Suicide attack#Support for "martyrdom operations"

The usage of the term "suicide attack" has a long {{nowrap|history,{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}}} but "suicide bombing" dates back to at least 1940 when a New York Times article mentioned the term in relation to German tactics."Germans Maintain Losing Airline Inside Panama Canal Defense Zone: Service in Ecuador Keeps 20 Pilots for Two Planes—Company Called Center of Fifth Column Activities New Route Planned Value in Case of War". Russell B. Porter,New York Times, August 10, 1940, p. 6{{Primary source inline|Need a reference for it being one of the first uses, not just to the article itself|date=March 2025}} Less than two years later, the New York Times referred to a Japanese {{lang|ja-Latn|kamikaze}} attempt on an American carrier as a "suicide bombing"."CARRIER ROUTS FOE: Ships' and Planes' Fire Foils Japanese Raid Near Gilbert Isles A FIGHTER PILOT DOWNS 6 Fleet Force Escapes Damage, but Loses Two Aircraft – Suicide Dive Balked NAVY IN ACTION IN THE FAR PACIFIC U.S. CARRIER ROUTS 18 BOMBERS IN RAID DOWNED SIX PLANES", New York Times, 4 March 1942, ROBERT F. WHITNEY. In 1945, The Times of London referred to a {{lang|ja-Latn|kamikaze}} plane as a "suicide-bomb".The Times (London), August 21, 1945, p. 6 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'".The Times (London), April 15, 1947, p. 2, (quote) "Designed originally as a counter-measure to the Japanese 'suicide-bomber,' it is now a potent weapon for defence or offence" (The quotes are in the original and suggest that the phrase was an existing one)

Suicide attacks include both "suicide terrorism" and attacks targeting combatants. "Terrorism" is often defined as any action "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants" for the purpose of intimidation.Definition given by Kofi Annan, March 2005 in the UN General Assembly, while Secretary General of the UN.{{cite web |title=Story: UN reform |url=https://www.un.org/unifeed/script.asp?scriptId=73 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427012107/http://www.un.org/unifeed/script.asp?scriptId=73 |archive-date=2007-04-27 |access-date=2010-02-24 |publisher=United Nations}} An alternative definition provided by Jason Burke, a journalist who has lived among Islamic militants, suggests that most define terrorism as "the use or threat of serious violence" to advance some kind of "cause", stressing that terrorism is a tactic.{{cite book|author=Jason Burke|title=Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_FJFFrit8AC|access-date=August 19, 2012|year=2004|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-666-9|pages=1–24 (22)}} 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".F. Halliday. (2002). Two Hours that Shook the World: September 11, 2001 – Causes and Consequences, Saqi; {{ISBN|0-86356-382-1}}, pp. 70–71

The definition of "suicide" in this context is also a matter of debate. Suicide terrorism itself has been defined by Ami Pedahzur, a professor of government, as "violent actions perpetrated by people who are aware that the odds they will return alive are close to zero".Pedahzur, p. 8 Other sources exclude from their work "suicidal" or high risk attacks, such as the Lod Airport massacre or a "reckless charge in battle".{{cite book|last1=Dodd|first1=Henry|title=A short history of suicide bombing|date=23 Aug 2013|publisher=Action on Armed Violence|url=https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|access-date=6 October 2015|quote=First of all let's be clear what kind of attacks we are talking about. Suicide bombings are those that involve the deliberate death of the perpetrator. We're not just talking about a reckless charge in battle. The focus is on those attacks where the perpetrator functions as a sophisticated guidance system for the weapon. They function as part human and part weapon. In this way they are suicide attacks rather than suicidal attacks.|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125110530/https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|archive-date= January 25, 2014}}

Instead, focusing only on true "suicide attacks", where the odds of survival are not "close to zero" but required to be zero, because "the perpetrator's ensured death is a precondition for the success of his mission".{{cite web|author=Yoram Schweitzer|author-link=Yoram Schweitzer|url=http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/42/Default.aspx|title=Suicide Terrorism: Development and Characteristics|publisher=International Institute for Counter-Terrorism|date=April 21, 2000|access-date=March 22, 2015|quote=... a very specific kind of attack. It does not deal with the very high-risk terror operations that leave only little chance of survival to their perpetrators. Such attacks as the Japanese Red Army's (JRA) attack at Lod airport in 1972, Abu Nidal's attack on a synagogue in Istanbul in 1986 and the PFLP-GC hand-glider attack on an army barracks in Kiryat Shmona in 1987 fall outside the scope of this paper. Also excluded were the self-inflicted deaths of members of terrorist organization, ... a politically motivated violent attack perpetrated by a self-aware individual (or individuals) who actively and purposely causes his own death through blowing himself up along with his chosen target. ... the perpetrator's ensured death is a precondition for the success of his mission."|archive-date=May 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527191602/http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/42/Default.aspx|url-status=dead}}

Also excluded from the{{who| reason = whose definition is this? |date=March 2025}} 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 U.S.{{cite news|last1=Lankford|first1=Adam|title=What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers|newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/what-drives-suicidal-mass-killers.html|access-date=7 October 2015|agency=The New York Times|date=17 December 2012|quote=For years, the conventional wisdom has been that suicide terrorists are rational political actors, while suicidal rampage shooters are mentally disturbed loners. But the two groups have far more in common than has been recognized … Although suicide terrorists may share the same beliefs as the organizations whose propaganda they spout, they are primarily motivated by the desire to kill and be killed — just like most rampage shooters.}}{{better source needed|date=April 2023}}

It may not always be clear to investigators which type of killing is which as suicide attack campaigns sometimes use proxy bombers, as alleged in Iraq,{{cite news|last1=Oppel|first1=Richared A. Jr.|title=2 American Soldiers Are Killed in Insurgent Attacks in Iraq|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27baghdad.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0|access-date=7 October 2015|work=The New York Times|date=May 27, 2008|quote=in Mosul, Iraqi security forces raided a house and found six Iraqi boys 15 to 18 years old preparing to become suicide bombers, a police official in Mosul said. According to The Associated Press, four of the boys appeared before local reporters at Mosul police headquarters on Monday, including one who wept and said that a Saudi fighter "threatened to rape our mothers and sisters, destroy our houses and kill our fathers if we did not cooperate with him."}} or manipulate the vulnerable to become bombers.{{cite news|last1=Azami|first1=Dawood|title=How the Taliban groom child suicide bombers|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27250144|access-date=9 October 2015|agency=BBC News|date=15 December 2014|quote=In some cases, [children recruited to be Taliban bombers] were given an amulet containing Koranic verses and told it would help them survive. Some handlers gave children keys to hang round their necks and were told the gates of paradise will open for them}} At least one researcher, Adam Lankford, argues that the motivation to kill and be killed connects some suicide attackers more closely to "suicidal rampage" murderers than is commonly thought.

File: Benzir Bhutto's death place mark.JPG , written in Urdu. Translation: Place of Martyrdom, Ms. Benazir Bhutto martyred. Benazir Bhutto was killed by a suicide terrorist in 2007.{{efn|name=Benazir}} ]]

{{further| Religious views on suicide }}

Some Arabic speaking militant groups and their supporters call suicide attacks "martyrdom operations" ({{langx|ar| للعمليات الاستشهادية | aleamaliaat alistishhadia }}).https://aja.ws/ug04zv This is a reference to the concept of Martyrdom in Islam ({{langx|ar|استشهاد|istishhad|link=no}}). They call the suicide attacker {{lang|ar-Latn|shahid}} ({{Plural abbr}} {{lang|ar-Latn|shuhada}}; witness or martyr).{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} The idea being that the attacker died to testify his faith in God, such as while waging {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad bis saif}} ({{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}} by the sword).{{citation needed| reason = current source only includes one or two words of this |date=March 2025}} The term "suicide" is avoided because Islam forbids taking one's own life in most circumstances. The concept of martyrdom 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.{{cite web | last1=كساب | first1=أكرم | date = 30 May 2022 |title=شهيد الإسلام في القرآن والسنة (1) | script-title = ar: شهيد الإسلام في القرآن والسنة (1) | trans-title = Martyr of Islam in the Qur’an and Sunnah (1) |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/blogs/2022/5/30/%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A2%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A9-1 | website = الجزيرة نت www.aljazeera.net | publisher = Al Jazeera |language=ar}} The term {{lang|ar-Latn|istishhad}}{{citation needed| reason = current source only has the English words |date=March 2025}} has been used by the Palestinian Authority as well as by Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah and other Palestinian factions.{{cite book|last1=Moghadam|first1=Assaf| author-link =Assaf Moghadam |editor1-last=Pedahzur|editor1-first=Ami|title=Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom|date=2006|publisher=Routledge |location=Oxon, NY|isbn=978-0415770293|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAGTAgAAQBAJ&q=use+the+term++MARTYRDOM+OPERATIONS&pg=PA16|access-date=6 October 2015}}

Victims of attacks are also referred to as martyrs.

Among Muslims, secular Arabs, and related cultures, the term martyr or shaheed has a broad meaning and can refer to leaders who have been assassinated or executed, civilian casualties of war, and combatants who did not intend to die.{{cite news| url = https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-06/ty-article/.premium/explained-what-shahid-or-martyr-means-for-palestinians-and-israelis/0000018f-e351-d1da-adaf-f7df71ae0000 | title = Explained: What 'Shahid' or 'Martyr' Means for Palestinians and Israelis }} This includes the victims of suicide terrorism, such as Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, who was assassinated in 2007 by a teenage Islamic extremist.

Many things in Pakistan, mostly related to education, were named or renamed in her honour, referring to her by the title "shaheed" (martyr).{{efn|name=Benazir}}

In Israel, acts of self sacrifice in battle are referred to by quoting Samson's words from Judges 16:30. The same biblical quote is used in both praise and criticism of this approach to warfare. Prior to Israel, the story of Samson's suicide was used by two of the anti-British pre-state militant groups to refer to premeditated plans. One leader claimed that two militants who blew themselves up had not committed suicide, as such, due to allegedly mitigating circumstances.{{cite web | author1 = מנחם בגין | title = ירושלים (מאיר פיינשטיין ומשה ברזני) | url = https://db.begincenter.org.il/article/%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A8-%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%98%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%96%D7%A0%D7%99/ | website = מאגר כתבי מנחם בגין - מרכז מורשת בגין | date = April 1947 | quote = הם לא איבדו את עצמם לדעת. הם נרצחו על-ידי התליין הבריטי. |language=he-IL}} Their modern critics claim the situation itself was largely self inflicted.

