Suicide attack

Kamikaze Kamikaze was a term initially used for Japanese suicide pilots in World War II, but is occasionally used in other contexts. Some reports at the time labelled the 1972 Lod Airport massacre in Israel by the Japanese Red Army (JRA) a "Kamikaze" attack, but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter. Less than two years later, the New York Times referred to a Japanese attempt on an American carrier as a "suicide bombing". In 1945, The Times of London referred to a plane as a "suicide-bomb". Two years later, it referred to a new British pilot-less, radio-controlled rocket missile as originally designed "as a counter-measure to the Japanese 'suicide-bomber'." Labelling attacks as suicide The definition of "suicide" in this context is also a matter of debate. Suicide terrorism itself has been defined by Ami Pedahzur, a professor at the University of Haifa, 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". The narrower definition would also exclude the actions of groups such as those by the Hashishiyeen, by the Moro juramentado, and in Aceh during WWII (see below). Adam Lankford also excludes from the definition are "proxy bombings", which may have political goals and be designed to look like a suicide bombing. The difference is that the "proxy" is forced to carry a bomb under threat, or the proxy isn't fully aware that they are delivering a bomb that will kill them. The definition also generally excludes mass shootings in which the perpetrators commit suicide, as the shooter committing suicide is a separate act from shooting their victims. Further distinction is how many of such shootings are driven by personal and psychological reasons, rather than political, social or religious motives, such as the Columbine High School massacre, the Virginia Tech shooting or Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in the United States. However, in 1999 the Columbine High School massacre was widely labelled as a suicide attack: both attackers shot themselves, but they planned the attack as a bombing. Suicide and suicide attempts have been decriminalised in most of the western world, but remain criminalised in some countries, such as Afghanistan, The term "suicide" is avoided by people who think an attack was justified, because Islam forbids taking one's own life in most circumstances. The concept of martyrdom in Islam is broad including people who died in plagues and women who died in childbirth, as well as fallen combatants who did not intend to die. 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. The term "martyrdom operation" was also used in March 2003 by the Iraqi administration to referred to suicide attacks on invading troops during the 2003 Iraq war, and in particular their promise to retake the Baghdad airport. Victims of suicide attacks are also referred to as martyrs by a wide variety of cultures. Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is the most famous example of a progressive Muslim who is regarded as a martyr after being murdered in a suicide attack. Bhutto was assassinated in 2007 by a teenage Islamic extremist. Biblical references . In Israel, Samson's words, in Judges 16:30 (, Biblical ). Non-Abrahamic religions Kuyili – who killed herself in a suicide attack in 1780, see below – is revered as Theepaanchi Amman, meaning "the goddess who jumped into fire", in Muthupatti village near Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu, based on local oral traditions. Opferanschlag (sacrifice bombing) In German-speaking areas the term "sacrifice bombing" () was proposed in 2012 by German scholar . This definition is often not used consistently; even those claiming to define terrorism this way sometimes describe attacks on their own military as "terrorism", while attacks on civilians by allied state actors are almost never called terrorism. This definition is often referred to by the euphemism "political violence". Academic Fred Halliday has written that assigning the descriptor of "terrorist" or "terrorism" to the actions of a group is a tactic used by states to deny "legitimacy" and "rights to protest and rebel". Israeli diplomacy has been very influential in defining terrorism as a concept. This was largely led by Menachem Begin, who himself has been labelled as a terrorist leader, as commander of the Irgun militant group before Israel was recognized as a nation state by Western powers. 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". == Background ==

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. Romas Kalanta was a 19-year-old Lithuanian student who self-immolated in 1972 to protest against the Soviet regime in Lithuania, sparking the 1972 unrest in Lithuania; another 13 people self-immolated in that same year. Hunger strikes are another use of self harm, and actual or potential suicide, that is used by some militant groups. Self-sacrifice to prevent other casualties During the 2006 Lebanon War, IDF Major Roi Klein and his unit took part in the Battle of Bint Jbeil. During a Hezbollah ambush, a hand grenade was thrown over the wall that was between Hezbollah militants and Klein and his unit. Klein jumped on the live grenade and muffled the explosion with his body. The soldiers reported that Klein recited the Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael, as he jumped on the grenade. He then handed over his encoded radio to another officer, who took command of the force, and died. According to The Telegraph he yelled "Long live Israel", although this was probably a misinterpretation of "Shema Yisrael" (שמע ישראל). Preventing