Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Yezidis targeted in simultaneous suicide bombings, 175 dead
Security
(Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Wednesday al Qaeda was the "prime suspect" in suicide bombings overnight on an ancient minority sect that Iraqi officials said killed more than 175 people in northern Iraq. Rescue workers searched for bodies in the rubble of dozens of buildings destroyed in up to five simultaneous car bomb attacks.
The attackers, driving fuel tankers, struck densely populated residential areas west of the city of Mosul that are home to members of the Yazidi sect, whose followers are considered infidels by Sunni Islamist militant groups. The fuel tanker attacks occurred about 8pm local time [1700 GMT]. The U.S. military said it was too early to say who was responsible, but the scale and apparently coordinated nature meant the attack carried the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. The United States has condemned the attack as barbaric.
In the aftermath of the blast, authorities imposed a total curfew in the Sinjar area, which is close to the Syrian border where the U.S. military has been battling al Qaeda in Iraq. It's also one of the transit points for fighters coming into the country from Syria. Sinjar district mayor Dakheel Qassim Hasoun said only people and vehicles involved in rescue efforts would be allowed to move through the area. He said it would be impossible to establish a final death toll any time soon because many bodies were still buried in the rubble of up to 30 houses destroyed in the blasts.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Donnelly, U.S. military spokesman for northern Iraq, said U.S. forces were assisting Iraqi emergency agencies as they sifted through the rubble and were providing logistical, security and medical support. Iraqi army captain Mohammad al-Jaad put the death from the attack by at least three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers at 175, with 200 wounded. Hasoun said the death toll could go as high as 200. Dhakil Qassim, a mayor in the town of Sinjar near the attacks who blamed Al Qaida in Iraq, said four trucks approached Qahataniya from dirt roads and they all explodedwithin minutes of each other.
Iraqi authorities said the death toll was so high because most of the destroyed houses, all tightly packed in three Yazidi residential compounds, were made of mud that were shattered by the force of the attack. "It is going to be difficult to get a full death toll because of the nature of the buildings," Garver said.
The U.S. military said five vehicle-borne bombs had been detonated in Yazidi residential compounds in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera. Jaad said the village of Tal Uzair was also hit. The Islamic State in Iraq, an Al Qaida front group, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents near the scene of Tuesday's bombings that an attack was imminent because Yazidis are "anti-Islamic."
Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria. Sunni militants have targeted Yazidis in recent months by kidnapping and killing them. Yazidis in Iraq say they have often faced discrimination because Melek Taus, the chief angel they venerate as a manifestation of God is often identified as the fallen angel Satan in biblical terminology.
Some members stoned a Yazidi teenager to death in April. She had converted to Islam and fled her family with a Muslim boyfriend. Police said 18-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad was killed by relatives who disapproved of the match. The incident appears to have sparked an increase in attacks on Yazidis. The bodies of two Yazidi men who had been stoned to death were also found in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, police said.
The attackers, driving fuel tankers, struck densely populated residential areas west of the city of Mosul that are home to members of the Yazidi sect, whose followers are considered infidels by Sunni Islamist militant groups. The fuel tanker attacks occurred about 8pm local time [1700 GMT]. The U.S. military said it was too early to say who was responsible, but the scale and apparently coordinated nature meant the attack carried the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. The United States has condemned the attack as barbaric.
In the aftermath of the blast, authorities imposed a total curfew in the Sinjar area, which is close to the Syrian border where the U.S. military has been battling al Qaeda in Iraq. It's also one of the transit points for fighters coming into the country from Syria. Sinjar district mayor Dakheel Qassim Hasoun said only people and vehicles involved in rescue efforts would be allowed to move through the area. He said it would be impossible to establish a final death toll any time soon because many bodies were still buried in the rubble of up to 30 houses destroyed in the blasts.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Donnelly, U.S. military spokesman for northern Iraq, said U.S. forces were assisting Iraqi emergency agencies as they sifted through the rubble and were providing logistical, security and medical support. Iraqi army captain Mohammad al-Jaad put the death from the attack by at least three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers at 175, with 200 wounded. Hasoun said the death toll could go as high as 200. Dhakil Qassim, a mayor in the town of Sinjar near the attacks who blamed Al Qaida in Iraq, said four trucks approached Qahataniya from dirt roads and they all explodedwithin minutes of each other.
Iraqi authorities said the death toll was so high because most of the destroyed houses, all tightly packed in three Yazidi residential compounds, were made of mud that were shattered by the force of the attack. "It is going to be difficult to get a full death toll because of the nature of the buildings," Garver said.
