Terrorist Use Retarded Women With Down Syndrome In Bombimg Attack At Pet Store

Militants strapped a pair of mentally retarded women with explosives and blew them up by remote control in two pet bazaars on Friday, killing at least 91 people in the deadliest day since Washington began pouring extra troops into the capital last spring.

Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq's chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said the women had Down syndrome and may not have known they were on a suicide mission.

The tactic would support US claims that al-Qaeda in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

As of early yesterday, Iraqi officials were unable to break down the higher death toll in the two bombings. The police and interior ministry officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the bombings showed that a resilient al-Qaeda has "found a different, deadly way" to try to destabilize Iraq.

"There is nothing they won't do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that," he said in an interview at the US State Department.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombing in Iraq proved al-Qaeda was "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and would strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.

Earlier, officials had said the first bomber was detonated about 10:20am in the central al-Ghazl market.

Four police and hospital officials said at least 46 people were killed and more than 100 people were wounded.

Local police said the woman wearing the bomb sold cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."

The weekly pet bazaar had been bombed several times during the war; but with violence declining in the capital, the market had regained popularity as a shopping district and place to stroll on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

But this Friday offered a scene of carnage straight out of the worst days of the conflict. Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.

The attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents that frayed a gossamer of Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security gains.

The US military in Iraq issued a statement that shared "the outrage of the Iraqi people, and we condemn the brutal enemy responsible for these attacks, which bear the hallmarks of being carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani confirmed the death toll was about 70 and said the attacks were the work of committed by terrorists motivated by revenge and "to show that they are still able to stop the march of history and of our people toward reconciliation."

But Navy Commander Scott Rye, a US military spokesman, gave far lower casualty figures -- seven killed and 23 wounded in the first bombing, and 20 killed and 30 wounded in the second.

He confirmed, however, both attacks were carried out by women wearing explosives vests and said the attacks appeared coordinated and likely the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

While involving women in such deadly activity violates cultural taboos in Iraq, the US military has warned that al-Qaeda is recruiting women and young people as suicide attackers because militants are increasingly desperate to thwart security measures. Syria also has reportedly tightened its border with Iraq, a main transit point for incoming foreign bombers.

Women in Iraq often wear abayas, the black Islamic robe, and avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because men are not allowed to touch them and there are too few female police.

While astonishingly brutal, the use of the mentally disabled in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq's interior minister said that insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attacker on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.

Many teenage boys were among the casualties in the al-Ghazl bombing on Friday, officials said.

Link:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../03/2003400082

[classicman]

Got a link for that article?

Originally Posted by classicman

Got a link for that article?

First you asked me to stop posting links to other websites...

Now you want one

Here it is

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../03/2003400082

[classicman]

when you are quoting something as news or an article - yeah - put a link there.

[ZenGum]

You're an academic, aren't you, Classic? Always with the footnotes, always the bibliographies...

The BBC is carrying the story too: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7223769.stm


Wow, that is a new low. "Here, put on this special vest and go shopping at the pet market... " I don't have an obscenity strong enough to express my contempt for that.

[Giant Salamander]

I don't know what to say...I can't even begin to put myself into the sort of mindset that would allow me to do something so incredibly despicable.

[Elspode]

May I suggest that we retaliate by strapping explosives to child molesters and sending them into Al Qaeda strongholds?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Elspode

May I suggest that we retaliate by strapping explosives to child molesters and sending them into Al Qaeda strongholds?

I love it! Good one Elspode.

[deadbeater]

Originally Posted by Elspode

May I suggest that we retaliate by strapping explosives to child molesters and sending them into Al Qaeda strongholds?

Molestors will be shot on sight. Think like a terrorist people.

[classicman]

thats really good, Els. :::Thinkin of logistics:::
Where's Reg Joe when you need him?

[deadbeater]

The enemy are finding people least likely to get checked. Girls and women tend to top the list.

Only because of misogyny is the reason that women aren't used more frequently.

Besides how do we know that the women are 'retarded'? Couldn't the 'Down syndrome' shape of their heads come because of the bombing itself?

This is very bad if its true

[lookout123]

Why is this any worse than the other bombers? Sure, there is visible evidence that the bombers aren't wired exactly right, but really, can you make a case that anyone willing to strap a bomb on themselves doesn't have some malfunction?

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by lookout123

Why is this any worse than the other bombers? Sure, there is visible evidence that the bombers aren't wired exactly right, but really, can you make a case that anyone willing to strap a bomb on themselves doesn't have some malfunction?

Thats actually not suppose to be true, hence why this situation is so unusual.

Most suicide bombers morality and thinking from 1980 on are not very different than the Japanese kamakizee pilots in WWII. They are a bunch of young nationalistic men and women who are willing to sacrifice their life for the greater good (the greater good is obviously perspective).

If you look at notes of speeches left by past suicide bombers, Hezbollah's are a great example even though I don't have any specific examples, they feel they are being forcefully occupied by a foreign nation, which has basically been true in every recent suicide bombing, and feels that the most effective way to fight this occupying country, which is also always a democracy, is suicide bombing.

There has not been a single instance recorded of a suicide bomber being forced to fulfill a mission and brainwashing is very unlikely as well since most bombers are volunteers off the street.

I can't really tell what this instance means, whether these terrorist groups had a mentally retarded woman volunteer without any forceful outside influence or whether they are not getting enough people to volunteer and are starting to prey on the weak minded now.


This book does a good job at explaining suicide terrorism:
http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Win-Stra.../dp/1400063175

[LabRat]

While suicide bombings are horrible, the original bombers are doing it for something they believe is right. They chose to put that bomb on. I am assuming that these two disabled women did not choose to do this by themselves. My inner mommy brain makes this feel worse to me because if that is the case, those women were completely taken advantage of like small innocent children. Therein lies the difference, in my mind anyway.

Now, is it worse to kill those disabled women or the innocent others in the plaza at the time? IF you believe a life is a life, then there is no difference. This is no more horrible than any of the other bombings.
Which is where I ultimately have to file this despite my initial gut reaction.