the U.S. army in 2011, "Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 4% of male attackers." The report further stated that female suicide bombers often were "grieving the loss of family members and seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss, unable to produce children, and/or dishonored through sexual indiscretion." U.S. Army Female Suicide Bombers Report (p. 71), publicintelligence.net; accessed July 11, 2015. Study: Female suicide bombers seek atonement, ynetnews.com; accessed 22 March 2015 Male suicide bombers are presented as being motivated more by political factors than female suicide bombers are.
Another study of suicide bombers from 1981 and July 2008 by Lindsey A. O'Rourke found female bombers are generally in their late twenties, significantly older than their male counterparts.
O'Rourke found the average number of victims killed by a female suicide attacker was higher than that for male attackers for every group studied, which included Tamil, PKK, Lebanese, Chechen, and Palestinian attackers. Consequently, terrorist organizations recruit and motivate women to participate in suicide attacks, using traditional attitudes of honor, feminine harmlessness, and vulnerability among target populations to insert attackers where they can cause a maximum of death and destruction. Bombs have been disguised as a pregnant stomach, avoiding invasive searches, seen as taboo. By stumbling or calling out in distress, more victims may be drawn to the explosion. These women have proven to be deadlier with higher completion rates with more casualties and deaths than their male counterparts. The female bomb carriers are not permitted to hold and control the detonator, which the men in charge still hold. Until recently, attacks of female bombers were considered more newsworthy because of the "unladylike" behavior of their perpetrator.
On 15 January 2008, the son of Mahmoud al-Zahar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was killed. Another son had been killed in a 2003 assassination attempt on Zahar. Three days later, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israel 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 the Dimona 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's Izz 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. THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2008 (p. 9) , Edge.org; retrieved August 19, 2012.
In 2017 and 2019, during the Sinai insurgency, there were suicide bombings in the Gaza Strip by local ISIS sympathizers. ISIS are a global extremist group, with an ideology that fundamentally opposes the Palestinian nationalism of Hamas and the other groups above. In 2017 two Hamas government border guards were killed while attempting to intercept an ISIS suicide bomber at Rafah Crossing. The Hamas government responded to that bombing with a crackdown on followers of "deviant ideologies" (meaning ISIS and similar groups).
In 2018, members of Sinai Province "declared war" on Hamas, demanding Hamas release ISIS militants held in Gaza's prisons. Then in 2019, another suicide attack – also attributed to ISIS – directly targeted Gaza Strip police. Three police officers were killed, all three victims were allegedly members of Hamas. Gaza's Security forces responded by arresting ten people whom they suspected were members of the cell who arranged the attack.
In the West Bank, the IDF has at times Demolition homes that belong to families whose children or landlords whose tenants had volunteered for such missions, whether completed or not. Through No Fault of Their Own: Punitive House Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada B'Tselem, November 2004 An internal review starting in October 2004 brought an end to the policy, but it was resumed in 2014. 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 Israeli West Bank barrier in and around the West Bank. The Second 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. 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.
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. Understanding Suicide Terrorism And How To Stop It, npr.org; accessed 22 March 2015 These responses "produced their own costs and risks—in lives, national debt, and America's standing in the world".
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. 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".
Other groups have had mixed results. The Liberation 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". Their struggle for an Independence state in the North and East 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 a UN estimate. 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. Nonetheless, the conflict ended in May 2009 not with an independent Tamil Eelam, but with the overrunning of LTTE strongholds and the killing of its leadership by the Sri Lankan military and security forces.
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 the Oslo 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. according to the BBC. Fatal Terrorist Attacks in Israel Since the DOP (September 1993) , Mfa.gov.il; retrieved August 19, 2012. The accords were sidetracked after the 1996 election of right-wing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. From 1994 to 1997, there were 14 suicide attacks that killed 159, not all of which were attributed to Hamas. Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location", click Israel and after getting the results click "year". Hamas's suicide bombings of Israeli targets "were widely" credited for the popularity among Israelis of the hardline Netanyahu, who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords, but an even stauncher enemy of Hamas.