Some within Israel view the Samson in a very negative light.{{sfn|Rinon|2024}}

{{further| definition of genocide | list of genocides | stages of genocide | dehumanization | DARVO }}{{ anchor |Genocide|Homicide|genocide|homicide}}

{{ anchor |genocide bombing}}"{{ visible anchor |Genocide bombing}}" was coined in 2002 by Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian parliament, in an effort to focus attention on the alleged intention of Genocide by militant Palestinians in their calls to "wipe Israel off the map".{{cite web|url=http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2002/06/genocide-bombing-two-months-after.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628154737/http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2002/06/genocide-bombing-two-months-after.html|archive-date=2009-06-28|title=Kesher Talk|date=2002-06-24|access-date=2006-05-13}}{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040423-081806-2252r.htm|title=Targets|work=Washington Times|date=April 23, 2004|access-date=May 13, 2006}}

Some efforts have been made to replace the term "suicide bombing" with {{ anchor |Homicide bombing}}"{{ visible anchor |homicide bombing}}", based on the assertion that "homicide" is a more apt adjective than "suicide" since the primary purpose of such a bombing is to kill other people. The only major media outlets to use it were the Fox News Channel and the New York Post, both of which are owned by News Corporation and have since mostly abandoned the term.{{Cite book|author=L. Khan|title=A Theory of International Terrorism: Understanding Islamic Militancy|publisher=Brill Academic Publishers|location=Boston, MA|year=2006|isbn=978-90-04-15207-6|pages=97–98}}{{cite web|author=Tim Grieve |url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/31/fox/index.html |title=Fox News: The inside story |work=Salon.com |date=October 31, 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204084700/http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/31/fox/index.html |archive-date=February 4, 2011}} 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.{{cite web|title=Why it's 'homicide bomber' not 'suicide bomber'|url=http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-homicide-bomber-suicide.html|website=medicalxpress.com|access-date=2016-02-09}} 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".{{cite news|author=Peter Johnson|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/113807077.html?dids=113807077:113807077&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr+15%2C+2002&author=Peter+Johnson&pub=USA+TODAY&desc=Homicide+bomber+vs.+suicide+bomber&pqatl=google|title=Homicide bomber vs. suicide bomber|access-date=March 22, 2015|work=USA Today|archive-date=November 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105042612/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/113807077.html?dids=113807077:113807077&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr+15,+2002&author=Peter+Johnson&pub=USA+TODAY&desc=Homicide+bomber+vs.+suicide+bomber&pqatl=google|url-status=dead}}{{cite web | url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2002/04/13/annan-wants-peacekeepers-in-middle-east/ | title=Annan wants peacekeepers in Middle East}}

In German-speaking areas the term "sacrifice bombing" ({{langx|de|Opferanschlag}}) was proposed in 2012 by German scholar Arata Takeda.{{cite journal|author=Takeda, Arata|title=Das regressive Menschenopfer: Vom eigentlichen Skandalon des gegenwärtigen Terrorismus|url=http://www.humanistische-union.de/fileadmin/hu_upload/media/vorg2/vorg197_Takeda.pdf|year=2012 |journal=Vorgänge – Zeitschrift für Bürgerrechte und Gesellschaftspolitik|volume=51|issue=1|pages=116–129}}

{{about| intentional use of suicide | unsuccessfully avoided deaths |suicide in the military}}

{{See also| Islamic views on prisoners of war

| Hannibal Directive | label2 = Israeli military protocol

}}

Other than as a way to cause enemy casualties, another situation in which some militaries and related bodies (such as intelligence agencies) encourage their own members to commit suicide is too avoid being captured by the enemy. The concept also often includes the use of intentional friendly fire. Either to avoid disclose of military secrets, avoid the need for a prisoner exchange, or for more intangible ideological motives. Individuals are encouraged by a perception that capture is a fate worse than death, and the likelihood of torture is strongly emphasised in internal propaganda. Sometimes, to the point that even civilians embrace the concept of dying (or killing people on their own side) to avoid capture.{{cite news | title = Australian man feared he'd have to do the unimaginable if Hamas found his children | url = https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australian-man-feared-hed-have-to-do-the-unimaginable-if-hamas-found-his-children/gix186lxt | work = SBS News | date = 13 October 2023 | quote = (Anthony lived) … with his Israeli-Australian wife and their three children aged under four lived in Kibbutz Be-eri … he thought he would have to make an impossible decision if Hamas fighters found them. "The only thing going through my mind was, 'If they come in here, I'm going to have to kill my kids myself'," Anthony said … "I didn't want my kids to become prisoners, so I thought I was going to have to kill my kids." Scores of Israelis and others were taken to Gaza as hostages… |language=en}}

{{further| First Jewish–Roman War | Siege of Masada }}

Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD Jewish Sicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill" Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators..{{Additional citation needed

| reason = the "suicidal" attacks look like a hyperbole, in other source I can only find the suicide to about capture. |date=April 2025}}

The {{lang|ar-Latn|Hashishiyeen}} (Assassins) sect of Ismaili Shi'a Muslims assassinated two Caliphs, as well as many viziers, Sultans and Crusade leaders over 300 years,{{cite book|last1=Acosta|first1=Benjamin|editor1-last=Stanton|editor1-first=Andrea L.|editor2-last=Ramsamy|editor2-first=Edward|title=Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia|date=2012|publisher=Sage|page=21|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC&q=history+Hashishin+killed+caliphs&pg=PA21|access-date=13 October 2015|chapter=Assassins|isbn=9781412981767}} before being annihilated by Mongol invaders. {{lang|ar-Latn|Hashishiyeen}} 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.

Arnold von Winkelried was considered a hero in the Swiss struggle for independence for sacrificing himself at the Battle of Sempach in 1386.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

{{further| Female suicide bombers }}

In 1780, an Indian woman named Kuyili applied ghee and oil onto her body and set herself ablaze. She then jumped into an armoury of the East India Company, causing it to explode. This suicide attack helped to secure victory for her queen, Velu Nachiyar, in the battle.{{cite news |title=Tamil Nadu to build memorial for freedom fighter Kuyili |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tamil-Nadu-to-build-memorial-for-freedom-fighter-Kuyili/articleshow/20075937.cms |access-date=13 August 2014|newspaper=Times of india |date=16 May 2013 |location=Chennai, India}}{{cite news |title=Velu Nachiyar & Kuyili: The Women Who Took Down The British 85 Yrs Before 1857! |url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/157316/news-india-independence-women-fighters-british-raj/ |access-date=28 August 2018|location=Chennai, India}}[http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/remembering-queen-velu-nachiyar-sivagangai-first-queen-fight-british-55163 Remembering Queen Velu Nachiyar of Sivagangai, the first queen to fight the British]. The News Minute. 3 January 2017{{cite news|title=Of woman power and Tamizh glory|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/of-woman-power-and-tamizh-glory-375394.html|newspaper=IBN Live|date=14 June 2011|location=Chennai, India}}{{cite news|title=Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar|url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/veeramangai-velu-nachiyar/article26016399.ece|newspaper=The Hindu Business Line|date=18 January 2019|location=Chennai, India}}

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.{{cite book|last=Yu|first=Yonghe|title=Small Sea Travel Diaries|year=2004|publisher=SMC Publishing Inc.|isbn=978-957-638-629-9|page=196|editor=Macabe Keliher}} 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.{{cite book|first1=William|last1=Campbell|author-link=William Campbell (missionary)|title=Formosa under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records|year=1903|publisher=Kegan Paul|lccn=04007338|oclc=66707733|url=https://archive.org/details/formosaunderdut01campgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/formosaunderdut01campgoog/page/n468 452]|isbn=9789576380839|access-date=April 18, 2015}}

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.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

{{see also| Suicide attack #Aceh in WWII | Suicide attack #Dutch }}

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 {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}} in Islam. The Dutch called it {{lang|nl|Atjèh-moord}}, ({{Literal translation}} Aceh murder).{{cite book|title=Atjeh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXMeAAAAIAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord&pg=PA613|year=1878|publisher=Brill Archive|pages=613–|id=GGKEY:JD7T75Q7T5G}}{{cite book|author=J. Kreemer|title=Atjèh: algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzosAAAAMAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord|year=1923|publisher=E.J. Brill|page=613}}{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/6515130|title=A Crazy State: Violence, Psychiatry, and Colonialism in Aceh, Indonesia, ca. 1910–1942|first=David |last=Kloos|journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde|access-date=12 December 2016}} The Acehnese work of literature the Hikayat Perang Sabil provided the background and reasoning for the {{lang|nl|Atjèh-moord}} as Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch.{{cite book |author1=John Braithwaite |author2=Valerie Braithwaite |author3=Michael Cookson |author4=Leah Dunn |title=Anomie and Violence: Non-truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrdM8X7CBTAC&q=Acehmord&pg=PA347 |year=2010 |publisher=ANU E Press |isbn=978-1-921666-23-0 |page=347ff}}{{cite book|url=http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ch0617.pdf |title=6. Aceh |publisher=Press.anu.edu.au |year=2010 |page=343 |doi=10.22459/AV.03.2010 |access-date=2016-01-17|last1=Braithwaite |first1=John |last2=Braithwaite |first2=Valerie |last3=Cookson |first3=Michael |last4=Dunn |first4=Leah |isbn=9781921666223 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/18313161 |title=Anomie and Violence: Non-Truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding | John Braithwaite |website=Academia.edu |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2016-01-17|last1=Braithwaite |first1=John}} The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms are {{lang|id|Aceh bodoh}}, {{lang|id|Aceh pungo}}, {{lang|id|Aceh gila}}, or {{lang|id|Aceh mord}}.{{cite book|author1=Sayed Mudhahar Ahmad|author2=Aceh Selatan (Indonesia)|title=Ketika pala mulai berbunga: seraut wajah Aceh Selatan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I65yAAAAMAAJ&q=Mereka+ini+terkenal+memiliki+keberanian+luar+biasa+dan+tidak+takut+maut.+Orang-orang+semacam+itu+dijuluki+Belanda+sebagai+pengidap+penyakit+Aceh+mord+%28Aceh+gila%29,+yang+dalam+bahasa+Aceh+disebut+Aceh+pungo+%28Aceh+bodoh%29.+Belanda+...|year=1992|publisher=Pemda Aceh Selatan|page=131}}

{{further|Juramentado|Martyrdom in Islam #Juramentado }}{{ anchor |Moro|juramentado|Juramentado|Moro juramentado|Moro Juramentado}}

Juramentado, in Philippine history, refers to a male Moro swordsman (from the Tausug tribe of Sulu) who attacked and killed targeted occupying and invading police and soldiers. Death was expected, and considered martyrdom, undertaken as a form of jihad.{{Cite thesis |last=Luga |first=Alan R. |title=Muslim Insurgency in Mindanao, Philippines |date=2002 |degree=Master's |publisher=United States Army Command and General Staff College |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA406868 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416191700/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA406868 |url-status=live |archive-date=April 16, 2021 |page=10 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Turbiville |first=Graham H. Jr. |title=Bearers of the Sword Radical Islam, Philippines Insurgency, and Regional Stability |url=http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/sword.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621224454/http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/sword.htm |archive-date=June 21, 2012 |access-date=June 21, 2012 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=McKenna |first=Thomas M. |date=1994 |title=The Defiant Periphery: Routes of Iranun Resistance in the Philippines |journal=Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice |language=en |volume=35 |issue=35 |pages=11–27 |jstor=23171780}}{{Cite web |title=Philippines |url=http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?action=printpage;topic=10.0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408231454/http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?action=printpage;topic=10.0 |archive-date=April 8, 2016 |website=dogbrothers.com |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Russel |first=Florence Kimball |url=https://103.55.108.22:8080/get/pdf/1220 |title=A Woman's Journey Through the Philippines: On a Cable Ship That Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route |publisher=L. C. Page & Company |year=1907 |location=Boston |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413094754/http://103.55.108.22:8080/get/pdf/1220 |archive-date=April 13, 2016}}{{verify source | reason = copied from Juramentado page |date=April 2025}}

Moro people who performed suicide attacks were called {{lang|fil|mag-sabil}}, and the suicide attacks were known as {{lang|fil|parang-sabil}}.{{Cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/1921767|title=Al Harakatul Al Islamiyyah: Essays on the Abu Sayyaf Group by Rommel Banlaoi|first=Rommel|last=Banlaoi|via=www.academia.edu}} The Spanish called them {{lang|es|juramentados}}. The idea of the {{lang|es|juramentado}} was considered part of {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}} in the Moros' Islamic religion. During an attack, a {{lang|es|juramentado}} would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such as barongs and kris until he was killed. The Moros performed {{lang|es|juramentado}} 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.{{cite book|title=Sultans, Shamans, and Saints: Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia|first=Howard M.|last=Federspiel|edition=illustrated|year=2007|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Qf39DpguysC&pg=PA125|page=125|isbn=978-0-8248-3052-6|access-date=March 10, 2014}}