The U.S. military said five vehicle-borne bombs had been detonated in Yazidi residential compounds in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera. Jaad said the village of Tal Uzair was also hit. The Islamic State in Iraq, an Al Qaida front group, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents near the scene of Tuesday's bombings that an attack was imminent because Yazidis are "anti-Islamic."
Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria. Sunni militants have targeted Yazidis in recent months by kidnapping and killing them. Yazidis in Iraq say they have often faced discrimination because Melek Taus, the chief angel they venerate as a manifestation of God is often identified as the fallen angel Satan in biblical terminology.
Some members stoned a Yazidi teenager to death in April. She had converted to Islam and fled her family with a Muslim boyfriend. Police said 18-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad was killed by relatives who disapproved of the match. The incident appears to have sparked an increase in attacks on Yazidis. The bodies of two Yazidi men who had been stoned to death were also found in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, police said.
Labels: Al Qaeda in Iraq, al-Jazeera, Duaa Khalil Aswad, fuel tankers, Islamic State in Iraq, Kahtaniya, Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Donnelly, Melek Taus, Qahataniya, Sinjar, suicide bombings, Tal Uzair, Yezidis
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Two studies identify majority of suicide bombers in Iraq to be from Saudi
Insurgency
(McClatchy Newspapers) - Suicide bombers in Iraq are overwhelmingly foreigners bent on destabilizing the government and undermining American interests there, two independent studies have concluded. The studies report that the number of suicide bombings in Iraq has now surpassed those conducted worldwide since the early 1980s. The findings suggest that extremists from throughout the region and around the world are fueling Iraq's violence.
"The war on terrorism — and certainly the war in Iraq — has failed in decreasing the number of suicide attacks and has really radicalized the Muslim world to create this concept of martyrs without borders," said Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of one of the two studies.
Hafez, whose new book is "Suicide Bombers in Iraq," has identified the nationalities of 124 bombers who attacked in Iraq. Of those, the largest number — 53 — were Saudis. Eight apiece came from Italy and Syria, seven from Kuwait, four from Jordan and two each from Belgium, France and Spain. Others came from North and East Africa, South Asia and various Middle Eastern and European countries. Only 18 — 15 percent — were Iraqis.
In the second study, Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who runs the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, identified the nationalities of 55 suicide bombers in Iraq. Sixteen were Saudis, seven were Syrians and five were Algerians. Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia each supplied three bombers. Thirteen — 24 percent — were Iraqi Sunni Muslims.
Hafez and Pape said Iraqi Shiite Muslims hadn't carried out suicide attacks so far and instead had restricted their role in the sectarian violence to militia activity. Pinning down the nationalities of suicide bombers can be tricky because they leave few physical remains, and extremist groups often don't claim the attacks until much later. The U.S. military says it does some DNA testing to investigate the bombers' identities.
Both researchers relied on extremist Web sites, "martyr" videos, news reports and statements to compile the data on nationalities. Hafez also gathered some information from online chats and discussion forums. U.S. intelligence estimates based on interviews with detainees and captured documents indicate that most suicide bombers in Iraq are non-Iraqi, said a senior defense official who can't be named because of departmental rules
Suicide attacks more than doubled each year from the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 2005, Pape said. In 2006, he said, they jumped just under a third. The American military has reported more than 1,400 since January 2004. Before the U.S.-led invasion, there had been no suicide bombings in Iraq. Pape attributed the attacks to the presence of some 150,000 American troops in the region. The notion that most of the suicide bombers are foreigners engaged in a global movement is exaggerated, he said, since about 75 percent come from the Arabian Peninsula, which is close to the U.S. forces in Iraq.
"The Arabian Peninsula isn't that big: It's somewhat bigger than Texas," Pape said. "The Americans have all the capability and are right there. That's what allows terrorist leaders to build a sense of urgency." After losing safe havens in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Europe, militant organizations needed a new base for their operations, Hafez said. U.S. intelligence analysts, however, have concluded that al Qaida has built new training camps along the Afghan-Pakistani border, and that the group al Qaida in Iraq operates for the most part independently.
According to Hafez, extremist groups in Iraq conduct suicide bombings against fellow Muslims rather than U.S. troops to destabilize the fledgling government and spark sectarian warfare.
"The war on terrorism — and certainly the war in Iraq — has failed in decreasing the number of suicide attacks and has really radicalized the Muslim world to create this concept of martyrs without borders," said Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of one of the two studies.