The efficacy of suicide bombing, however, does not appear to have been demonstrated by the al-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.(Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location", click Israel and after getting the results click "year".) These attacks petered out around 2005 following harsh Israeli security measures, such as "targeted assassinations" of Palestinians reportedly involved in terrorism, and the building of a "separation barrier" that severely hampered Palestinian travel, but with no withdrawal by the Israelis from any occupied territory.
The drop in suicide bombings in Israel has been explained by the many security measures taken by the Israeli government, especially the building of the "separation barrier", and a general consensus among Palestinians that the bombings were a "losing strategy". The suicides and other attacks on civilians had "a major impact" on the attitudes of the Israeli public. Instead of creating demoralization, the attacks generated even greater support for the right-wing Likud party which brought to office another hardliner, the former general Ariel 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. Opinion polls of the Jewish Israelis found 7884% supported the "separation barrier" in 2004. Peace Index / Most Israelis support the fence, despite Palestinian suffering – Haaretz — Israel News — Ephraim Yaar, Tamar Hermann — March 10, 2004
In the case of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., at least in the short term, the results were negative for Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban. Since the attacks, Western nations have diverted massive resources towards stopping similar actions, as well as increasing border security, and military actions against various countries believed to have been involved with terrorism. Critics of the War 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.
Other military and militant uses of suicide
Hunger strikes and suicide protests
Hunger strikes are another use of self harm, and accrual or potential suicide, that is used by some militant groups.
Preventing capture
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 intentional friendly fire. Either to avoid disclose of military secrets, avoid the need for a prisoner exchange, or for more intangible ideological motives. Individuals are encouraged by a perception that capture is a fate worse than death, and the likelihood of torture 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.
Sicarii in the First Jewish–Roman War
The Sicarii Jewish sect are sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies.
Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD Jewish Sicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill" Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators. However, they are more known for having committed mass suicide, and family murders, to avoid capture during the Siege of Masada.
Before World War One
Hashishiyeen
The Hashishiyeen (Order of Assassins) were from a sect of Ismaili Shi'a Muslims. They assassinated two Caliphs, as well as many viziers, Sultans, and Crusade leaders over 300 years, (2025). 9781412981767, Sage. ISBN 9781412981767 before being annihilated by Mongols 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.
Switzerland
Arnold von Winkelried was considered a hero in the Swiss struggle for independence for sacrificing himself at the Battle of Sempach in 1386.
(1780)
In 1780, an Indian people woman named Kuyili applied ghee and oil onto her body and set herself ablaze. She then jumped into an armoury of the East India Company, causing it to explode. This suicide attack helped to secure victory for her queen, Velu Nachiyar, in the battle. Remembering Queen Velu Nachiyar of Sivagangai, the first queen to fight the British. The News Minute. 3 January 2017
17th century
In the late 17th century, Qing dynasty official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner. 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 the Siege of Fort Zeelandia.
(1873–1904)
Muslim Acehnese people from the Aceh Sultanate performed suicide attacks known as parang-sabil against Dutch invaders during the Aceh War (1873–1904). It was considered part of personal jihad in Islam. The Dutch called it Atjèh-moord, ( Aceh murder). The Acehnese work of literature the Hikayat Perang Sabil provided the background and reasoning for the Atjèh-moord as Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch. The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms are Aceh bodoh, Aceh pungo, Aceh gila, or Aceh mord.
Moro juramentado
Juramentado, in Philippines history, refers to a male Moro people swordsman (from the Tausug people tribe of Sulu Islands) who attacked and killed targeted occupying and invading police and . Death was expected, and considered martyrdom, undertaken as a form of jihad.
Ignaty Grinevitsky (1881) and others in Russia
A Russian man named Ignaty Grinevitsky is sometimes described as the first known suicide bomber. 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 Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881. (2025). 9780415316514, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415316514 A would-be suicide bomber killed Russian Minister of the Interior Vyacheslav von Plehve, in St Petersburg in 1904, but survived with major injuries.
20th century disputes
1905 in New Zealand
The earliest known non-military suicide attack occurred in Murchison, 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 of gelignite 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.