capture During the First Jewish–Roman War, the letter of the Sicarii determined that the people in the besieged city of Masada should commit mass suicide, and even murder family members, to avoid capture during the Siege of Masada. Military commanders have reportedly recommended explosives such as hand grenades as a means of suicide, for the advantage of killing as many of the would-be captors as possible, thus converting the situation into an improvised suicide attack. At the opposite extreme, militant leaders of from Jewish or Islamic militant groups – both religions that forbid suicide – claim that directly causing one's own death sometimes is not suicide (see above: suicide and religious terminology). However, followers of these religiously derived ideologies define their enemies as suicidal, even if their opponent uses the same technique, such as when an ISIS-linked suicide bomber killed al-Qassam border guard Nidal al-Jaafari at Rafah crossing (see above). During the colonial era and up to World War II, Muslims in Aceh and Moro, now part of Indonesia and the Philippines, attacked much more powerful opponents – principally the Dutch, the Japanese, and the Americans – despite near certain death. Some authors have characterised these as predecessors of modern suicide bombings. Other sources say that suicide bombings in places like the Philippines arrose only recently, due to foreign influence from international cultists such as ISIS. (first century AD) 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. before being annihilated by Mongol invaders. 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. Moro people who performed suicide attacks were called , and the suicide attacks were known as . The Spanish called them . The idea of the was considered part of in the Moros' Islamic religion. During an attack, a would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such as barongs and kris until he was killed. The Moros performed 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. 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 (see above). Aceh War (1873–1904) Muslim Acehnese 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 in Islam. The Dutch called it , ( Aceh murder). The Acehnese work of literature the Hikayat Perang Sabil provided the background and reasoning for the as Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch. The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms are , , , or . Aceh in WWII was also used against the Japanese by the Acehnese during the Japanese occupation of Aceh. The Acehnese (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. The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school. During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah on 10 November and Tjot Plieng on 13 November. In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again. Disposable use of troops during WWI and WWII Supreme Allied Commander Lord Mountbatten claimed high casualties were justified during the Dieppe Raid, "For every man that died at Dieppe, ten were saved on D-Day". From one frito of twelve (11 Canadians and one British), only two returned alive, the others were killed or captured. One of the survivors was a British radar expert, who had been given a cyanide pill to take if he was captured. Suicide by cop == First suicide attacks (attackers who killed themselves) ==

Several different events have been described as the first suicide attack in different sources. Historical evidence about her life is scarce, relying primarily on folk songs and oral histories due to her marginalized Arunthathiyar or Sambavar background. 17th- and 19th-century Dutch In the late 17th century, Qing official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner. 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. 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. Ignaty Grinevitsky (1881) and others in Russia A Russian man named Ignaty Grinevitsky (also spelled: Ignacy Hryniewiecki) is sometimes described as the first known suicide bomber. A would-be suicide bomber killed Russian Minister of the Interior Vyacheslav von Plehve, in St Petersburg in 1904, but survived with major injuries. Personal disputes before WWII 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. Sen decided to appoint a woman leader for the mission. As Kalpana Datta was arrested prior to the planned attack, Pritilata was assigned the leadership of the group. Pritilata went to Kotowali sea side for arms training and the plan of their attack was finalised there. It was decided to attack the club on 24 September 1932, and the members of the group were given potassium cyanide, to be swallowed to commit suicide if they were caught. Pritilata herself committed suicide on this attack after sustaining bullet injury. According to the police report, one woman was killed, and four men and seven women were injured in the attack. Spanish civil war (1936–1939) There are a few reports of suicide bombers during the civil war in the 1930s. were frequently used by Chinese armies. China deployed these suicide units against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1938 300 Chinese troops reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid being captured. Hand grenade suicide to avoid capture has also been used by other militaries (see above), and allegedly was recommended by the leader of the Golani Brigade of the IDF. 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 wrote letters to family members before heading off to certain death. The was built as a monument to the 72 dead. 