The Moro ({{langx|es|juramentados}}) launched suicide{{verify source |date=April 2025}} 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.{{cite book|title=Filipino Heritage: The Spanish Colonial period (Late 19th Century): The awakening|first=Alfredo R.|last=Roces|volume=7 of Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, Alfredo R. Roces|publisher=Lahing Pilipino Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMkRAQAAMAAJ&q=The+juram+en+tado+'+s+act+was+occasionally+performed+against+the+Japanese+during+World+War+II%C2%97+and+the+Japanese+were+clearly+defined+as+enemies.+The+juramentado+never+went+after+Chinese+residents+in+spite+of+the+fact+that+the+Chinese+were+non-Muslims|page=1702|access-date=March 10, 2014|year=1978}}{{cite book|title=Filipino Heritage: The Spanish colonial period (late 19th century)|first=Alfredo R.|last=Roces|volume=7 of Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation|year=1978|publisher=Lahing (Manila)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akNvAAAAMAAJ&q=The+juramentado's+act+was+occasionally+performed+against+the+Japanese+during+World+War+1+1+—and+the+Japanese+were+clearly+defined+as+enemies.+The+juramentado+never+went+after+Chinese+residents+in+spite+of+the+fact+that+the+Chinese+were+non-Muslim.|page=1702|access-date=March 10, 2014}}{{cite book|title=Filipinas, Volume 11, Issues 117–128|year=2002|publisher=Filipinas Pub.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvkMAQAAMAAJ&q=The+juramentado's+act+was+occasionally+performed+against+the+Japanese+during+World+War+1+1+—and+the+Japanese+were+clearly+defined+as+enemies.+The+juramentado+never+went+after+Chinese+residents+in+spite+of+the+fact+that+the+Chinese+were+non-Muslim.|access-date=March 10, 2014}}{{cite book|title=Understanding Islam and Muslims in the Philippines|editor-first=Peter G.|editor-last= Gowing|edition=illustrated|year=1988|publisher= New Day Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-H25AAAAIAAJ&q=In+spite+of+the+individual+nature+of+many+juramentados,+the+fact+remains+that+it+was+never+done+against+members+of+ethnic+groups+who+were+not+considered+military+and+religious+enemies+of+the+Tausug.+Chinese,+for+example,+in+spite+of+their+status+as+non-+Moslems,+were+seldom+molested.+As+one+man+put+it,+%22There+is+no+sense+killing+the+Chinese|page=56|isbn=978-9711003869|access-date=March 10, 2014}}{{cite journal|last1=Kiefer|first1= Th. M.|title=Parrang Sabbil: Ritual suicide among the Tausug of Jolo|journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde|date=January 1, 1973|volume=129|issue=1|page=111|doi=10.1163/22134379-90002734|doi-access=free}} The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all known family members and relatives of the attackers.{{cite book|title=Midnight on Mindanao: Wartime Remembances 1945–1946|year=2008|publisher=iUniverse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6T39iCmUzMkC&pg=PA47|pages=47–48|isbn=978-0-595-63260-2|access-date=March 10, 2014}}[https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADB068659.pdf Schmidt, 1982] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111203932/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADB068659%26amp;Location=U2%26amp;doc=GetTRDoc.pdf |date=2011-11-11}}, p. 161.

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."[https://www.jstor.org/stable/174087?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Religious Suicide in Islamic Asia]," Stephen Fredric Dale, Department of History Ohio State University.

A Russian man named Ignaty Grinevitsky is sometimes described as the first known suicide bomber.{{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=Jeffrey William|title=The Human Use of Human Beings: A Brief History of Suicide Bombing|journal=Origins|date=April 2013|volume=6|issue=7|url=http://origins.osu.edu/article/human-use-human-beings-brief-history-suicide-bombing|access-date=21 October 2015}} The invention of dynamite in the 1860s presented revolutionary and terrorist groups in Europe with a weapon nearly 20 times more powerful than gunpowder. However, using dynamite required overcoming the technical challenges of detonating it at the right time. One solution was to use a human trigger, which was the technique used to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881.{{cite book|last1=Naimark|first1=Norman M.|author-link1=Norman M. Naimark|chapter=Terrorism and the fall of Imperial Russia|editor1-last=Rapoport|editor1-first=David C.|editor1-link=David C. Rapoport|title=Terrorism: The first or anarchist wave|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjSjAUcH0vsC|series=Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science|volume=1|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2006|page=280|isbn=9780415316514|access-date=2015-04-17|quote=[…] Sof'ia Perovskaia […] and Andrei Zheliabov carefully planned another attempt on the life of the Tsar. […] They rented a shop on Malaia Sadovaia, a street frequented by the Tsar, and dug a tunnel from the basement under the street. Zheliabov was arrested on 27 February 1881, and Perovskaia took charge of the assassination, planned for 1 March. This time they got their prey: the explosives placed under the street failed to detonate, but the second of two suicide bombers fatally wounded the Tsar.}} A would-be suicide bomber killed Russian Minister of the Interior Vyacheslav von Plehve, in St Petersburg in 1904, but survived with major injuries.{{cite book|last1=Julicher|first1=Peter|title=Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnN_x0ssn40C|publisher=McFarland|date=2003|page=229|isbn=9780786416127|access-date=2015-04-17|quote=…Boris Savinkov] recruited Yegor Sazonov, a former medical student, who was willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish the deed. […] On July 15 (28), 1904, a determined Sazonov ran through a crowd of onlookers and positioned himself in front of the approaching carriage just in time. When it swerved to avoid him, he threw his bomb through the side window. The explosion killed Plehve and left Sazonov badly injured.}}

{{further| mass murder | domestic violence }}

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.{{cite news |title=The Murchison Tragedy |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NEM19050715.2.18 |access-date=17 January 2016 |work=Nelson Evening Mail |volume=XL |date=15 July 1905 |page=2}}

In 1953 a man at a magistrate's Court in West Virginia, "turned himself into a human bomb" with sticks of dynamite strapped to him. He killed himself and injured his ex-wife and her lawyer.{{cite news | title = BLEW HIMSELF UP | url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175351189 | work = Uralla Times | date = 15 January 1953 | location = Australia | quote = Weston, West 'Virginia, a man turned himself into a human bomb, setting off several sticks of dynamite strapped to his waist. He was blown to pieces and his divorced wife and her lawyer were critically injured. The incident occurred at a court. The magistrate was thrown from his chair, and another lawyer knocked unconscious. }}

{{see also| World War One | interwar period | World War II | Cold War }}

File: Chinese infantry soldier preparing a suicide vest of Model 24 hand grenades at the Battle of Taierzhuang against Japanese Tanks.jpg. ]]

{{further|Martyrdom in Chinese culture}}

During the Xinhai Revolution and the Warlord Era of the Republic of China, "Dare to Die Corps" ({{zh|s=敢死队|t=敢死隊|p=gǎnsǐduì|w=Kan-ssu-tui|first=t}}) or "suicide squads".* {{cite web|author=LEAR|title=词语"敢死队"的解释汉典zdic.net|url=http://www.zdic.net/c/2/2B/67998.htm|access-date=November 7, 2014}} * {{cite web|title=敢死队的意思,含义,拼音,读音-敢死队的汉语词典解释|url=http://cidian.xpcha.com/9e7g5dxwqhb.html|access-date=November 7, 2014|archive-date=August 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811163900/http://cidian.xpcha.com/9e7g5dxwqhb.html|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|title=6. 敢死队 gǎnsǐduì|url=http://today.zgxc.org.cn/content.php?typeid=5&id=28788|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=21 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821183438/http://today.zgxc.org.cn/content.php?typeid=5&id=28788|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|author=海词词典|title=dare-to-die ship|url=http://dict.cn/dare-to-die%20ship|access-date=November 7, 2014}} * {{cite web|title=a dare-to-die corps 的翻译是:敢死队是什么意思?英文翻译中文,中文|url=http://www.woyaofanyi.com/translate_1554934.html|access-date=November 7, 2014|archive-date=October 30, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030000518/http://www.woyaofanyi.com/translate_1554934.html|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|title=敢死队, a dare-to-die corps,音标,读音,翻译,英文例句,英语词典|url=http://www.dictall.com/indu53/67/5367062169C.htm|access-date=12 December 2016}} * {{cite web|title=a dare-to-die corps – 中英文在线翻译英语在线翻译|url=http://www.haodic.com/query/a%20dare-to-die%20corps|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030125833/http://www.haodic.com/query/a%20dare-to-die%20corps/|archive-date=October 30, 2014|access-date=November 7, 2014}}

• {{cite web|title=敢死队 – 汉语词典 – 911查询|url=http://cidian.911cha.com/MWNjbG8=.html|access-date=November 7, 2014}}{{cite book|author1=Carl Glick|author2=Sheng hwa Hong|title=Swords of silence: Chinese secret societies, past and present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tP_NAAAAMAAJ&q=dare+to+die+swords+china|year=1947|publisher=Whittlesey House}}

were frequently used by Chinese armies. China deployed these suicide units against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

In the Xinhai Revolution, many Chinese revolutionaries became martyrs in battle. "Dare to Die" student corps were founded for student revolutionaries wanting to fight against Qing dynasty rule. Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing promoted the Dare to Die Corps. Huang said, "We must die, so let us die bravely."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51Fpis0D1v0C&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA263|title=Sun Yat Sen and the Chinese Republic|first=Aul|last=Linebarger|year=2008|publisher=READ BOOKS|page=263|isbn=978-1443724388|access-date=July 28, 2010}} Suicide squads were formed by Chinese students going into battle, knowing that they would be killed fighting against overwhelming odds.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_UnAAAAMAAJ&q=This+is+a+suicide+squad%3B+don't+come+with+us,+please.%22|title=China yearbook|year=1975|publisher=China Pub. Co.|page=657|access-date=July 28, 2010}}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5bpAAAAIAAJ&q=Yu+Pei-lun+martyr|title=Selected speeches and messages|first=Kai-shek|last=Chiang|year=1968|publisher=Government Information Office|page=21|access-date=July 28, 2010}} The martyrs in the Dare to Die Corps who died in battle wrote letters to family members before heading off to certain death. The {{lang|zh-Latn|Huanghuakang|italics=no}} was built as a monument to the 72 martyrs.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hOeeAAAAIAAJ&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA93|title=Huang Hsing and the Chinese revolution|author=Chün-tu Hsüeh|year=1961|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=93|isbn=978-0-8047-0031-3|access-date=July 28, 2010}} The deaths of the revolutionaries helped the establishment of the Republic of China, overthrowing the Qing dynasty.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wm7VAAAAMAAJ&q=It+was+the+martyrs%27+blood+which+paved+the+way+for+the+founding+of+the+Republic+of+China|title=Free China review, Volume 14|year=1964|publisher=W.Y. Tsao|page=88|access-date=July 28, 2010}} 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{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03catqbPCmgC&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA23|title=The generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China, Volume 39|first=Jay|last=Taylor|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=23|isbn=978-0-674-03338-2|access-date=July 28, 2010}} and Huang Shaoxiong with the Muslim Bai Chongxi against Qing dynasty forces.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3AJFusMHJwC&q=pai+ch'ung-hsi+dare+to+die&pg=PA51|title=Biographical dictionary of Republican China, Volume 3|first1=Howard L.|last1=Boorman|first2=Richard C.|last2=Howard|first3=Joseph K. H.|last3=Cheng|year=1979|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-231-08957-9|page=51|access-date=July 28, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.asia.ubc.ca/page/6/?profile_cct_group|title=Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lectures, 2013|author=Pai Hsien-yung|date=2013|website=UBC DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES|page=6|access-date=August 3, 2014}}