Hafez, whose new book is "Suicide Bombers in Iraq," has identified the nationalities of 124 bombers who attacked in Iraq. Of those, the largest number — 53 — were Saudis. Eight apiece came from Italy and Syria, seven from Kuwait, four from Jordan and two each from Belgium, France and Spain. Others came from North and East Africa, South Asia and various Middle Eastern and European countries. Only 18 — 15 percent — were Iraqis.
In the second study, Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who runs the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, identified the nationalities of 55 suicide bombers in Iraq. Sixteen were Saudis, seven were Syrians and five were Algerians. Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia each supplied three bombers. Thirteen — 24 percent — were Iraqi Sunni Muslims.
Hafez and Pape said Iraqi Shiite Muslims hadn't carried out suicide attacks so far and instead had restricted their role in the sectarian violence to militia activity. Pinning down the nationalities of suicide bombers can be tricky because they leave few physical remains, and extremist groups often don't claim the attacks until much later. The U.S. military says it does some DNA testing to investigate the bombers' identities.
Both researchers relied on extremist Web sites, "martyr" videos, news reports and statements to compile the data on nationalities. Hafez also gathered some information from online chats and discussion forums. U.S. intelligence estimates based on interviews with detainees and captured documents indicate that most suicide bombers in Iraq are non-Iraqi, said a senior defense official who can't be named because of departmental rules
Suicide attacks more than doubled each year from the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 2005, Pape said. In 2006, he said, they jumped just under a third. The American military has reported more than 1,400 since January 2004. Before the U.S.-led invasion, there had been no suicide bombings in Iraq. Pape attributed the attacks to the presence of some 150,000 American troops in the region. The notion that most of the suicide bombers are foreigners engaged in a global movement is exaggerated, he said, since about 75 percent come from the Arabian Peninsula, which is close to the U.S. forces in Iraq.
"The Arabian Peninsula isn't that big: It's somewhat bigger than Texas," Pape said. "The Americans have all the capability and are right there. That's what allows terrorist leaders to build a sense of urgency." After losing safe havens in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Europe, militant organizations needed a new base for their operations, Hafez said. U.S. intelligence analysts, however, have concluded that al Qaida has built new training camps along the Afghan-Pakistani border, and that the group al Qaida in Iraq operates for the most part independently.
According to Hafez, extremist groups in Iraq conduct suicide bombings against fellow Muslims rather than U.S. troops to destabilize the fledgling government and spark sectarian warfare.
Labels: Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, Mohammed Hafez, Robert Pape, Saudi Arabia, Suicide Bombers in Iraq, suicide bombings
Monday, April 23, 2007
Round-up of violence across Iraq
Security
(Reuters) - Security developments in Iraq as of 1130 GMT on Monday:
* denotes new or updated item.
BAQUBA - A suicide car bomber attacked a gathering of senior police officials in the city of Baquba, killing 10 policemen and wounding 23, police said. Police chief Brigadier-General Safaa al-Timimi was killed in the blast.
NEAR MOSUL - At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the office of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK) of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Six people were killed and 14 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up in a restaurant near the entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government offices, police said.
* BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed one person and wounded four others in a parking lot across the road from the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, police said. The embassy was not damaged.
* MOSUL - Gunmen killed traffic police Colonel Abdul Muhsin Hassan in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
* BAGHDAD - Iraqi army killed seven insurgents during the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.
* NEAR MAHAWEEL - A roadside bomb exploded near a civilian car and wounded three people near the town of Mahaweel, 70 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
* BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire at a U.S. patrol while trying to emplace cement barriers in Ur neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, a Reuters photographer said.
SHIRQAT - The bodies of three police officers were found shot in the town of Shirqat, 80 km (50 miles) south of Mosul, police said. They were kidnapped on Sunday.
ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen attacked a police patrol, killing a policeman and wounded another in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen killed a man and a girl on Sunday in the town of Iskandariya, police said.
BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed one person and wounded three others in a random shooting on Sunday in the southern Saidiya district of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Police found 11 bodies across Baghdad on Sunday.
* denotes new or updated item.
BAQUBA - A suicide car bomber attacked a gathering of senior police officials in the city of Baquba, killing 10 policemen and wounding 23, police said. Police chief Brigadier-General Safaa al-Timimi was killed in the blast.
NEAR MOSUL - At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the office of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK) of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Six people were killed and 14 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up in a restaurant near the entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government offices, police said.
* BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed one person and wounded four others in a parking lot across the road from the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, police said. The embassy was not damaged.
* MOSUL - Gunmen killed traffic police Colonel Abdul Muhsin Hassan in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
* BAGHDAD - Iraqi army killed seven insurgents during the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.