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. They were known as (; martyrs) after accomplishing their mission. During the January 28 Incident or Shanghai Incident (28 January – 3 March 1932), a Dare to Die squad from the 19th Route Army attacked Japanese positions during the escalating rioting and violence in the city. Suicide bombing was also used against the Japanese. The 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. One Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest, killing 20 Japanese soldiers in the defense of Sihang Warehouse. Chinese troops strapped explosives such as grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to destroy them. 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 the Japanese tanks in one incident obliterating four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles. During the Communist Revolution, coolies, poor laborers, fighting the Communists formed Dare to Die Corps. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, protesting students also formed "Dare to Die Corps" risking their lives defending the leaders of the protest. == During World War II ==

Germans during World War II Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff intended to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a suicide bombing in 1943, but was unable to complete the attack. During the Battle for Berlin the 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 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. The Luftwaffe also form the Sonderkommando Elbe squadron late in the war, flying Bf 109s in ramming attacks on Allied bombers. In their lone mission on 7 April 1945, a force of 180 Bf 109s managed to ram 15 Allied bombers, downing 8 of them.Though widely described as suicide missions, the pilots were expected to parachute out just before or after the ramming attack. Destruction of Auschwitz crematorium IV (1944) The Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz on 7 October 1944 is widely described as a suicide mission. Most (452) of the rebel prisoners were killed by the SS guards during or soon after the uprising. Rebels armed with work tools and shivs attacked SS guards who were armed with pistols and machine guns. Some of the Sonderkommando prisoners took the already suicidal mission a step further. They set fire to Crematorium IV while they were inside the building, and stayed inside to prevent the guards putting out the fire until the building was destroyed. The fire possibly also ignited explosives they had placed in the walls. Allied forces during WWII In 1941, some newspapers reported that, "While two New Zealand officers stood on a bridge in Greece holding up advancing Germans with their revolvers, a New Zealand sergeant placed two bared wires together and blew the bridge, the officers, and himself to smithereens". Against invading and occupying Japanese forces Attacks by the Empire of Japan The most overt and prolific use of suicide attacks during World War II was by Empire of Japan. It remains the most intense and deadly, campaign of suicide attacks in history. 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. 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. strikes were a weapon of asymmetric war used by the Empire of Japan against United States Navy and Royal Navy aircraft carriers, although the armoured flight deck of the Royal Navy carriers diminished effectiveness. Along with fitting existing aircraft with bombs, the Japanese also developed the , 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 torpedoes called (heaven shaker) on suicide missions. Although sometimes called midget submarines, these were modified versions of the unmanned torpedoes of the time and are distinct from the torpedo-firing midget submarines used earlier in the war, which were designed to infiltrate shore 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. , however, provided no means of escape. == Pilot suicides after WWII ==

Some passenger airline pilots appear to have committed mass murder-suicide, or attempted to, with no apparent political motives. Examples of undisputed pilot suicides and attempted suicides • . • Germanwings Flight 9525 - Suicidal co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the aircraft into the French Alps, killing 150. Examples of speculated and disputed pilot suicides • • • Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (8 March 2014) – Pilot suicide is one of several competing explanations suggested for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. == During the Cold War ==

Reduced suicide attacks after WWII After the Surrender of Japan, at the end of World War II in Asia, there was a massive reduction in the number of suicide attacks. The few that did occur were sometimes carried out by individuals for personal reasons such as pilot suicides in commercial aircraft (see above). For most of the Cold War suicide attacks were only sporadic, but suicide attacks began to become more frequent towards the end of the Cold War (see below). Insurgency in Palestine (1944–1948) In the 1930s, Zionist insurgents in Palestine used proxy bombing and animal-borne bomb attacks in their attacks on civilian targets such as Haifa vegetable market. 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. In 1952, three Chinese soldiers reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid capture. The couple had six children and had divorced the previous September. Israeli and Egyptian wars (1956–1970) Early suicide tactics in Gaza Some Israelis romanticize acts of self sacrifice in battle by analogy to the Biblical hero Samson, particularly if they take place in Gaza, where Israelis believe he committed suicide and killed thousands of enemy Philistines in the process. 