Dare to Die troops were used by warlords.{{cite book|title=Chinese Civil War Armies 1911–49|first=Philip S.|last=Jowett|volume=306|edition=illustrated|year=1997|publisher=Osprey Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ck6IumJLdPkC&pg=PA14|page=14|isbn=978-1855326651|access-date=April 24, 2014}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} The Kuomintang used one to put down an insurrection in Canton.{{cite news|title=PART ONE CHIANG VERSUS COMMUNISM: HIS PERSONAL ACCOUNT|author=Chiang Kai-shek|newspaper=LIFE Magazine Vol. 42, No. 25|date=June 24, 1957|page=147|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IT8EAAAAMBAJ&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA147|access-date=July 28, 2010|author-link=Chiang Kai-shek}} Many women joined them in addition to men to achieve martyrdom against China's opponents.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZ3V9umMPf8C&q=Other+women+in+joining+the+%22Dare+to+Die%22+Regiments+later+on,+saw+her+as+a+model+for+rebellion+against+the+enemies+of+China.+One+of+her+last+poems+was+particularly+well-known+because+it+combined+the+themes+of+her|title=Women in modern China: transition, revolution, and contemporary times|author=Marjorie Wall Bingham, Susan Hill Gross|year=1980|publisher=Glenhurst Publications|page=34|isbn=978-0-86596-028-2|access-date=July 28, 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYpIAAAAYAAJ&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA79|title=China review, Volume 1|year=1921|publisher=China Trade Bureau, Inc.|page=79|access-date=July 28, 2010}} They were known as {{lang|zh|烈士}} ({{transliteration|zh|lit-she}}; martyrs) after accomplishing their mission.{{cite book|author1=Carl Glick|author2=Sheng hwa Hong|title=Swords of silence: Chinese secret societies, past and present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tP_NAAAAMAAJ&q=Lit-she|year=1947|publisher=Whittlesey House|page=202}}

During the January 28 Incident (28 January – 3 March 1932), a Dare to Die squad struck against the Japanese.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Suicide bombing was also used against the Japanese. A Dare to Die Corps was effectively used against Japanese units at the Battle of Taierzhuang. They used swords{{cite book|title=Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost|first=Jonathan|last=Fenby|year=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNJOxyP0SqEC&q=dare+to+die+corps+swords&pg=PA319|pages=318–319|isbn=978-0743231442|access-date=April 24, 2014}}{{cite book|author=Jonathan Fenby|title=Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VIUAQAAIAAJ&q=dare+to+die+taierzhuang+swords|date=24 June 2008|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-166116-7|page=284}} and wore suicide vests made out of grenades.{{Cite web |url=http://war.163.com/15/0427/09/AO6TATTL00014OMD.html |title=台儿庄巷战:长官电令有敢退过河者 杀无赦_网易军事 |access-date=2016-03-16 |archive-date=2018-06-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619140144/http://war.163.com/15/0427/09/AO6TATTL00014OMD.html |url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.88p4.com/2015/04/27/taierzhuang-street-fighting-executive-power-to-make-those-who-have-dared-to-retreat-across-the-river-unforgiven-124486.html|title=Taierzhuang street fighting : Executive power to make those who have dared to retreat across the river Unforgiven – Netease International News|first=Bun|last=Wong|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=20 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020023846/http://www.88p4.com/2015/04/27/taierzhuang-street-fighting-executive-power-to-make-those-who-have-dared-to-retreat-across-the-river-unforgiven-124486.html|url-status=dead}}

A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese soldiers at Sihang Warehouse. Chinese troops strapped explosives such as grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up.{{Cite thesis|last=Schaedler|first=Luc|title=Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet: Literary, Historical, and Oral Sources for a Documentary Film|type=Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Zurich For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy|url=http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719204815/http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf|archive-date=2014-07-19|year=2007|page=518|publisher=University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts|access-date=April 24, 2014|url-status=dead}} This tactic was used during the Battle of Shanghai, to stop a Japanese tank column when an attacker exploded himself beneath the lead tank,{{cite book | title = Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze | first=Peter | last=Harmsen |edition=illustrated|year=2013|publisher=Casemate| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jpPUAgAAQBAJ&q=shanghai+grenade+tanks+japanese&pg=PT127 |page=112|isbn=978-1612001678| access-date = 24 April 2014}} and at the Battle of Taierzhuang where Chinese troops with dynamite and grenades strapped to themselves rushed Japanese tanks and blew themselves up,{{cite book|title=China Condensed: 5000 Years of History & Culture|first=Siew Chey|last=Ong|edition=illustrated|year=2005|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bt7q8hfiZ4gC&q=taierzhuang+suicide+bombers&pg=PA94|page=94|isbn=978-9812610676|access-date=24 April 2014}}{{cite book|url=http://numistamp.com/Taierzhuang-1938----Stalingrad-1942-(Page-1).php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709203351/http://numistamp.com/Taierzhuang-1938----Stalingrad-1942-%28Page-1%29.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-07-09|title=Taierzhuang 1938 – Stalingrad 1942|last1=Olsen|first1=Lance|date=2012|via=Numistamp|publisher=Clear Mind Publishing|isbn=978-0-9838435-9-7|access-date=April 24, 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://grognard.com/info1/stormover.pdf|title=STORM OVER TAIERZHUANG 1938 PLAYER's AID SHEET|website=grognard.com|access-date=24 April 2014}}{{cite book|title=China Condensed: 5,000 Years of History & Culture|author=Ong Siew Chey|year=2011|publisher=Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd|isbn=978-9814312998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdKIAAAAQBAJ&q=japanese+tanks+suicide+bombers&pg=PA79|page=79|edition=reprint|access-date=April 24, 2014}} in one incident obliterating four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles.{{cite book|title=International Press Correspondence, Volume 18|year=1938|publisher=Richard Neumann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nRlWAAAAYAAJ&q=Thus,+for+instance,+a+group+of+Chinese+soldiers,+in+spite+of+heavy+artillery+fire,+attacked+a+column+of+Japanese+tanks+with+hand-grenades+and+destroyed+four+tanks,+sacrificing+their+own+lives.+These+courageous+soldiers+thereby+opened+the+way+for+the+Chinese+troops.+According+to+reports+from+Shanghai,+the+losses+of+the+Japanese+army+operating+on+the+eastern+front+amounted+in+February+to+5,400+killed+and+12,700+wounded.+400+oificers+were+killed+or+wounded.+In+March+35+Japanese|page=447|access-date=April 24, 2014}}{{cite book|title=The people's war|first=Israel|last=Epstein|year=1939|publisher=V. Gollancz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TevqAAAAIAAJ&q=The+men+in+the+trenches+waited+till+the+tanks+came+close,+then+jumped+out+and+threw+bundles+of+hand-+grenades+under+their+wheels+and+into+their+ports.+Four+tanks+were+destroyed,+neatly+pierced+by+anti-tank+shells,+and+nine+others+were|page=172|access-date=April 24, 2014}}

During the {{nowrap|1946{{endash}}1950}} Communist Revolution, coolies fighting the Communists formed Dare to Die Corps to fight for their organizations.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutiontradit00lieb|url-access=registration|quote=dare to die china.|title=Revolution and tradition in Tientsin, 1949–1952|author=Kenneth Lieberthal|year=1980|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/revolutiontradit00lieb/page/67 67]|isbn=978-0-8047-1044-2|access-date=July 28, 2010}} During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, protesting students also formed "Dare to Die Corps" to risk their lives defending the protest leaders.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ng0Rr7FsoqQC&q=dare+to+die+china&pg=PA237|title=Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now|author=Jan Wong|year=1997|publisher=Random House, Inc.|page=237|isbn=978-0-385-25639-1|access-date=July 28, 2010}}

{{ see also | Zionist political violence | List of massacres in Mandatory Palestine | List of Irgun attacks | Car bomb | Suicide attack #1947 }}

The Irgun militant group in Palestine abused donkeys as suicide bombers in two attacks on Haifa vegetable market in 1939. They used unwitting donkeys loaded with explosives to attack the market, one attack killed 78 people, the other killed 21 people and wounded 24.{{cite news | url= https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2016-05-02/ty-article/.premium/hamas-and-the-irgun-how-dare-i-compare-the-two/0000017f-f73b-d318-afff-f77bf9ca0000 | title= Hamas and the Irgun? How Dare I Compare the Two... For all those suffering from voluntary amnesia here are just a few of the Irgun's highlights of Hamas-worthy violence. | last1= Michael | first1= B. | newspaper = Haaretz | quote = June 20, 1939 — A particularly successful shuk operation: 78 Arabs (and a donkey) are murdered in an explosion in a Haifa open-air market. The donkey was booby-trapped. }}{{cite news | last1= Persico | first1= Tomer | title= Would pre-state Zionist militias be terrorists by today's standards? | url= https://www.972mag.com/would-pre-state-zionist-militias-be-terrorists-by-todays-standards/ | work= +972 Magazine | date= 10 April 2016 | quote= In July 1939, Jewish militants placed bombs at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing five Arabs and wounding 14. That same month, a donkey mounted with explosives killed 21 Arabs and wounded 24 in the Haifa vegetable market. }}

The previous year the Irgun attacked the market with a car bomb, killing 35 Arab civilians and wounding 70.{{cite web | title = Notorious massacres of Palestinians between 1937 & 1948 | url = https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/factsheets/ZionistMassacres_1937-48.pdf | website = Middle East Monitor | quote = The Haifa Massacre - 25/7/1938 A car bomb was planted by the Irgun Zionist gang in an Arab market in Haifa which killed 35 Arab civilians and wounded 70. }} There are no clearly documented cases of the Irgun using car bombs in suicide attacks, but the Irgun – and their more extreme Lehi splinter group – are seen as the key developers of car bombs, that were later used by other groups in numerous suicide attacks.{{cite book | doi=10.1525/9780520949454-011 | chapter = The First Car Bomb | title = Transforming Terror | date = 2019 | last1 = Davis | first1 = Mike | pages=32–33 |isbn=978-0-520-94945-4 }}

The Irgun were extremely influential.{{cite web | url=https://warontherocks.com/2021/07/july-22-a-pivotal-day-in-terrorism-history/ | title=July 22: A Pivotal Day in Terrorism History | date=22 July 2021 }}

File:Kamikaze attacks USS White Plains (CVE-66) on 25 October 1944 (80-G-288882).jpg . ]]

File:Kamikaze zero.jpg 's suicide attack on the {{USS|Missouri|BB-63}}, 11 April 1945. ]]

{{Main| Japanese Special Attack Units | Kamikaze | Kaiten | Banzai charge | Fukuryu | Ohka | Lunge mine | Shinyo (suicide motorboat) }}

{{lang|ja-Latn|Kamikaze}} was a ritual{{verify source |date=April 2025}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Dodd|first1=Henry|title=A short history of suicide bombing|date=23 Aug 2013|publisher=Action on Armed Violence|url=https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|access-date=13 October 2015}}

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.{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Steve|title=Lucky Lady: The World War II Heroics of the USS Santa Fe and Franklin|date=2003|publisher=Da Capo Press.|isbn=978-0786713103|page=308|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65tzvzXJxC8C&q=ritualized+kamikaze&pg=PA308|access-date=6 October 2015}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} {{lang|ja-Latn|Kamikaze}} 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 {{lang|ja-Latn|kamikaze}} effectiveness. Along with fitting existing aircraft with bombs, the Japanese also developed the {{lang|ja-Latn|Ohka}}, 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 {{lang|ja-Latn|kaiten}} (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. {{lang|ja-Latn|Kaitens}}, however, provided no means of escape.{{cite web|url=http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~un3k-mn/konadaa-girei.htm|title=Escape system|access-date=18 September 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~un3k-mn/konadaa-huchi.htm|title=Hatches|access-date=18 September 2010}}