* NEAR MAHAWEEL - A roadside bomb exploded near a civilian car and wounded three people near the town of Mahaweel, 70 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
* BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire at a U.S. patrol while trying to emplace cement barriers in Ur neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, a Reuters photographer said.
SHIRQAT - The bodies of three police officers were found shot in the town of Shirqat, 80 km (50 miles) south of Mosul, police said. They were kidnapped on Sunday.
ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen attacked a police patrol, killing a policeman and wounded another in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen killed a man and a girl on Sunday in the town of Iskandariya, police said.
BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed one person and wounded three others in a random shooting on Sunday in the southern Saidiya district of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Police found 11 bodies across Baghdad on Sunday.
Labels: Baghdad, Baqouba, Colonel Abdul Muhsin Hassan, gunmen, Iskandariyah, KDP, Mosul, policemen, Shirqat, suicide bombings
Suicide bomb attacks across Iraq kill 27
Security
(AP) - Three suicide bombers launched attacks in different parts of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 60 on Monday, police and politicians said. A parked car bomb also exploded outside the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one civilian, and a drive-by shooting wounded two guards at Tunisia's Embassy in the capital, police said.
Monday's first suicide car bomb attack occurred near the northern city of Mosul at 10:10 a.m. when a suicide attacker detonated his car in front of an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, an official with the group said. At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack in Tal Uskuf, a predominantly Christian town 9 miles north of Mosul, said Abdul-Ghani Ali, a KDP official. A witness said residents were in deep shock because it was the first terrorist attack in their tight-knit community since the Iraq war started.
A suicide car bomber also struck a police station in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, at about 11 a.m., killing at least 10 people and wounding 23, police said. In central Baghdad, a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in an Iraqi restaurant in the mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood of Karradah Mariam, killing at least seven people and wounding 16, police said. The attack occurred at about 11 a.m. less than 100 yards outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters. At the time, Ryan Crocker, who became the new U.S. ambassador in Iraq about a month ago, was giving a news conference in the Green Zone.
The Iranian Embassy also is located in Karradah Mariam, and a parked car bomb exploded in a parking lot near it at about 12 noon, killing one civilian and wounding another, said Iraqi police. At about 11:30 a.m., drive-by shooters opened fire on guards outside the Tunisian Embassy in the mostly Sunni district of Mansour in western Baghdad, wounding two of them, police said.
Monday's first suicide car bomb attack occurred near the northern city of Mosul at 10:10 a.m. when a suicide attacker detonated his car in front of an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, an official with the group said. At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack in Tal Uskuf, a predominantly Christian town 9 miles north of Mosul, said Abdul-Ghani Ali, a KDP official. A witness said residents were in deep shock because it was the first terrorist attack in their tight-knit community since the Iraq war started.
A suicide car bomber also struck a police station in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, at about 11 a.m., killing at least 10 people and wounding 23, police said. In central Baghdad, a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in an Iraqi restaurant in the mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood of Karradah Mariam, killing at least seven people and wounding 16, police said. The attack occurred at about 11 a.m. less than 100 yards outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters. At the time, Ryan Crocker, who became the new U.S. ambassador in Iraq about a month ago, was giving a news conference in the Green Zone.
The Iranian Embassy also is located in Karradah Mariam, and a parked car bomb exploded in a parking lot near it at about 12 noon, killing one civilian and wounding another, said Iraqi police. At about 11:30 a.m., drive-by shooters opened fire on guards outside the Tunisian Embassy in the mostly Sunni district of Mansour in western Baghdad, wounding two of them, police said.
Labels: Abdul-Ghani Ali, Baghdad, Baqouba, Iranian embassy, Iraq, Karradah Mariam, KDP, Mosul, police station, suicide bombings
Monday, April 16, 2007
Shias targeted in bomb attacks as British helicopters collide
Security
(Al Jazeera) - Bomb attacks killed at least 26 people in Baghdad, while two British helicopters crashed after an apparent mid-air collision that killed two crew members. Five other people were injured when the Puma transport helicopters crashed on Sunday near a large US air base in Taji, 20km from Baghdad. It appeared the helicopters may have collided in mid-air, the US military said. Earlier, two car bombs killed 18 people and wounded 50 more in the al-Shurta al-Rabeia neighbourhood in southwest Baghdad.
The first was detonated in a market, followed seconds later by another at a nearby intersection, police said. Mortar rounds also landed in the area as part of an apparently co-ordinated attack, they added. In the district of al-Utaifiya, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a minibus, killing six people and wounding 10.
