TEL AVIV — Despite Al Qaida's campaign in Iraq, Palestinians
continue to lead the world in suicide bombings.
A report by Tel Aviv University said Palestinians lead other groups worldwide in suicide bombers. Authored by Yoram Schweitzer and Sari Goldstein
Ferber, the study cited 400 Palestinian suicide bombers compared to 376
Iraqi suicide attackers, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Suicide attacks came to be seen as one of the most effective means at
the disposal of leaders of terrorist groups striving to achieve their
political goals," the report said.
The report said more than 1,323 suicide operatives worldwide conducted
or attempted strikes from 1983 to mid-September 2005. Thirty groups have
carried out suicide strikes, which the report said were pioneered by
Hizbullah in Lebanon in the early 1980s.
The Iraqi suicide strikers were followed by 265 Sri Lankan attackers.
The report said 108 Al Qaida operatives conducted suicide strikes, followed
by 107 Chechens. Fifty Lebanese and 17 Turks also carried out suicide
attacks.
"The capacity of a suicide attack to inflict mass casualties and immense
destruction endowed its perpetrators with an aura of power that far exceeded
their actual strength," the report, entitled Al Qaida and the
Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism," said. "This was true first and
foremost of Hizbullah, a pioneer in the use of suicide terrorism."
Al Qaida and its affiliates have usually employed more than one suicide
attacker, the report said. In some cases, the attacks used groups of suicide
operatives.
The report said the recruitment of suicide attacks contains four phases.
The phases consist of awareness by the operative of the crisis to Islam,
identification, acceptance of suicide, and separation from normal life.
"In this state, no other points of view exist but the one held jointly
by the attacker and his handler," the report said. "Nothing is ambiguous and
nothing is uncertain; the suicide attacker feels that Allah is with him and
that he has been transformed into a good person."