1927 Bath School bombings in Michigan, USA
The first reported car bombing was the Bath School bombings in Michigan, USA in 1927. Multiple separate explosions on the same day killed 45 people, including the bomber, and half of a school was destroyed.
The bombings were all carried out by Andrew Kehoe, motivated by a personal grievance.
His death was possibly an intentional suicide, 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.
The explosion may have been set off indirectly by him firing his own gun at the men.
Most of the deaths were caused by the earlier bombs.
1953 in West Virginia
In 1953 a man at a magistrate's Court in West Virginia, "turned himself into a human bomb" with sticks of dynamite strapped to him. He killed himself and injured his ex-wife and her lawyer.
During the World Wars and interwar period
Chinese suicide squads
During the Xinhai Revolution and the Warlord Era of the Republic of China, "Dare to Die Corps" () or "suicide squads".
"Dare to Die Corps" in the Xinhai Revolution and the Warlord Era:
were frequently used by Chinese armies. China deployed these suicide units against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Marjorie Wall Bingham, Susan Hill Gross (1980). 9780865960282, Glenhurst Publications. . ISBN 9780865960282 They were known as 烈士 (; martyrs) after accomplishing their mission.
Ong Siew Chey (2025). 9789814312998, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. . ISBN 9789814312998 in one incident obliterating four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles.
in Palestine (1939)
The Irgun militant group in Palestine abused donkeys as suicide bombers in two attacks on Haifa vegetable market in 1939. They used unwitting donkeys loaded with explosives to attack the market, one attack killed 78 people, the other killed 21 people and wounded 24.
The previous year the Irgun attacked the market with a car bomb, killing 35 Arab civilians and wounding 70. There are no clearly documented cases of the Irgun using car bombs in suicide attacks, but the Irgun – and their more extreme Lehi splinter group – are seen as the key developers of car bombs, that were later used by other groups in numerous suicide attacks. (2025). 9780520949454 ISBN 9780520949454
The Irgun were extremely influential.
During World War Two
Germans during World War II
During the Battle for Berlin the italics=no flew "self-sacrifice missions" () against Soviet bridges over the River Oder. These "total missions" were flown by pilots of the Leonidas Squadron. From 17 to 20 April 1945, using any available aircraft, the italics=no claimed the squadron had destroyed 17 bridges. However, military historian Antony Beevor believes this claim was exaggerated and only the railway bridge at Küstrin was definitely destroyed. He comments that "thirty-five pilots and aircraft was a high price to pay for such a limited and temporary success". The missions were called off when the Soviet ground forces reached the vicinity of the squadron's airbase at Jüterbog.Antony Beevor. Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, p. 238; ; accessed April 18, 2015.
Japanese kamikaze
Kamikaze was a ritual act of self-sacrifice carried out by Japanese pilots of explosive-laden aircraft 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.
Aceh in WWII
Atjèh-moord was also used against the Japanese by the Acehnese during the Japanese occupation of Aceh. The Acehnese Ulama (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. Ricklefs 2001, p. 252. Martinkus 2004, p. 47. The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school. "Tempo: Indonesia's Weekly News Magazine, Volume 3, Issues 43–52" 2003, p. 27. During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under Teungku Abduldjalil (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah on 10 November and Tjot Plieng on 13 November. "Berita Kadjian Sumatera: Sumatra Research Bulletin, Volumes 1–4" 1971, p. 35. Nasution 1963, p. 89. In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again. Jong 2000, p. 189.
Early Cold War
Insurgency in Palestine (1944–1948)
The Lehi militant group used the Hebrew Bible of Samson's death (Judges 16) in discussions about suicide attacks. In a meeting about ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing. They refer to it as a "" proposal () as a reference to the words of Samson in (Judges 16:30), or a "Samson option". On that occasion other members of the group allegedly rejected her offer. She also had a physical disability that might have made her unable to carry out the plan the group had in mind. The Lehi memorialize her among their martyrs and fallen combatants (), but her cause of death is not described.
(1950–1953)
North Korea tanks were attacked by South Koreans with suicide tactics during the Korean War.
