Understanding Suicide Attackers in the Contemporary Middle East
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DefenseImagery.Mil DA-SD-07-06292 The aftermath of a suicide bombing. TOWARD SOLUTIons: UnDERstANDING SUICIDE AttACKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST by Tod Strickland Introduction A suicide car bomber attacked a Canadian convoy in southern Afghanistan today... No Canadians were Two truck bombs set off in quick succession sheared injured but a teenager and a child were evacuated off the fronts of UN offices and a government building to a Kandahar hospital... The attack occurred in Algeria’s capital Tuesday, killing at least 26 people around 3 p.m. local time as the convoy was and wounding nearly 200 in an attack claimed by an returning to Kandahar Air Field after re-supplying affiliate of al-Qaida... Al-Qaida’s self-styled North Canadian troops in the field... A man in a grey African branch’s Web posting said two suicide bombers van parked on the side of the road detonated attacked the buildings with trucks carrying 1,760 pounds his explosives as the lead vehicle in the convoy of explosives each. Images were provided of the pulled up beside him. two ‘martyrs,’ identified as Ibrahim Abu Uthman and Abdul Rahman Abu Abdul Nasser Al-Aassemi. – CTV News, 11 December 20073 – Herald-Zeitung, 11 December 20071 They have become a ubiquitous and indelible element in Middle Eastern conflict within the contemporary A suicide car bomber targeted offices of Iraq’s former world – the suicide attackers. On one day in December prime minister and a Sunni lawmaker on Tuesday, 2007, at least three incidents were reported in the speeding toward a checkpoint outside the buildings and international media, and they ranged geographically from killing two guards just outside the fortified Green Algeria to Afghanistan. The casualty count totalled at Zone... The bombing took place in western Baghdad, less than 150 yards... from a series of buildings that included offices of Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s first post-Saddam prime minister and a secular Shiite, and those of Lieutenant-Colonel Tod Strickland, PPCLI, earned a Masters Saleh al-Mutlaq, the head of the Iraqi National in Middle Eastern History from American Military University, Dialogue Front, a Sunni bloc. Neither was at the offices as well as a Masters in Defence Studies and a Bachelor of Military at the time of the explosion. Arts and Science from the Royal Military College of Canada. Recently promoted, he is now a planner with the Expeditionary – International Herald Tribune, 11 December 20072 Plans directorate of the Strategic Joint Staff. 18 Canadian Military Journal • Vol. 9, No. 4, 2009 least 28 killed and a further 200 wounded. However, terrorism to meet their aims? How are they supported? this was not an abnormal day. If anything, the toll of carnage Perhaps most importantly, how can they be stopped? ONS could be described as comparatively light. The intent here is to examine this phenomenon, focussing I specifically upon the examples resident in the T Suicide attackers are not a new phenomenon. Their contemporary Middle East,13 in order to enhance general first use was documented as early as 13 centuries ago.4 understanding of the issue, highlight some of the myths However, in the contemporary world, and, specifically, prevalent within conventional understanding of the issue, RA since the spring of 1983, there has been a significant and and finally, to offer some ideas as to how such attacks E continued use of the tactic by at least 15 terrorist groups can be minimized. P acting in a dozen different countries.5 After a period of relative disuse, suicide attacks took centre stage in To begin, some distinctions will be drawn within April of that year, when a ‘kamikaze driver’6 rammed the topic itself, outlining how this particular form of a truck bomb into the American Embassy in Beirut, terrorism has evolved. This will be followed by a destroying himself and his enemies in discussion of who typically conducts ENT O dramatic fashion. Less than six months attacks of this nature, and what later, on 23 October, another bomber “In Iraq, for motivates them to use this methodology. killed 241 American marines and sailors example, between Subsequently, since a significant popular URR in an infamous attack upon their barracks perception is that Islam supports the C July 2006 and while most of the victims were still use of suicide attacks, what Muslim asleep on a Sunday morning.7 Twenty June 2007, there authorities actually say with respect to seconds later, a six-story building were 540 recorded the subject will be covered. Lastly, the occupied by French paratroopers suffered article will close with a brief discussion attacks, which killed an attack using the same modus operandi, of some potential solutions. leaving 58 dead.8 The world had just 1652 civilians.” witnessed the rebirth of a ‘new’ weapon Before proceeding further, it is in the terrorist’s arsenal. worth briefly addressing why this tactic is increasing in frequency. Succinctly put, it In the intervening quarter of a century, this form is because the tactic is working and opposing and of violence has increased in use, and it appears to have victimized elements have yet to find a credible, become a permanent element of conflict around the practical deterrent to mitigate its effectiveness. According world – but particularly in the Middle East. In Iraq, for to a noted expert on the subject, political scientist example, between July 2006 and June 2007, there were Robert Pape, suicide attacks are generally more 540 recorded attacks, which killed 1652 civilians.9 This destructive than conventional attacks, averaging methodology has been described by some as “the greatest 12 casualties per bomber. To further illustrate the point, moral monster of our time,”10 and yet, in spite of the according to Pape’s data, while suicide bombers invectives, it remains a poorly comprehended subject, conducted a scant three percent of all attacks between surrounded by myth and misunderstanding. Concurrently, 1980 and 2003, they accounted for 48 percent of the it causes numerous second and third order effects casualties from acts of terror in the same period.14 which are often just as detrimental, if not nearly as Unless their effectiveness can be decreased, it is doubtful horrific, as the acts themselves. They decrease the money that we can remove their use as a weapon for the that is available to be spent on humanitarian aid by modern terrorist. increasing the costs of security, alienating local populations, fuelling “sectarian revenge attacks” and “instill[ing] a Distinctions and Evolution sense of despair and chaos among ordinary citizens,” to name but a few of the effects generated.11 As historian he first point that needs to be emphasized is that there Doctor David Whittaker noted in 2004, the constant Tis a spectrum when it comes to suicide attacks, threat forces a commensurate high level of readiness and depending upon the intended targets. Those that involve security, with obvious economic impacts. In the case of solely military targets, whose purpose is not so much Israel, the threat alone forces its government terrorism as defeating an enemy to keep its soldiers on extended periods combatant, are different from those of costly alert.12 “Rather, the problem who attack civilians with the intent of suicide attacks of terrorizing a given population. In Considering just a few of the the words of the Canadian politician aforementioned effects, it is apparent is better viewed and academic Michael Ignatieff: that the use of the suicide attack as as being dynamic an offensive weapon is one of the more in nature, constantly Terrorism is the politics of significant intelligence issues in the the shortcut, a resort to force modern Middle East. What are the changing as when peaceful means of organizations that exploit this means, different solutions political mobilization offer only and who are the people they use? are trialed.” a protracted and uncertain Why have they adopted this form of road to victory.15 Vol. 9, No. 4, 2009 • Canadian Military Journal 19 to gunmen opening fire in a crowded marketplace, even if such usage may not adhere to the religion’s true teachings...there are never- theless certain criteria...anyone who is killed as a result of oppression or persecution... everyone who dies in the midst of battle defending his homeland or fighting evil is worthy of the ranks of the shuhada [martyrs]. Shuhada abide by Islam’s teachings on just war, which exclude harming women and children and which some authorities contend exclude suicide.19 Liberal Liberal Party of Barrack Canada-Radey It is important to note that Michael Ignatieff. while Western perceptions of martyrdom differ, even with the Therefore, those that are using the methodology differences Islam demands that specific criteria be of a suicide attack to terrorize a population should be met in order for a person to be appropriately classified considered in a different category than those that are as a martyr. attacking a legitimate target in accordance with the laws and conventions of war. The last preliminary point that should be addressed before moving on to the primary discussion is that Second, although the suicide bomber seems to have suicide attacks have changed substantially since the gained primacy of place within the mass media, this is first incidents in Lebanon in 1983. Specifically, the types not the only form of suicide attack. A suicide attack of targets, the methods used and the attackers themselves is appropriately viewed as one in which the attacker have all shifted from those that the world witnessed has no expectation of surviving the assault, who will initially there. The Israeli subject matter expert, die either by his or her own hand, or through the I.W.