In Karrada, near the centre of the capital, a car bomb aimed at a police patrol killed five people and wounded another 10 in a blast that rattled windows hundreds of metres away, police said. Meanwhile, in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside an Iraqi military base, police said. "We have seen a rise in the number of car bomb attacks. We have been very diligent in taking down these people who build these car bombs. We are taking one cell at a time," Rear Admiral Mark Fox, US military spokesman, said on Sunday.
The helicopter crash brought the British death toll in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 142. Eight have been killed this month alone. Puma helicopters normally have a three-person crew and can carry up to 16 troops. Fighters shot down eight helicopters during a month-long period earlier this year, killing 28 people, mainly American soldiers. Six of those aircraft were US military helicopters and the other two belonged to a private American security company.
The first was detonated in a market, followed seconds later by another at a nearby intersection, police said. Mortar rounds also landed in the area as part of an apparently co-ordinated attack, they added. In the district of al-Utaifiya, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a minibus, killing six people and wounding 10.
In Karrada, near the centre of the capital, a car bomb aimed at a police patrol killed five people and wounded another 10 in a blast that rattled windows hundreds of metres away, police said. Meanwhile, in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside an Iraqi military base, police said. "We have seen a rise in the number of car bomb attacks. We have been very diligent in taking down these people who build these car bombs. We are taking one cell at a time," Rear Admiral Mark Fox, US military spokesman, said on Sunday.
The helicopter crash brought the British death toll in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 142. Eight have been killed this month alone. Puma helicopters normally have a three-person crew and can carry up to 16 troops. Fighters shot down eight helicopters during a month-long period earlier this year, killing 28 people, mainly American soldiers. Six of those aircraft were US military helicopters and the other two belonged to a private American security company.
Labels: al-Shurta al-Rabeia, al-Utaifiya, British helicopters, Iraqi Army base, Mosul, Puma transport helicopter, suicide bombings, Taji
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Suicide attacks up since late 2006
Security
(AP) - Suicide bombings against civilians in Iraq have increased dramatically since the start of the year and are deadlier than ever, a Middle East think tank said in a report Monday. The study by the Gulf Research Center found 92 confirmed suicide attacks against civilian targets in February and March compared with 62 in the last two months of 2006.
"Since January they have sustained the highest level of suicide attacks since 2005, and higher casualty rates than at any period of the war," said Nicole Stracke, the report's editor. Stracke suggested that attackers were trying to discredit U.S. plans to quell the violence, particularly the decision announced in January to send thousands of more troops to Iraq.
Favored "soft" targets included cafes, weddings, funerals, markets and Shiite Muslim religious sites, all of which are far less protected than "hard" targets like U.S. military bases and Iraqi government offices. About 60 percent of Iraq's suicide attacks were carried out with explosives-rigged vehicles. Attacks using multiple bombs are also on the rise, Stracke said. Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other groups are behind most of the mayhem, according to the report.
The report also looked at the impact of suicide attacks worldwide. Use of the tactic is increasing fastest in Afghanistan, by more than 750 percent, jumping from 21 in 2005 to 180 in 2006, the report said. "The success of suicide bombing in Iraq is having an effect everywhere," said Mustafa Alani, a military analyst at the Gulf Research Center.
Suicide bombers are especially effective largely because they can switch targets or change routes, the report said. While bombs carried by individuals in vests or backpacks can kill victims as far as 30 yards away, a car bomb's kill zone stretches as far as 400 yards.
"Since January they have sustained the highest level of suicide attacks since 2005, and higher casualty rates than at any period of the war," said Nicole Stracke, the report's editor. Stracke suggested that attackers were trying to discredit U.S. plans to quell the violence, particularly the decision announced in January to send thousands of more troops to Iraq.
Favored "soft" targets included cafes, weddings, funerals, markets and Shiite Muslim religious sites, all of which are far less protected than "hard" targets like U.S. military bases and Iraqi government offices. About 60 percent of Iraq's suicide attacks were carried out with explosives-rigged vehicles. Attacks using multiple bombs are also on the rise, Stracke said. Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other groups are behind most of the mayhem, according to the report.
The report also looked at the impact of suicide attacks worldwide. Use of the tactic is increasing fastest in Afghanistan, by more than 750 percent, jumping from 21 in 2005 to 180 in 2006, the report said. "The success of suicide bombing in Iraq is having an effect everywhere," said Mustafa Alani, a military analyst at the Gulf Research Center.
Suicide bombers are especially effective largely because they can switch targets or change routes, the report said. While bombs carried by individuals in vests or backpacks can kill victims as far as 30 yards away, a car bomb's kill zone stretches as far as 400 yards.
Labels: Gulf Research Center, Nicole Stracke, suicide bombings