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 "liner ''Jean D'Arc" and another the "French warship, Jeanne D'Arc". 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''. "War of Attrition" (1967–1970) On 21 March 1968, in response to persistent Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raids against Israelis, Israel attacked the town of Karameh, Jordan, the site of a major PLO camp. The goal of the invasion was to destroy the Karameh refugee camp and capture Yasser Arafat in reprisal for the attacks by the PLO against Israelis. The PLO attacks had culminated in an Israeli school bus hitting a mine in the Negev. According to a biography of an autobiography by Tass Saada – an alleged former PLO sniper who converted to Christianity in the United States – this battle marked the first known deployment of suicide bombers by Palestinian (Arab) forces. 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: 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. Samson Option Israel's alleged 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 Lehi militant who built the bombs intended the suicide attack in Jerusalem Central Prison in 1947, later had a leadership role in the Israeli military's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons division (). Lod airport massacre (1972) One of the first incidents to be labelled "suicide terrorism" was the mass shooting at the airport in Lod, Israel's international airport. Two of the attackers died during the attack, one of whom deliberately committed suicide using a hand grenade. According to France 24 and AFP, "The massacre was planned as a suicide attack and all three Japanese militants had intended to mutilate their faces with their grenades to make identification more difficult". but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter. The Kamikaze 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. Begin praised his militants' willingness to die, "These two wonderful young men greeted the sentence with the singing of Hatikvah". The "two wonderful young men" we're the two who blew themselves up in 1947, he described their deaths, "even before they put on their red uniforms. They too held their heads high when they faced their judges… But they did not reach the gallows. They too sang on the threshold of death — a song of faith in God: 'Lord of the world who reigned before creation'. But their song ended with a great explosion which shattered the silence of the prison in occupied Jerusalem". However, that specific scene is rarely linked to any specific attacks. White Wolves (South Africa) The White Wolves, a loosely affiliated and semi mythical group of pro-apartheid terrorists in South Africa, expressed an overt willingness to die during attacks. The White Wolves were thought to be the perpetrators of the Strijdom Square massacre. Preceding Cold War armed conflicts Sunni Muslims were possibly the last major branch of the Abrahamic religions to resort to overt suicide attacks. Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 19791989 Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, Increased suicide attacks in the Arabs began using suicide attacks in the 1980s . The 1980s saw the first suicide attacks by Arabs, and by stricter definitions of suicide attack, the first suicide attacks in the Middle East. Earlier examples were the three Japanese foreign fighters in 1972, only one of whom killed himself as planned, the Ashkenazi and Kurdish-Iraqui duo who blew themselves up before reaching their target in 1947 (see above). 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. Hezbollah 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. Suicide bombings by individuals Some of the first 1980s suicide bombings were by individuals, for both political and personal motives, for example: 1981 Yangquan theatre bombing The Yangquan theatre bombing was a suicide bombing that killed 32 people, in a cinema in Yangquan, Shanxi, China, on 22 July 1981. On 22 July 1981, 24-year-old Gao Haiping invited a girl, who had dumped him previously, to a film screening in Yangquan. He intended to kill them both with a bomb made of about 3 kg of ammonium nitrate and an electric detonator in a metal box. When the woman did not show up, Gao entered the theatre alone and took his place in seat 25 in the second row. At about 8 p.m., he put the bomb on his lap and detonated it, killing himself and 31 other people, wounding another 127, and severely damaging the theatre. Gao Haiping was an only child. He worked as a miner and was described as a loner who was pessimistic and dissatisfied with his life. A suicide note and letters to his parents were found in a drawer in his home, as well as explosives wrapped in paper. Wanganui Computer Centre (1982) Not all politically motivated suicide attacks targeted other people. On 18 November 1982, Neil Roberts carried out a suicide bombing in Whanganui, New Zealand. His target was a facility housing the main computer centre of the National Law Enforcement Database belonging to New Zealand Police, Courts, Ministry of Transport, and other law enforcement agencies, in Whanganui. The power of the explosion made it so that police were initially unable to determine the gender of the perpetrator. The attacker, 22-year-old Neil Roberts, a "punk rock" anarchist, was the only person killed, and the computer system was undamaged. He had written on a piece of cardboard before the explosion, "Heres [sic] one anarchist down. Hopefully there is a lot more waking up. One day we'll win – one day". A public toilet nearby had the slogan "We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity" painted on it, a slogan which the police believe Roberts had painted, and borrowed from the Revolutionary Proclamation of the Junta Tuitiva of 1809. The phrase is still closely linked with the bombing by the New Zealand public. Sri Lankan civil war 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. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 1987–2009 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". The first prominent suicide bombing by the LTTE occurred in 1987 when Captain Miller drove a truck laden with explosives into a Sri Lankan army camp killing 40 soldiers. Use of suicide by the LTTE 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". 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 Eelam, but with the overrunning of LTTE strongholds and the killing of its leadership by the Sri Lankan military and security forces. (1947–1991) Table footnotes == Statistics about the increase ==

== Post-Cold War and war on terror ==

Post-Cold War Palestine Suicide bombing became a popular tactic among Palestinian militant organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and occasionally by the PFLP. The first suicide bombing in post-independence Israel was done by "Hamas" in 1994. Bombers affiliated with these groups often use so-called "suicide belts", explosive devices 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 buses crowded with people at rush hour. 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 eternal reward for suicide bombers can be found on Palestinian television, according to Palestinian Media Watch. Israeli sources observed that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah operate "Paradise Camps", training children as young as 11 to become suicide bombers. 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. Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and their militant wing al-Qassam, were formed in the 1980s but avoided using suicide in their political violence until the following decade. The group have utilized suicide intermittently in specific situations. Results of Palestinian suicide attacks 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. The accords were sidetracked after the 1996 election of right-wing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas's suicide bombings of Israeli targets "were widely" credited for the popularity among Israelis of the hardline Netanyahu, from Menachem Begin's Likud party. The suicides and other attacks on civilians had "a major impact" on the attitudes of the Israeli public. Opinion polls of the Jewish Israelis found 7884% supported the "separation barrier" in 2004. 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. 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. The PKK began their insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. However, they did not carry out their first suicide attack until the 1990s. 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. On 12 May 2025, the Kurdistan Workers' Party announced it would disband as part of a peace initiative with Turkey. Al-Qaeda begin using suicide in the Al-Qaeda carried out its first suicide attack in the mid-1990s. 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 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. , Tanzania, in the aftermath of 7 August 1998, Al-Qaeda suicide bombing. Columbine High School suicide attack (1999) The perpetrators of the massacre both killed themselves during the attack. Start of the 21st Century 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". The absolute number increased despite a narrowing of the definition of suicide attacks. 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's definition excludes attacks, such as the Lod Airport massacre (see above), where "the perpetrator's ensured death" was not "a precondition for the success of his mission" 2001 September 11 attacks and after , Ziad Jarrah 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. 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. Nine days after the attack, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a "war on terror". Shortly thereafter he launched the War in Afghanistan to find and capture Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. A copy of The Revolt, memoir of the Irgun commander, was found in one of al-Qaeda's training bases. 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. 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". These responses "produced their own costs and risks—in lives, national debt, and America's standing in the world". 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 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. 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 ISIS in the Sinai "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 following years, ISIS members also carried out suicide attacks in different locations. In December 2018, according to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, at least three suicide bombers blew themselves up inside the city of As-Suwayda in the Jabal al-Druze of southern Syria. This was in addition to suicide bombers who attacked seven villages in the surrounding suburbs. According to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, In January 2019, ISIS carried out a suicide bombing attack using a car bomb against a joint American-Kurdish patrol. 