Israeli and Egyptian wars (1956–1970)
Israelis "dying with the Philistines" in Gaza
Some Israelis romanticize acts of self sacrifice in battle by analogy to the Hebrew Bible hero Samson, particularly if they take place in Gaza City, where Israelis believe Samson committed suicide and killed thousands of enemy Philistines in the process. 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. This includes some anecdotes of events during their wars with Egypt.
Suez Crisis (1956)
According to Egyptian media, an Arab Christian military officer from Syria, Jules Jammal, sunk a French ship with a suicide attack during the Suez Crisis in 1956. 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 "Ocean liner Jean D'Arc" Jules Jammal (1932 1956), the famous officer in the Syrian Navy who fought in the Suez Canal war of 1956: Syrian History and Jules Jammal: Syrian History and another the "French warship, Jeanne D'Arc". Middle East analysis by Sami Moubayed – Reflections on May 6, Mideastviews.com; accessed 15 June 2015 There was a French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc in service at that time, but it was decommissioned in 1964 rather than sunk. Some sources name the battleship Jean Bart., which refers to the Jean Bart as a "cruiser")
"War of Attrition" (1967–1970)
On 21 March 1968, in response to persistent Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raids against Israeli civilian targets, Israel attacked the town of Karameh, Jordan, the site of a major PLO camp. The goal of the invasion was to destroy the Karameh camp and capture Yasser Arafat in reprisal for the attacks by the PLO against Israeli civilians. The PLO attacks had culminated in an Israeli school bus hitting a mine in the Negev. This engagement marked the first known deployment of suicide bombers by Palestinian forces. (2025). 9781414323619, Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 9781414323619
Lod airport massacre (1972)
One of the first incidents to be labelled "suicide terrorism" was the mass shooting at the airport in Lod (also known as Lydda), Israel's international airport. Two of the attackers died during the attack, one of whom deliberately committed suicide using a hand grenade.
It was carried out by three foreign fighters from the Japanese Red Army (a communist militant group from Japan) in corroboration with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations division, a rebellious offshoot of the PFLP.
Some reports at the time labelled the incident a "Kamikaze" attack, but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter. The Kamakazi were a unit of suicide bombers in the airforce of imperial Japan in WWII, the Empire of Japan had a very different ideology to the JRA. Researchers from Duke University described the JRA's motives as "rooted in anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism".
In 2010, Ze'ev Sarig, the former manager of Lod Airport, compared the attack to the September 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 in Puerto Rico in 2010.
Nuclear weapons
United States nuclear weapons
On 27 December 2018, the Green Bay Press-Gazette interviewed veteran Mark Bentley, who had trained for the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) program to manually place and detonate a modified version of the W54 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:
Mutually assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with Second strike would result in the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. Mutual Assured Destruction ; Col. Alan J. Parrington, USAF, Mutually Assured Destruction Revisited, Strategic Doctrine in Question , Airpower Journal, Winter 1997.
Samson Option
Israel's nuclear strategy, the "Samson Option", takes its name from Samson's suicide in Gaza City, the same Biblical story that the Lehi and Irgun militant group used to describe potential and attempted suicide attacks (see above).
The story is about an Israelite Biblical judges named Samson, who kills himself and the Philistines who captured him by pushing apart the pillars of a Dagon temple, bringing down the roof crushing everyone.
The Lehi militant who built the bombs for Operation Samson, the intended suicide attack in Jerusalem Central Prison in 1947, later had a leadership role in the Israeli military's nuclear and biological weapons division.
He originally enlisted using his girlfriend's surname.
Some of his work was purely defensive, such as the development of gas masks, but even that was conducted in great secrecy.
Late Cold War and War on Terror
The United 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".
Noah Feldman and many others exclude terror attacks, such as the Lod Airport massacre, where "the perpetrator's ensured death" was not "a precondition for the success of his mission". The intended targets are often civilian, not just military or political.