{{see also| Suicide attack #Ache war (1873–1904) | Suicide attack #Dutch }}

{{lang|nl|Atjèh-moord}} was also used against the Japanese by the Acehnese during the Japanese occupation of Aceh.{{cite book|author=A. J. Piekaar|title=Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=txYyAQAAIAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord|year=1949|publisher=W. van Hoeve|page=3}} The Acehnese {{lang|ar-Latn|Ulama}} (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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=0GrWCmZoEBMC&dq=amuntai+japanese&pg=PA252 Ricklefs 2001], p. 252.[https://books.google.com/books?id=RcdwAAAAMAAJ&q=In+November+1942,+the+Japanese+found+themselves+putting+down+a+local+rebellion+against+their+rule+carried+out+by+the+same+Acehnese+who+had+removed+the+Dutch+to+make+way+for+their+arrival.+One+leader+of+a+religious+school+in+Cot+Plieng,+... Martinkus 2004], p. 47. The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3NETAQAAMAAJ&q=When+the+resistance+of+the+religious+school+of+Tjot+Plieng+in+Bayu+was+ended+in+November+1942,+over+100+Acehnese+were+massacred,+18+Japanese+died,+and+yet+another+conqueror+had+learned+the+penalty+of+trying+to+deal+with+Aceh+by+force "Tempo: Indonesia's Weekly News Magazine, Volume 3, Issues 43–52" 2003], p. 27.{{cite web |url=http://www.atjehcyber.net/2011/08/sejarah-jejak-perlawanan-aceh.html |title=Sejarah Jejak Perlawanan Aceh |website=Atjehcyber.net |date=2011-08-10 |access-date=2016-01-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427002230/http://www.atjehcyber.net/2011/08/sejarah-jejak-perlawanan-aceh.html |archive-date=2016-04-27}}{{cite web|url=http://issuu.com/waspada/docs/waspada__sabtu_17_maret_2012/3 |title=Waspada, Sabtu 17 Maret 2012 by Harian Waspada |website=Issuu.com |date=16 March 2012 |access-date=2016-01-17}}{{cite web|url=http://issuu.com/waspada/docs/waspada__sabtu_17_maret_2012 |title=Waspada, Sabtu 17 Maret 2012 by Harian Waspada |website=Issuu.com |date=16 March 2012 |access-date=2016-01-17}} During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under {{lang|id|Teungku Abduldjalil}} (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah on 10 November and Tjot Plieng on 13 November.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BiTjAAAAMAAJ&q=tjot+plieng "Berita Kadjian Sumatera: Sumatra Research Bulletin, Volumes 1–4" 1971], p. 35.[https://books.google.com/books?id=v3kDBvr5UeYC&q=tjot+plieng Nasution 1963], p. 89. In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BpZuAAAAMAAJ&q=village+and+the+mosque+at+the+beginning+of+November.+In+the+fighting+that+ensued,+18+Japanese+were+killed+and+more+than+120+Acehnese+perished.+Furthermore+a+local+revolt+broke+out+in+Aceh+in+May+1945. Jong 2000], p. 189.

During the Battle for Berlin the {{lang|de|Luftwaffe|italics=no}} flew "self-sacrifice missions" ({{langx|de|selbstopfereinsätze}}) 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 {{lang|de|Luftwaffe|italics=no}} 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.Beevor, Antony. Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, p. 238; {{ISBN|0-670-88695-5}}; accessed April 18, 2015.

Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff intended to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a suicide bombing in 1943, but was unable to complete the attack.Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler. Jonathan Cape, pp. 191–193 (2006); {{ISBN|0-224-07121-1}}.

{{further| Jewish insurgency in Palestine | label1=anti-British insurgency in Palestine | Olei Hagardom | label2 = Executed Martyrs | suicide attack #Nuclear Samson | label3 = Samson Option (below) }}{{anchor|1947 Operation Samson|1947 Samson|1947}}

The Lehi militant group used the Biblical story of Samson's death (Judges 16) in discussions about suicide attacks. In a meeting about ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing. They refer to it as a "{{ill|Let me die with the Philistines|he|תמות נפשי עם פלשתים| lt =Let my soul die with the Philistines}}" proposal ({{langx|he|תמות נפשי עם פלשתים}}) as a reference to the words of Samson in (Judges 16:30), or a "Samson option". On that occasion other members of the group allegedly rejected her offer. She also had a physical disability that might have made her unable to carry out the plan the group had in mind. The Lehi memorialize her among their martyrs and fallen combatants ({{langx|he|הללי לח”י}}), but her cause of death is not described.

The Irgun and Lehi militant groups collaborated on at least one intended suicide attack during their insurgency against the British (before the 1948 Palestine war). However, two of their own militants were the only casualties of their best documented plan.https://www.haaretz.com/2007-04-07/ty-article/the-good-jailer/0000017f-e225-d75c-a7ff-feaddde60000 A Lehi militant and an Irgun militant blew themselves up in Jerusalem Central Prison, using improvised grenades that had been constructed by another Lehi prisoner. The explosives were disguised as oranges to hide them from the guards, and smuggled in with the prisoners' food.

Both militants had been sentenced to death by hanging. The original plan, which the Lehi called "Operation Samson", was to carry the concealed grenades with them as they were taken to the gallows then use them to carry out a suicide attack against the executioners. But the explosives detonated early, while the two of them were alone together in their cell.https://archive.today/20250201181911/https://www.haaretz.com/2007-04-07/ty-article/the-good-jailer/0000017f-e225-d75c-a7ff-feaddde60000 Allegedly when the pair learned that Rabbi Goldman would be present at the time of the execution, they changed the plan and committed suicide alone together shortly before they were scheduled to be taken to the gallows.{{Cite book | last = Ben-Arieh | first = Yehoshua | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GHHsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Barazani+and+Feinstein+blew+themselves+up+in+their+jail+cell+shortly+before+the+execution.&pg=PA594 | title = The Making of Eretz Israel in the Modern Era: A Historical-Geographical Study (1799–1949) | date = 2020-03-09 | publisher = Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG | isbn = 978-3-11-062640-7 |language=en}} Another version of the story is that the person the militants were unwilling to harm was actually one of the British prison guards.

The Lehi militant, who was 21, was sentenced to death simply for possessing a grenade during a British imposition of martial law. The Irgun militant had been sentenced to death alongside another militant for their role in the bombing of Jerusalem Train Station. There was heated debate about the age of the Irgun suicide militant when he was sentenced. His mother and brother claimed he was 17, too young to be executed according to the law of the British authorities. The court claimed he was 23, since the boy had served in the British military during World War Two, and the authorities refused to believe they had recruited a minor who was lying about his age.

The Jerusalem Post describes the event as "One of the best-known stories of heroism leading to the creation of the State of Israel".{{cite news |title=The writing on the wall | url = https://www.jpost.com/local-israel/in-jerusalem/the-writing-on-the-wall-58620 | work = The Jerusalem Post | date = 19 April 2007 |language=en| quote = It was termed "Operation Shimshon" after the biblical Samson who brought down with him the crowded Philistine temple, claiming "let me die with the Philistines." Barazani and Feinstein were eager to carry out the plan. Eliezer Ben-Ami, an imprisoned Lehi member, assembled hand grenades from pieces that were smuggled into the prison separately … }}

{{Main|Korean War}}

North Korean tanks were attacked by South Koreans with suicide tactics during the Korean War.{{cite book|title=International Journal of Korean Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egsxAQAAIAAJ&q=Upon+knowing+that+2.36-inch+bazookas+were+not+effective+against+the+Soviet-made+T-34s,+they+organized+%22a+suicidal+group,%22+approached+the+tanks,+and+threw+a+bundle+of+hand+grenades+with+Molotov+cocktails+into+the+turrets+of+the+North+Korean+tanks.+Moreover,+after+fighting|year=2001|publisher=Korea Society and the International Council on Korean Studies|page=40}}{{cite book|author=Carter Malkasian|title=The Korean War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHB5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT22|date=May 29, 2014|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-4728-0994-0|pages=22–}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}

American tanks in Seoul were attacked by North Korean suicide squads, who used satchel charges.{{cite book|author=T.I. Han|title=Lonesome Hero: Memoir of a Korea War POW|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbP0RK5ZKJ4C&pg=PA69|date=1 May 2011|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4634-1176-3|pages=69–}}{{cite book|author=Charles R. Smith|title=U.S. Marines in the Korean War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xov0PtHvy-QC&pg=PA183|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-087251-8|pages=183–|year=2007}} North Korean soldier Li Su-Bok is considered a hero for destroying an American tank with a suicide bomb.{{cite book|author=Sonia Ryang|title=North Korea: Toward a Better Understanding|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1GzO3CV1aAC&pg=PA78|date=January 16, 2009|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-3207-4|pages=78–}}

{{further| Suez Crisis | Six-Day War | War of Attrition | Samson Option }}

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 Samson committed suicide and killed thousands of enemy Philistines in the process. In situations where death or severe injury is already difficult to avoid, it is seen as heroic to abandon efforts to save one's self and instead focus on causing as much harm as possible to the enemy, in the process of effectively committing suicide. This includes some anecdotes of events during their wars with Egypt.

According to Egyptian media, an Arab Christian military officer from Syria, Jules Jammal, sunk a French ship with a suicide attack during the Suez Crisis in 1956.{{cite news|author=Sami Moubayed|title=Rising above odds to resurrect leaders|url=http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/weekend-review/articles/rising-above-odds-to-resurrect-leaders-1.40430|newspaper=Weekend Review|date=May 2, 2008|author2=Mustapha Al Sayyed}} 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"[https://web.archive.org/web/20120630001733/http://www.syrianhistory.com/view-photo/1021 Jules Jammal (1932 1956), the famous officer in the Syrian Navy who fought in the Suez Canal war of 1956: Syrian History] and [http://www.syrianhistory.com/People/key/Jules+Jammal Jules Jammal: Syrian History] and another the "French warship, Jeanne D'Arc".[https://web.archive.org/web/20070515152656/http://www.mideastviews.com/articleview.php?art=208 Middle East analysis by Sami Moubayed – Reflections on May 6], Mideastviews.com; accessed 15 June 2015 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.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/changingpatterns010404mbp/changingpatterns010404mbp_djvu.txt|title=The Changing Patterns of the Middle East|author=Pierre Rondout|date=1961|publisher=Praeger|page=161|edition=Revised}}, which refers to the Jean Bart as a "cruiser")

{{main| War of Attrition | Israeli-Egyptian War | Battle of Karameh }}

On 21 March 1968, in response to persistent Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raids against Israeli civilian targets, Israel attacked the town of Karameh, Jordan, the site of a major PLO camp. The goal of the invasion was to destroy the Karameh camp and capture Yasser Arafat in reprisal for the attacks by the PLO against Israeli civilians.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} The PLO attacks had culminated in an Israeli school bus hitting a mine in the Negev.{{Cite book| last=Senker | first=Cath | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hI844N9leNUC&pg=PA45|title=The Arab-Israeli Conflict | date = 2004| publisher = Black Rabbit Books | isbn = 978-1-58340-441-6 |language=en}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} This engagement marked the first known deployment of suicide bombers by Palestinian forces.{{cite book| author1 = Saada, Tass | author2 = Merrill, Dean | title = Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life | location = Illinois | publisher = Tyndale House Publishers | year = 2008 | pages = 4–6 | isbn = 978-1-4143-2361-9}}{{verify source| reason = unclear who suicide bombed who and where. | date = March 2025 }}

{{Main| Lod airport massacre | Japanese Red Army | PFLP-EO }}

One of the first incidents to be labelled "suicide terrorism" was the mass shooting at the airport in Lod (also known as Lydda), Israel's international airport now known as Ben Gurion Airport.{{efn| Named after David Ben-Gurion, founder of the State of Israel. }} Two of the attackers died during the attack, one of whom deliberately committed suicide using a hand grenade.https://www.haaretz.com/2010-02-13/ty-article/israeli-rights-group-sues-north-korea-over-1972-terror-attack/0000017f-e1ce-d38f-a57f-e7de293d0000

It was carried out by three foreign fighters from the Japanese Red Army (a communist militant group from Japan) in corroboration with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations division, a rebellious offshoot of the PFLP.