2021 Kabul airport attack was suicide bombing attack. In January 2021, ISIS claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in a Baghdad market that killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100. It was the first major suicide attack by the Islamic State group in the previous three years. In June 2025, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced a suicide attack carried out by a member of the Islamic State cult in Church. According to the statement, he shot at worshippers in a church and then blew himself up inside. South and Central Asia Afghanistan Other major locations of suicide attack are Afghanistan, with 1,059 attacks as of mid-2015, Pakistan 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 an 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. Africa Since 2006, has carried out major suicide attacks in Somalia, the worst year so far being 2016 with 28 attacks. Western Europe 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. 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. Car bomb suicides in the 2020s On 25 December 2020, a suicide bombing occurred in Nashville, Tennessee. On 17 May 2025, a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan loaded with explosives detonated outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, resulting in the death of the perpetrator, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, and injuries to four others. Nearby buildings were damaged and windows were shattered. A tripod and camera were found at the scene. The FBI called it an "intentional act of terrorism". Bartkus reportedly identified himself as the perpetrator of the bombing in a video posted online, an audio recording, and manifesto in which he described himself as a "pro-mortalist" and said people did not give consent to exist. A 32-year-old man named Daniel Jongyon Park was arrested for possible involvement. Park was expelled from Poland to face prosecution on the United States. == Attacker demographics ==

Children and teenagers , holding a puppy, with four other pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron at Bansei, Kagoshima. Araki died the following day, at the age of 17, in a suicide attack on ships near Okinawa. Araki Yukio was born on 10 March 1928, at the age of fifteen he joined the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's Youth Pilot Training Program. Surviving relatives disagree, maintaining that he was born in July 1929. According to former CIA officer Robert Baer, "Ayatollah Khomeini's embattled Islamic republic adopted Fahmideh as a national hero and as an inspiration for further bloodshed and martyrdom". In Lebanon on 9 April 1985, Sana'a Mehaidli, a 16-year-old member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured twelve more. She is often described as the first female suicide bomber. During the Lebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army. Dylan Klebold was 17 and Eric Harris was 18 when they carried out the suicide attack on their highschool. Italian Australian teenager Jake Bilardi was 18 years old when he travelled to the Iraq to carry out a suicide attack for an ISIS-linked group. His attack targeted the Iraqi Army, who claimed they sustained no casualties. His death was used in ISIS propaganda. The death of a young English-spreading foreigner also attracted far more mainstream media attention than most of the group's suicide attacks. One Australian newspaper described the 18-year-old man as having been "groomed". Women Gendered motivations In some traditions, women are customarily seen as peace-makers rather than as front-line actors in conflicts. This stereotype has made them useful as suicide bombers, because they might be underestimated and thus be able to enter target areas inconspicuously, leading to more lethal suicide attacks. 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. Women's as well as men's usual motivations for becoming suicide bombers should be assumed to be nuanced and complex. == Tactics and strategies ==

Devices 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 explosive belts, influencing groups like the Chechens and the PKK. In contemporary Iraq, local factions have utilized explosive-laden vehicles to target heavily guarded military facilities. According to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, "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". 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". 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". Suicide bombings are often followed by heightened security measures and reprisals 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". == Motivation for attacks ==

According to Bruce Hoffman (quoting the RAND Corporation) and Assaf Moghadam, suicide attacks distinguish themselves from other terror attacks due to their heightened lethality and destructiveness. Menachem Begin called his only known suicide militant as "Meir the Stump", a reference to his amputated left arm. A 2004 paper by Harvard University Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie "cast[s] doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom", 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". 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. 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 rates of rape. 