Friday, September 22, 2006
Insurgents use kidnapees as suicide bombers
Security
According to the Defense Ministry in Iraq, insurgents are kidnapping drivers, rigging their vehicles with explosives without their knowledge and blowing them up. The drivers are threatened to go down a certain route, followed by the kidnappers who then detonate the car from a distance. There was no comment on whether the insurgent have resorted to this tactic due to a shortage of volunteers.
Suicide car bombs are responsible for 7 per cent of the total Iraqi deaths this year — down considerably from 25 per cent of the overall deaths in the last eight months of 2005, according to an Associated Press count. The Washington-based Brookings Institution claims there have been 343 suicide car bombings since the fall of Saddam Hussein to Sept. 17.
COMMENT: This may explain why the insurgents have been able to sustain a high and consistent level of attacks, whereas in the past there have been spikes of violence for a few days and then a lull while the insurgents regroup and consolidate. COMMENT ENDS.