Late Cold War armed conflicts
The Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s
+Suicide attacks by organization,
1982 to mid-2015(Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "group")Others/unidentified attackers 2547 22877 +Suicide attacks by location,
1982 to mid-2015(Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location")All other countries 99 674
Suicide attacks in the 1980s and 1990s
The Islamic Dawa Party's car bombing of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in December 1981 and Hezbollah's bombing of the U.S. embassy in April 1983 and attack on United States Marines and French barracks in October 1983 brought suicide bombings international attention and began the modern suicide bombing era. Other parties to the civil war were quick to adopt the tactic, and by 1999 factions such as Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, the Ba'ath Party, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party had carried out a total of roughly 50 suicide bombings. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party sent the first recorded female suicide bomber in 1985.
The 2001 September 11 attacks and after
In early 2000, analyst Yoram 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."
Nashville
On 25 December 2020, a suicide bombing occurred in Nashville, Tennessee.
Strategy and advantages
According to author Jeffrey William Lewis, success campaigns of suicide bombing require: willing individuals, organizations to train and use them, and a society willing to accept such acts in the name of a greater good. The organizations 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. 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. 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". According to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the former 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."Quoted in Mia Bloom (2005), Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 3–4; . While this arguably explains the motivation of many early suicide bombings in the 1980s and 90s, it cannot explain many later attacks, such as those on funeral processions of the minority Shia in Pakistan.
Tactics
Various groups adapt their strategies to suit specific targets. For example, in the 1980s, Hezbollah favored the use of explosive-laden cars, while the LTTE in Sri Lanka employed tactics involving explosive-laden boats. Palestinian organizations in the 1990s refined an approach involving suicide bombers with , influencing groups like the Chechens and the PKK. In contemporary Iraq, local factions have utilized explosive-laden vehicles to target heavily guarded military facilities.
Attacker profiles and motivations
Studies of who becomes a suicide attacker and what motivates them have often come to different conclusions. According to Riaz Hassan,
Nationalist resistance and religion
To what extent attackers are motivated by religious enthusiasm, by resistance to perceived outsider oppression, or some combination of the two is disputed.
(2025). 9788366675582, Walter de Gruyter GmbH. ISBN 9788366675582 grassroots support for the attacksPape, Dying to Win, p. 92. contributed. Other factors include attackers being disproportionately from the educated middle classes, high levels of brutality and cruelty by the occupiers,Pape, Dying to Win, p. 60. and competition among militant groups fighting the occupiers.Pape, Dying to Win, pp. 200–16.
Islam
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.Pape, Dying to Win, computed from Table 1, p. 15 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. For example, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq.Robert Fisk. "The Cult of the Suicide Bomber", commondreams.org, March 14, 2008.
History
Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 19791989 Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, an asymmetrical war where the mujahideen fought Soviet warplanes, helicopters and tanks primarily with light weapons. According to author Sadakat 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 to Hezbollah and other Lebanese Shi'a factions for more than a decade.
First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. From Lebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been Shia Iraqi people. ... In Afghanistan, ... both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox Sunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on Hajj to Mecca. 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 1996–2006). Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence – not just to Westerners but also to Muslims themselves.
(2025). 9781409476450, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. ISBN 9781409476450One scholar of history (Leor Halevi) suggests that suicide killers may be motivated by the idea that by dying while waging jihad they are transported directly to paradise, thus bypassing "the tortures of the grave" ("a state akin to the late Christian concept of purgatory").
Support for "martyrdom operations"
Islamist militant organizations including al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad argue that, despite what some Muslims claim is Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder,. abdulhaqq.jeeran.com.. abdulhaqq.jeeran.com.
suicide attacks fulfill the obligation of jihad against the "oppressor", "martyrs" will be rewarded with paradise, and have the support of some Muslim clerics.
Clerics have supported suicide attacks largely in connection with the Palestinian issue. Prominent Sunni cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi had previously supported such attacks by Palestinians in perceived defense of their homeland as heroic and an act of resistance. Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the spiritual authority recognized by Hezbollah, holds similar views.
Opposition and responses from Muslim scholars
Others, such as Middle East historian Bernard 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 , 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."