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 Islamic countries compared to most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism. Hudson and Theyer contended that promises of harems of virgins for martyrdom 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 stipends, lump-sum payments, 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 often cannot afford bride prices and that many potential brides end up in polygynous marriages, the financial compensation of an act of suicide terrorism can buy enough brides for a man's brothers to have children to make the self-sacrifice pay off in terms 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. 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". 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. Nationalist resistance and religion of Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bomber Ashraf Sallah Alasmar in Jenin. 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. 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". grassroots support for the attacks contributed. Other factors include attackers being disproportionately from the educated middle classes, high levels of brutality and cruelty by the occupiers, and competition among militant groups fighting the occupiers. 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. 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. 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 . Millions express sympathy with global . 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". Assaf Moghadam also argues that the increase in "suicide terrorism" since 2001 is driven by 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, which has no occupation and the second highest number of suicide bombing fatalities as of mid-2015. Islam and related religions 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. 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. Recent perpetration of suicide attacks by Muslims Sunni Muslims were possibly the last major branch of the Abrahamic religions to resort to overt suicide attacks. Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 1979–1989 Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, 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. 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. suicide attacks fulfill the obligation of 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. Shia 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 [ jihad ], was a passport to heaven; the second to damnation. The blurring of their previously vital distinction was the work of some twentieth-century theologians who outlined the new theory which the suicide bombers put into practice". 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 (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. 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." which forbid the killing of women, children, or non-combatants, and the destruction of cultivated or residential areas. 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. 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". "In view of the fast-moving dangerous developments in the Islamic world, it is very distressing to see the tendencies of permitting or underestimating the shedding of blood of Muslims and those under protection in their countries. The sectarian or ignorant utterances made by some of these people would benefit none other than the greedy, vindictive and envious people. Hence, we would like to draw attention to the seriousness of the attacks on Muslims or those who live under their protection or under a pact with them|Al Shaykh, quoting a number of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith". Even countries that have a history of suicide attacks, and have regarded them as martyrdom, have condemned them in situations they see as illegitimate. Following the 2005 Bangladesh bombings by the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), chief cleric of Bangladesh Ubaidul Haq led a protest of denouncing terrorism. He said: "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". In January 2006, (high ranking cleric) Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei decreed a against suicide bombing, declaring it a "terrorist act". In 2005, Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti also issued a "Against The Targeting Of Civilians". American based Islamic jurist and scholar Khaled Abou Al-Fadl argues, "The classical jurists, nearly without exception, argued that those who attack by stealth, while targeting noncombatants in order to terrorize the resident and wayfarer, are corrupters of the earth. "Resident and wayfarer" was a legal expression that meant that whether the attackers terrorize people in their urban centers or terrorize travelers, the result was the same: all such attacks constitute a corruption of the earth. The legal term given to people who act this way 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". According to When Religion Becomes Evil, by Baptist minister 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 lawful] 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 , 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'". 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. The international community considers the use of indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations as illegal under international law. From Muslims in Muslim-minority countries There are also objections from Muslim minority countries. Israel – a Jewish state with a Muslim minority – has also glorified militant martyrdom in educational materials and political propaganda, particularly Likud, the political successor organisation to two Zionist militant groups (Menachem Begin's Irgun and Yitzhak Shamir's Lehi). The study concluded that, "The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation". == See also ==