Some reports at the time labelled the incident a "Kamikaze" attack,{{cite web | title= Collection of news reports | url= https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79-01194A000200120001-1.pdf | website= www.cia.gov | access-date= 4 December 2024}} but others have criticized the label, including the surviving attacker's interpreter.{{cite news | author1= Satoshi Sugawara |title=Interpreter for Red Army terrorist still indignant 50 years after Tel Aviv attack | url= https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20220605-34480/ | access-date= 4 December 2024 | work= japannews.yomiuri.co.jp The Japan News (English edition of Yomiuri Shimbun) | date= 5 June 2022 | location= Japan |language=en}} The Kamakazi 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".{{cite journal | last1= Randall | first1= Jeremy | title= Global Revolution Starts with Palestine: The Japanese Red Army's Alliance with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine | journal= Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East | date= 1 December 2023 | volume= 43 | issue= 3 | pages= 358–369 | doi= 10.1215/1089201X-10892853 | url= https://read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/article/43/3/358/384021/Global-Revolution-Starts-with-PalestineThe |access-date=4 December 2024 |issn=1089-201X}}

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.

{{ anchor |Nuclear}}

{{Main|Nuclear weapons of the United States}}

On 27 December 2018, the Green Bay Press-Gazette interviewed veteran{{clarify|date=October 2023}} 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:{{cite news|author=Paul Srubas, Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette via the AP|title=His job was to place atomic bombs. Place them, not drop them. Set the timer. Run like hell.|url=https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2019/01/07/depere-atomic-bombs-hiroshima-nagasaki-fort-belvoir-davycrockett-mark-bentley-army-service-cold-war/2418122002/|newspaper=Green Bay Press-Gazette|date=January 7, 2019}}

{{blockquote|We all knew it was a one-way mission, a suicide mission […] You set your timer, and it would click when it went off, or it went ding or I forget what, but you knew you were toast. Ding! Your toast is ready, and it's you. […] The Army is not going to set a bomb like that and run away and leave it, because they don't know if someone else would get ahold of it. They have to leave troops there to make sure it's not stolen or compromised, and that would just be collateral damage. You didn't go out with the thought that it was anything other than a one-way mission. If you're Bruce Willis, you get away, but I ain't Bruce Willis.}}

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.{{cite report |date=August 1971 |title=Employment of Atomic Demolition Munitions (ADM) |publisher=Headquarters, Department of the Army |docket=FM 5-26|ref=CITEREFEmployment_of_Atomic_Demolition_Munitions_(ADM) |url=https://archive.org/details/fm-5-26-1971 |pages=3-15 to 3-16}} 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.{{cite report |author=Bartlett, J G |date=11 February 1964 |title=Electromagnetic Radiation Susceptibility of the B54-0 (SADM) and the Field Wire Remote Control System (U) |url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/detail?osti-id=16341307 |publisher=Sandia National Lab |access-date=4 June 2021 |archive-date=25 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525064046/https://www.osti.gov/opennet/detail?osti-id=16341307 |url-status=live}}

{{Main|Mutually assured destruction}}

Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would result in the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.[http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm Mutual Assured Destruction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103001128/http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm |date=2018-01-03}}; Col. Alan J. Parrington, USAF, [http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/win97/parrin.html Mutually Assured Destruction Revisited, Strategic Doctrine in Question] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620055606/http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/win97/parrin.html |date=2015-06-20}}, Airpower Journal, Winter 1997.

{{Main|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 militant group used to describe potential and attempted suicide attacks (see above).

The story is about an Israelite judge named Samson, who kills himself and the Philistines who captured him by pushing apart the pillars of a Dagon temple, bringing down the roof crushing everyone.{{Sfn | Hersh | 1991 | pp = 137 }}{{cite web | last1 = Beres | first1 = Louis René | title = Israel and the "Samson Option" in an Interconnected World | url = https://mwi.westpoint.edu/israel-samson-option-interconnected-world/ | website=Modern War Institute |access-date = July 4, 2023 | date = 16 November 2018}}

Historians connected to the Lehi allege that the militant who built the bombs for Operation Samson, the intended suicide attack in Jerusalem Central Prison in 1947, later had a leadership role in the Israeli military's nuclear and biological weapons division.{{cite web | title = Ben-Ami (Chissin) Eliezer – "Yechezkel" – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association | url = https://lehi.org.il/en/ben-ami-chassin-eliezer/ | work=lehi.org.il/en | quote = He became known for assembling ‘Grenade Filled Oranges' used by Moshe Barazani and Meir Feinstein, who blew themselves up three hours before their British-planned execution. He was released 8 February 1948, and stayed active until joining the IDF 31 May 1948. He was discharged September 1969 ranking Lieutenant-Colonel. Eliezer served in the 8th Brigade, the Engineering Corps and the Ordnance Corps, from dismantling bombshells to Commanding a Battalion. In 1951 he successfully finished an Engineer Corps Officers' Course and was sent to study at the Technion. He was involved in developing and testing armaments. He graduated Command and HQ School. Among his positions: instructor, sapper, Production Officer, Experimental Branch Head, 276 Battalion Commander and Head of the Atomic-Biological-Chemical Weapons Branch. }}

File: Suicide-attacks-cpost-bigger-font.JPG | url = https://dss.princeton.edu/catalog/resource1057 | work = Suicide Attack Database }} ]]{{Further|Cold War|War on Terror}}{{ anchor |1980s}}

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".{{cite book|last1=Kraft|first1=Michael|last2=Marks|first2=Edward|title=U.S. Government Counterterrorism: A Guide to Who Does What|date=2011|publisher=CRC Press|chapter=1. Modern Terrorism and the Federal Government Response}}{{verify source| reason = confirm quote and attribution |date=May 2025}}

Noah Feldman and many others{{who|date=May 2025}} exclude terror attacks, such as the Lod Airport massacre, where "the perpetrator's ensured death" was not "a precondition for the success of his mission". The intended targets are often civilian, not just military or political.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

{{further| Cold War in Asia | Soviet–Afghan War }}

File:The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the aftermath of the August 7, 1998, al-Qaida suicide bombing.jpg, Tanzania, in the aftermath of 7 August 1998, Al-Qaeda suicide bombing. ]]

The Islamic Dawa Party's car bombing of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in December 1981 and Hezbollah's bombing of the U.S. embassy in April 1983 and attack on United States Marines and French barracks in October 1983 brought suicide bombings international attention and began the modern suicide bombing era.{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-062813-051049|doi-access=free|title=The Rise and Spread of Suicide Bombing|year=2015|last1=Horowitz|first1=Michael C.|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=18|pages=69–84}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} The Syrian Social Nationalist Party sent the first recorded female suicide bomber in 1985.{{cite web |url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB408.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051006051237/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB408.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 October 2005 |title=FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBERS |author=Debra D. Zedalis| publisher=Strategic Studies Institute |date=June 2004}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2eTc5pm_Y3MC |title=Female Suicide Bombers |author=Debra D. Zedalis |date= August 2004|publisher=The Minerva Group |isbn=9781410215932 |access-date=2016-01-17}}{{cite web |url=http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/jan2008/female_bombers.html |title=Female Suicide Bombers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726124637/http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/jan2008/female_bombers.html |archive-date=July 26, 2014 | author=Debra D. Zedalis| publisher=University Press of the Pacific| date=2004| quote=Iraq militants turn to women for suicide attacks}}{{cite book|last1=Rajan|first1=V. G. Julie|title=Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence|date=2011|publisher=Routledge.|page=225|isbn=9781136760211|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8CsAgAAQBAJ&q=Sana%27a+Mehaidli+first+female+suicide+bomber&pg=PA225|access-date=13 October 2015|quote=Rosemary Skaine writes about Sana'a Mehaidli the first suicide bomber and first women {{sic?}} bomber for the Syrian Socialist Network Party ...}}

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.{{efn|group=lower-alpha|Jane's Intelligence Review lists 168 Suicide bombings in Sri Lanka carried out by the LTTE between 187 and 2009.{{cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/225|title=Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam – Mapping Militant Organizations|first=Daniel|last=Cassman}}}}{{cite web|url=http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060819-095333-3607r.htm|title=Tending to Sri Lanka|work=The Washington Times|access-date=June 17, 2008}} Their Black Tiger unit committed 83 suicide attacks from 1987 to 2009, killing 981 people.{{cite web|title=Year: 1982–2015: Group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam|url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|website=Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database|access-date=22 Dec 2016|archive-date=24 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|url-status=dead}} Those killed included former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi{{cite news|title=Tamil Tiger 'regret' over Gandhi |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5122032.stm |work=BBC News |date=27 June 2006 |access-date=10 May 2007}}{{cite news|title=We killed Rajiv, confesses LTTE |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/We-killed-Rajiv-confesses-LTTE/articleshow/1686574.cms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908152114/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-06-28/india/27793042_1_ltte-suicide-bomber-rajiv-gandhi-velupillai-prabhakaran |url-status=live |archive-date=8 September 2011 |newspaper=The Times of India |date=28 June 2006 |access-date=10 May 2007}}{{Cite news|title=On This Day 21 May – 1991: Bomb kills India's former leader Rajiv Gandhi |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_2504000/2504739.stm |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 November 2007 | date=21 May 1991}} and the president of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa.{{cite news|first=Mark |last=Baker |title=Hopes high for end to Sri Lanka war |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/15/1032054710030.html |newspaper=The Age |date=16 September 2002 |access-date=10 May 2007 |location=Melbourne}}{{cite news|title=Sri Lanka assassination plot |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/140084.stm |work=BBC News |date=27 July 1998 |access-date=10 May 2007}}{{cite news|first=V. S. |last=Sambandan |title=Inquiries into Premadasa, Dissanayake killings closed |url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/05/stories/2005090507041200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301153730/http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/05/stories/2005090507041200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 March 2007 |newspaper=The Hindu |date=5 September 2005 |access-date=10 May 2007 |location=Chennai, India}}{{cite news|title=CHRONOLOGY-Assassinations of political figures in Sri Lanka |url=http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=COL159286&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-5 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070424061503/http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=COL159286&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-5 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 April 2007 |work=Reuters UK |date=10 November 2006 |access-date=10 May 2007}}

Another non-religious group involved in suicide attacks was the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which began their insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. 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.{{cite web|title=Year: 1982–2015. Group: Kurdistan Workers Party|url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|website=Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database|access-date=2015-11-20|archive-date=2016-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|url-status=dead}}

Al-Qaeda carried out its first suicide attack in the mid-1990s.{{cite journal|last=Kurz|first=Robert W.|author2=Charles K. Bartles|s2cid=96476266|title=Chechen suicide bombers|journal=Journal of Slavic Military Studies|year=2007|volume=20|issue=4|pages=529–547|doi=10.1080/13518040701703070|url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a477845.pdf|access-date=August 30, 2012|archive-date=October 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011185147/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a477845.pdf|url-status=live}} The attacks first occurred in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 1989.{{cite web|url=http://www.news1.co.il/Archive/001-D-206364-00.html?tag=09-17-36|script-title=he:פיגוע אוטובוס 405 |publisher=News1|language=he|access-date=March 22, 2015}}

{{anchor|2000s}}{{further| September 11 attacks | War on terror }}

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 number of attacks using suicide tactics grew from an average of fewer than five per year during the 1980s to 81 suicide attacks in 2001 and 460 in 2005.{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=129}} By 2005, the tactic had spread to dozens of countries.{{cite book|last1=Maggio|first1=Edward J|title=Private Security In The 21st Century: Concepts And Applications|date=2009|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Publishers.|isbn=978-0-7637-5190-6|page=205|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZNdwscVq1EC&q=By+2005,+the+suicide+bombing+has+spread+to+dozens+of+countries.&pg=PA205|access-date=13 October 2015}}