Islam prohibits suicide bombings. These bombers are enemies of Islam. ... It is a duty for all Muslims to stand up against those who are killing people in the name of Islam.
The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation. The Hijacked Caravan: Refuting Suicide Bombings as Martyrdom Operations in Contemporary Jihad Strategy , Mac.abc.se; retrieved August 19, 2012.
The classical jurists, nearly without exception, argued that those who attack by stealth, while targeting noncombatants in order to terrorize the resident and wayfarer, are corrupters of the earth. "Resident and wayfarer" was a legal expression that meant that whether the attackers terrorize people in their urban centers or terrorize travelers, the result was the same: all such attacks constitute a corruption of the earth. The legal term given to people who act this way was muharibun (those who wage war against society), and the crime is called the crime of hiraba (waging war against society). The crime of hiraba was so serious and repugnant that, according to Islamic law, those guilty of this crime were considered enemies of humankind and were not to be given quarter or sanctuary anywhere .... Those who are familiar with the classical tradition will find the parallels between what were described as crimes of hiraba and what is often called terrorism today nothing short of remarkable. The classical jurists considered crimes such as assassinations, setting fires, or poisoning water wells – that could indiscriminately kill the innocent – as offenses of hiraba. Furthermore, hijacking methods of transportation or crucifying people in order to spread fear are also crimes of hiraba. Importantly, Islamic law strictly prohibited the taking of hostages, the mutilation of corpses, and torture.Khaled Abou Al-Fadl: The Great Theft. Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, HarperCollins, p. 243 (2005); .
Public surveys
Gender
Suicide operatives are overwhelmingly male in most groups, but among Chechnya rebels Women Armed for Terror, nytimes.com; accessed 22 March 2015 and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) women form the majority of the attackers.Pape, Dying to Win, p. 209.
Gendered motivations
In some traditions, women are customarily seen as peace-makers rather than as front-line actors in conflicts.Clonan, Tom. "The History of Women in Combat." Technological School of Dublin, School of Media, 1998, pp. 117-162 This misconception 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.O'Rourke, L. "What's Special about Female Suicide Terrorism." Security Studies. Vol. 18. 2009. Pp. 681-718 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." Some earlier literature suggested that women tend to be motivated by personal trauma rather than by ideological reasons. 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.Gowrinathan, Nimmi. "Evident Truths: American Women at War." Los Angeles Review of Books, LA Review of Books, 2 Apr. 2021, lareviewofbooks.org/article/evident-truths-american-women-at-war/. Women's as well as men's usual motivations for becoming suicide bombers should be assumed to be nuanced and complex.Amireh, Amal. "Palestinian Women's Disappearing Act: The Suicide Bomber through Western Feminist Eyes." MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 5, Spring 2005. Pp. 228-242
Specific groups
Al-Qaeda
Analysis of the 9/11 al-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 the italics=no and other nearby mosques in Hamburg, in local restaurants and the dormitory of the Technical University in the suburb of Harburg. Mohamed Atta, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Marwan al-Shehhi lived together as they self-radicalized. They wanted to go to Chechnya, then Kosovo.
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)
Hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign from 2003 to 2004 involved several members of Hebron's italics=no (mosque) al-Jihad soccer team. Most lived in the Wad Abu Katila neighborhood and belonged to the al-Qawasmeh hamula (clan). Several were classmates in the neighborhood's local branch of the Palestinian Polytechnic College. 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 Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on 22 March 2004 and Abdel 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.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were thought to have mastered the use of suicide attacks and had a separate unit, "The Black Tigers", consisting "exclusively of cadres who have volunteered to conduct suicide operations".
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
The self-declared "Islamic State" (ISIS) 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.
A study published by The Guardian in 2017 analyzed 923 attacks done between December 2015 and November 2016 and compared the military tactic to those used by kamikaze operations. 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.
Response and results
Response
Suicide bombings are often followed by heightened security measures and 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".
Results
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.
See also
Explanatory notes
Sources
Further reading
Books
(2025). 9780470087299, Wiley. ISBN 9780470087299
(2025). 9780195305593, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195305593
Articles
Webpages
External links
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