File:Beit Lid suicide bombing (1995).jpg

Suicide bombing became a popular tactic among Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and occasionally by the PFLP.Pedahzur, pp. 66–69 The first suicide bombing in Israel was done by Hamas in 1994. Attacks peaked from 2001 to 2003 with over 40 bombings and over 200 killed in 2002.{{cite web|title=RESULTS ARE FILTERED BY: Year: 1982–2015. Country: Israel|url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|website=Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database|access-date=2015-11-20|archive-date=2016-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|author=Schweitzer, Y. |s2cid=144812564 |title=Palestinian Istishhadia: A Developing Instrument' |doi=10.1080/10576100701435761 |url=http://www.inss.org.il/upload/%28FILE%291300198331.pdf |year=2007 |journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism |volume=30 |issue=8 |pages=667–689 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121045437/http://www.inss.org.il/upload/%28FILE%291300198331.pdf |archive-date=November 21, 2015}} 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.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3256858.stm Analysis: Palestinian suicide bombings]. BBC News (2007-01-29); retrieved 2012-08-19. 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.pmw.org.il/tv%20part1.html |title=PA Indoctrination of Children to Seek Shahada |access-date=2008-11-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112223611/http://www.pmw.org.il/tv%20part1.html |archive-date=November 12, 2008}}[http://www.pmw.org.il/index.html Palestinian Media Watch official website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050521025750/http://www.pmw.org.il/index.html |date=May 21, 2005}}, Pmw.org.il; retrieved 2012-08-19. Israeli sources observed that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah operate "Paradise Camps", training children as young as 11 to become suicide bombers.[http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/4153_62.asp "Palestinian Summer Camps Teach Terror Tactics, Espouse Hatred; Some Found to Be Funded by UNICEF"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050620082356/http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/4153_62.asp |date=2005-06-20}}, adl.org; retrieved 2012-08-19.[http://www.eufunding.org/Textbooks/EuropesPalestinianChildren.html Europe's Palestinian Children What Hope for Them?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308113828/http://www.eufunding.org/Textbooks/EuropesPalestinianChildren.html |date=March 8, 2005}}. Eufunding.org; retrieved 2012-08-19. 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.{{Cite news |title=Femme Fatale, Jihad Style |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2010-04-05/ty-article/femme-fatale-jihad-style/0000017f-e3e5-d804-ad7f-f3ff686a0000 |access-date=2023-10-14}}{{Cite news |last=Myre |first=Greg |date=2004-03-25 |title=Israeli Soldiers Thwart a Boy's Suicide Bombing Attempt |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/world/israeli-soldiers-thwart-a-boy-s-suicide-bombing-attempt.html |access-date=2023-10-14 |issn=0362-4331}}

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.{{cite web|last1=Lidgett|first1=Adam|title=9/11 Attacks In Photos 2015: 15 Iconic Images From September 11, 2001 And Its Aftermath 14 Years Later|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/911-attacks-photos-2015-15-iconic-images-september-11-2001-its-aftermath-14-years-2091600|website=International Business Times|access-date=12 January 2016|date=Sep 11, 2015}} 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. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers in less than two hours. American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon (U.S. Department Of Defense Headquarters) in Arlington County, Virginia, causing severe damage to the west side of the building. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 221 people (including the 15 hijackers) on board the three planes as well as 2,731 more in and around the targeted buildings.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/americas/2001/day_of_terror|title=America's day of terror|work=BBC News|access-date=March 22, 2015}} 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. In total, the attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 others. The U.S. stock market closed for four trading days after the attacks in the first unscheduled close since the Great Depression.{{cite web|last1=Amadeo|first1=Kimberly|title=How the 9/11 Attacks Still Affect the Economy Today|url=http://useconomy.about.com/od/Financial-Crisis/f/911-Attacks-Economic-Impact.htm|website=about news|access-date=14 October 2015|archive-date=6 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906133837/http://useconomy.about.com/od/Financial-Crisis/f/911-Attacks-Economic-Impact.htm|url-status=dead}} Nine days after the attack, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a "War on Terror" and shortly thereafter launched the War in Afghanistan to find and capture Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda.

File:After a VBIED Iraq War 2007-2008.jpg

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 led by the U.S., Iraqi and foreign insurgents carried out waves of suicide bombings. More attacks have been carried out in Iraq than in any other country, with 1,938 as of mid-2015.

In addition to United States military targets, they attacked many civilian targets such as Shiite mosques as well as international offices of the UN and the Red Cross. Iraqi men waiting to apply for jobs with the new army and police force were targets. In the lead up to the Iraqi parliamentary election on 30 January 2005, suicide attacks upon civilian and police personnel involved with the elections increased. There were also reports of the insurgents co-opting disabled people as involuntary suicide bombers.[http://www.smh.com.au/news/After-Saddam/Handicapped-boy-made-into-bomb/2005/02/01/1107228705132.html "Handicapped boy who was made into a bomb"], Smh.com.au, February 2, 2005; retrieved August 19, 2012.}

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.{{cite news | url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161489.stm|title=Bhutto 'wounded in suicide blast'|work=BBC News|access-date=27 December 2007|date=27 December 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071230053145/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161489.stm|archive-date=30 December 2007| url-status= live}}{{cite news|title=Pakistan's Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Assassinated |date=27 December 2007 |publisher=Voice of America |url=http://voanews.com/english/archive/2007-12/2007-12-27-voa12.cfm |work=VOA News |access-date=27 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725141827/http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-12/2007-12-27-voa12.cfm |archive-date=25 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm|title=Benazir Bhutto killed in attack|work=BBC News|access-date=27 December 2007|date=27 December 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071228135135/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm| archive-date=28 December 2007| url-status=live}} Benazir and 23 other people were killed by a 16-year-old suicide bomber using a explosive belt and used a gun.{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/bhutto.death/index.html|title=Bhutto exhumation OK, Pakistan official says|publisher=CNN|date=29 December 2007|access-date=1 March 2008|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080229074415/http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/bhutto.death/index.html|archive-date=29 February 2008 |url-status=live}}

Bhutto had already survived a previous assassination attempt in Karachi.{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm | title = Benazir Bhutto killed in attack | work = BBC News | access-date = 27 December 2007 | date = 27 December 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071228135135/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm | archive-date = 28 December 2007 | url-status = live }}{{cite news | first = Carlotta | last = Gall | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/world/asia/19pakistan.html | title = Bomb Attack Kills Scores in Pakistan as Bhutto Returns | author2 = Masood, Salman | work = The New York Times | date = 19 October 2007 | access-date = 27 December 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081211012202/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/world/asia/19pakistan.html | archive-date = 11 December 2008 | url-status = live}}{{cite news | url = http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/pakistan.explosions/index.html | publisher = CNN | title = Death toll rises in Bhutto attack | access-date = 27 December 2008 | date = 19 October 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071223111401/http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/pakistan.explosions/index.html#cnnSTCVideo | archive-date = 23 December 2007 | url-status = live}}

Following this, many schools and universities were named in honour of her martyrdom.{{efn|name=Benazir}}

Other major locations of suicide attack are Afghanistan, with 1,059 attacks as of mid-2015, and Pakistan, with 490 attacks. In the first eight months of 2008, Pakistan overtook Iraq and Afghanistan in suicide bombings, with 28 bombings killing 471 people.Shahan Mufti. {{cite journal |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1010/p04s03-wosc.html |title=Suicide attacks a growing threat in Pakistan |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=2008-10-09 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221164358/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1010/p04s03-wosc.html |archive-date=February 21, 2009}}. csmonitor.com. Suicide bombings have become a tactic in Chechnya, first being used in the conflict in 2000 in Alkhan KalaPedahzur, p. 112

and spreading to Russia, notably with the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002 and the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004.{{cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1054699.html|title=Factbox: Major Terrorist Incidents Tied To Russian-Chechen War|newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=8 April 2008 |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Rferl.org|access-date=March 22, 2015}}

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.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/london_explosions/default.stm|title=Special Reports | London explosions|work=BBC News|access-date=March 22, 2015}}

Since 2006, {{lang|ar-Latn|al-Shabaab|italics=no}} has carried out major suicide attacks in Somalia,{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945398,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207005106/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945398,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 7, 2009|magazine=Time|title=Suicide Bombing Marks a Grim New Turn for Somalia|access-date=March 22, 2015}} the worst year so far being 2016 with 28 attacks.

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.{{cite web |title=The Attack – Manchester Arena Inquiry |url=https://manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk/report-volume-one/part-1-missed-opportunities/the-attack/ |website=manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk |access-date=27 March 2023}}

On 25 December 2020, a suicide bombing occurred in Nashville, Tennessee.{{cn|date=March 2025}

According to author Jeffrey William Lewis, success campaigns of suicide bombing require: willing individuals, organizations to train and use them, and a society willing to accept such acts in the name of a greater good. The organizations work to guarantee individual suicide bombers that they "will be remembered as martyrs dying for their communities". By imbuing suicide attacks with "reverence and heroism", it becomes more attractive to recruits. According to Yoram Schweitzer, modern suicide terrorism is "aimed at causing devastating physical damage, through which it inflicts profound fear and anxiety". Its goal is not to produce a negative psychological effect only on the victims of the actual attack, but on the entire target population. Attackers themselves have often framed suicide attacks as acts of courageous self-sacrifice made necessary by the superior military or security strength of the enemy. The technique has also been called "the atomic weapon of the weak".{{cite journal|last1=Schweitzer|first1=Yoram|title= The Rise and Fall of Suicide Bombings in the Second Intifada|journal=Strategic Assessment |date=October 2010|volume=13|issue=3|url=http://www.inss.org.il/uploadimages/Import/%28FILE%291289896644.pdf|access-date=21 October 2015}} According to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the former leader of Hamas, "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."Quoted in Mia Bloom (2005), Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 3–4; {{ISBN|0-231-13320-0}}. While this arguably explains the motivation of many early suicide bombings in the 1980s and 90s, it cannot explain many later attacks, such as those on funeral processions of the minority Shia in Pakistan.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

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."Pape, Dying to Win, (2005), pp. 28–29 Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the efficacy of suicide terrorism.{{Cite journal|last1=Ashworth|first1=Scott|last2=Clinton|first2=Joshua D.|last3=Meirowitz|first3=Adam|last4=Ramsay|first4=Kristopher W.|date=2008|title=Design, Inference, and the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27644515|journal=American Political Science Review |volume=102|issue=2|pages=269–273|doi=10.1017/S0003055408080167|jstor=27644515|s2cid=17827986|issn=0003-0554}}

Bruce Hoffman described the characteristics of suicide bombing as "universal".

{{blockquote|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.|Bruce Hoffman}}

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.

{{Original research section|date=July 2021}}

Studies of who becomes a suicide attacker and what motivates them have often come to different conclusions. According to Riaz Hassan,

{{blockquote|apart from one demographic attribute—that the majority of suicide bombers tend to be young males—the evidence has failed to find a stable set of demographic, psychological, socioeconomic and religious variables that can be causally linked to suicide bombers' personality or socioeconomic origins.}}

Anthropologist Scott Atran wrote,{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=128}}

{{blockquote|[Terrorists] are not sufficiently different from everyone else. Insights into homegrown jihadi attacks will have to come from understanding group dynamics, not individual psychology. Small-group dynamics can trump individual personality to produce horrific behavior in otherwise ordinary people.}}

Atran's research has found that the attacks are not organized from the top down, but occur from the bottom up. It is usually a matter of following one's friends and ending up in environments that foster groupthink. Atran is also critical of the claim that terrorists simply crave destruction; rather, they are often motivated by beliefs they hold sacred, as well as their moral reasoning.{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=136}}

A study of the remains of 110 suicide bombers in Afghanistan for the first part of 2007 by Afghan pathologist Yusef Yadgari found 80% were suffering from physical ailments such as missing limbs (before the blasts), cancer, or leprosy. Also, in contrast to earlier findings of suicide bombers, the Afghan bombers were "not celebrated like their counterparts in other Arab nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs."Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15276485 Disabled Often Carry Out Afghan Suicide Missions], npr.org; retrieved March 22, 2015.

Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, found the majority of suicide bombers came from the educated middle classes. For example, Humam Balawi, who perpetrated the Camp Chapman attack in Afghanistan in 2010, was a medical doctor.Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent, New York: Doubleday, 2011. p. 37

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".Alberto Abadie. {{cite web |date=October 2004 |title=Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism |url=http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/aabadie/povterr.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123104136/http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/aabadie/povterr.pdf |archive-date=November 23, 2015 |access-date=October 22, 2015}}[http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/11.04/05-terror.html Freedom squelches terrorist violence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919050732/http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/11.04/05-terror.html|date=2015-09-19}}. News.harvard.edu; November 4, 2004; accessed August 19, 2012. 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.{{Cite journal |last=Morris |first=Andrea Michelle |year=2020 |title=Who Wants to Be a Suicide Bomber? Evidence from Islamic State Recruits |journal=International Studies Quarterly |language=en |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=306–315 |doi=10.1093/isq/sqaa012}}

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. A study conducted by the U.S. military in Iraq in 2008 found that suicide bombers were almost always single men without children aged 18 to 30, with a mean age of 22, and were typically students or employed in blue-collar occupations.{{cite news |date=March 15, 2008 |title=U.S. study draws portrait of Iraq bombers |work=USA Today |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-03-15-iraq-study_N.htm |access-date=February 27, 2020}} 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.{{cite journal |last1=Harmon |first1=Vanessa |last2=Mujkic |first2=Edin |last3=Kaukinen |first3=Catherine |last4=Weir |first4=Henriikka |year=2018 |title=Causes & Explanations of Suicide Terrorism: A Systematic Review |url=https://www.hsaj.org/articles/14749 |journal=Homeland Security Affairs |publisher=NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security |volume=25}}{{cite news |last=Gibson |first=Kyle R. |year=2011 |title=The Roles of Operational Sex Ratio and Young-Old Ratio in Producing Suicide Attackers |publisher=University of Utah |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260059007}} 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.{{cite journal |last1=Hudson |first1=Valerie M. |author-link1=Valerie M. Hudson |last2=Thayer |first2=Bradley |year=2010 |title=Sex and the Shaheed: Insights from the Life Sciences on Islamic Suicide Terrorism |journal=International Security |publisher=MIT Press |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=48–53 |jstor=40784561}}

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.{{cite journal |last=Atran |first=Scott |author-link=Scott Atran |year=2003 |title=Genesis of Suicide Terrorism |url=https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00509568/file/genesis_of_Suicide_terrorism.pdf |journal=Science |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |volume=299 |issue=5612 |pages=1534–1539 |bibcode=2003Sci...299.1534A |doi=10.1126/science.1078854 |pmid=12624256 |s2cid=12114032}}{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=127-147}} 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.{{cite book |last=Pinker |first=Steven |title=The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined |title-link=The Better Angels of Our Nature |publisher=Penguin Group |year=2011 |isbn=978-0143122012 |place=New York |pages=353–358 |author-link=Steven Pinker}}

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.Artur Lakatos, „War, Martyrdom and Suicide Bombers: Essay on Suicide Terrorism", in Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, Issue 14/2010, pp 171–180 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".{{cite web|last1=Hassan|first1=Riaz|title=What Motivates the Suicide Bombers?|url=http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/what-motivates-suicide-bombers-0|website=YaleGlobe|access-date=13 October 2015|date=3 September 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215906/http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/what-motivates-suicide-bombers-0|archive-date=4 October 2013}} A study by German scholar Arata Takeda analyzes analogous behavior represented in literary texts from the antiquity through the 20th century, these being Ajax, Samson Agonistes, The Robbers, and The Just Assassins. The study concluded "that suicide bombings are not the expressions of specific cultural peculiarities or exclusively religious fanaticisms. Instead, they represent a strategic option of the desperately weak who strategically disguise themselves under the mask of apparent strength, terror, and invincibility."{{cite journal |author=Takeda, Arata |year=2010 |title=Suicide bombers in Western literature: Demythologizing a mythic discourse |journal=Contemporary Justice Review |volume=13 |issue=4 |page=471 |doi=10.1080/10282580.2010.517985 |s2cid=54018791}}Takeda, Arata (2010), Ästhetik der Selbstzerstörung: Selbstmordattentäter in der abendländischen Literatur (p. 296), Munich: Fink; {{ISBN|978-3-7705-5062-3}}.

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.{{cite news|last1=Martin|first1=Cameron|title=BOOK REVIEWS. The Myth of Martyrdom|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2013/0218/The-Myth-of-Martyrdom|access-date=23 October 2015|agency=csmonitor.com|date=February 18, 2013}} 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.Lankford, Adam. (2013). The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers (p. 61); {{ISBN|978-0-23-034213-2}}.

File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Poster Glorifying Suicide Bomber Found in Jenin.jpg of Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bomber Ashraf Sallah Alasmar in Jenin.]]

To what extent attackers are motivated by religious enthusiasm, by resistance to perceived outsider oppression, or some combination of the two is disputed.

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.Pape, Dying to Win, p. 128

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". In Israel suicide attacks by Islamist Islamic Jihad and Hamas also preceded those of the secular PFLP and the Al-Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Pape found other factors associated with suicide attacks. This included the government of the targeted country being democratic and the public opinion of the country playing a role in determining policy. He also found that a difference in religion between the attackers and occupiers, and{{Cite book|last1=Vuong|first1=Quan-Hoang|title=A Mindsponge-Based Investigation into the Psycho-Religious Mechanism Behind Suicide Attacks|last2=Nguyen|first2=Minh-Hoang|last3=Le|first3=Tam-Tri|date=2021|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH|isbn=9788366675582|language=en}} grassroots support for the attacksPape, Dying to Win, p. 92. contributed. Other factors include attackers being disproportionately from the educated middle classes,{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=130}} high levels of brutality and cruelty by the occupiers,Pape, Dying to Win, p. 60. and competition among militant groups fighting the occupiers.Pape, Dying to Win, pp. 200–16.

Other researchers, such as Yotam Feldner, argue that perceived religious rewards after death are instrumental in encouraging Muslims to commit suicide attacks.{{cite web|url=http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA2500|title=Contemporary Islamist Ideology Authorizing Genocidal Murder|publisher=MEMRI|date=January 27, 2004|access-date=May 19, 2010}}{{cite web|author=Yotam Feldner|url=http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA7401|title='72 Black Eyed Virgins': A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs|publisher=MEMRI|access-date=May 19, 2010}} These researchers contend that Pape's analysis is flawed, particularly his contention that democracies are the main targets of such attacks.{{cite journal | last1 = Jackson Wade | first1 = Sara | author-link2 = Dan Reiter | last2 = Reiter | first2 = Dan | year = 2007 | title = Does Democracy Matter? Regime Type and Suicide Terrorism | doi = 10.1177/0022002706298137 | journal = Journal of Conflict Resolution | volume = 51 | issue = 2 | pages = 329–348 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.519.1840 | s2cid = 11699344}} Other scholars have criticized Pape's research design, arguing that it cannot draw any conclusions on the causes of suicide terrorism.

Atran argues that suicide bombing has moved on from the days of Pape's study,{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=130}} where non-Islamic groups have carried out very few bombings since 2003. Instead, bombing by Muslim or Islamist groups associated with a "global ideology" of "martyrdom" has skyrocketed. In 2004 in Iraq alone, there were 400 suicide attacks and 2,000 casualties.{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=131-133}} Other researchers question why prominent anti-occupation secular terrorist groups have not used suicide, such as the Provisional IRA, ETA, or anti-colonialist insurgents in Vietnam, Algeria, and elsewhere. They also question Pape omits that the first suicide attack in Lebanon targeted the embassy of Iraq, a country that was not occupying Lebanon.

Mia Bloom agrees with Pape that competition among insurgents groups is a significant motivator, arguing the growth in suicide as a tactic is a product of "outbidding". That is, the need by competing insurgent groups to demonstrate their commitment to the cause to the broader public. This is achieved as making the ultimate sacrifice for the insurgency is a "bid" impossible to top.Bloom, Mia, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (2005), p.94-98 This explains its use by Palestinian groups, but not that by the Tamil Tigers.{{cite web|last1=Horowitz |first1=Michael |title=The History and Future of Suicide Terrorism |url=http://www.fpri.org/articles/2008/08/history-and-future-suicide-terrorism |website=Foreign Policy Research Institute |access-date=22 October 2015 |date=August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922021706/http://www.fpri.org/articles/2008/08/history-and-future-suicide-terrorism |archive-date=September 22, 2015}} Still other researchers have identified sociopolitical factors as more central in the motivation of suicide attackers than religion.Galtung, Johan. "11 September 2001: Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy", In: Searching for peace – the road to TRANSCEND, Galtung, Johan, Jacobsen, Carl, Brand-Jacobsen, Kai, London: Pluto Press, 2002, pp. 87–102{{cite news|author=Michael Klare |url=http://www.salon.com/sex/feature/2001/11/07/islam/index.html |title=Sex and the suicide bomber |work=Salon.com |date=November 7, 2001 |access-date=May 19, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100508041826/http://www.salon.com/sex/feature/2001/11/07/islam/index.html |archive-date=May 8, 2010}}

According to Atran{{cite web|last=Atran|first=Scott|title=Terrorism and Radicalization: What Not to Do, What to Do|url=http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/Atran07/|publisher=Edge.org|access-date=2012-08-19|date=November 2007}} and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman,{{Cite book|author=Sageman, Marc|title=Leaderless Jihad|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8122-4065-8}} {{Page needed|date=December 2011}} 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 {{lang|ar-Latn|jihadis}}. Millions express sympathy with global {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}}. 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".{{cite journal|last1=Rahman|first1=Jamal|title=In Review [of book]: Who Speaks for Islam?|journal=Yes! Magazine|date=Oct 31, 2008|url=http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/in-review-who-speaks-for-islam|access-date=9 October 2015|archive-date=24 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/in-review-who-speaks-for-islam|url-status=dead}}An estimated 7–14% of Muslims worldwide (depending on the poll taken) supported the Al Qaeda strike against the United States.{{cite journal|title=Looking for the roots of terrorism [Interview with Scott Atran]|journal=Nature|first=Sara |last=Reardon |date=15 January 2015 |doi=10.1038/nature.2015.16732|s2cid=155646601|url=http://www.nature.com/news/looking-for-the-roots-of-terrorism-1.16732|access-date=5 October 2015}}

File:Afghanistan suicide bomb attacks incl non-detonated 2002-2008 UNAMA red.png

Assaf Moghadam is also arguing that the increase in suicide terrorism since 2001 is driven by {{lang|ar-Latn|Salafi jihadist|italics=no}} ideology and Al-Qaeda.{{cite book|last1=Moghadam|first1=Assaf| author-link =Assaf Moghadam |title=The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of ...|date=2008|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|pages=2–3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMeqBfA9-RUC|access-date=22 October 2015|isbn=9781421401447}}{{cite journal|last1=Moghadam|first1=Assaf| author-link =Assaf Moghadam |title=Suicide Terrorism, Occupation, and the Globalization of Martyrdom: A Critique of Dying to Win|journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism |date=2006|volume=29|issue=8|pages=707–729 |doi=10.1080/10576100600561907 |s2cid=143286352|doi-access=free}}

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.{{Cite book|last1=Pape|first1=Robert|author-link=Robert Pape|last2=Feldman|first2=James K.|title=Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-226-64560-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZuXdUgb1gsC |page=28}} 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."{{sfn|Pape|Feldman|2010|p=33}}

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.{{sfn|Pape|Feldman|2010|p=36}} Critics argue the logic cannot be seen in Pakistan,Max Boot, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20111021093830/http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/suicide-bomb_577292.html Suicide by Bomb]," The Weekly Standard, Aug 1, 2011.{{cite journal|last1=Abrahms|first1=Max|title=[Review of] Cutting the Fuse The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It|journal=Middle East Quarterly|date=Spring 2012|volume=19|issue=2|url=http://www.meforum.org/3237/cutting-the-fuse|access-date=22 October 2015}} which has no occupation and the second highest number of suicide bombing fatalities as of mid-2015.

{{main|Islamic terrorism|Istishhad|Inghimasi}}

{{Jihadism sidebar}}

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.Pape, Dying to Win, computed from Table 1, p. 15 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.{{sfn|Atran|2006|p=131-133}} For example, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq.Robert Fisk.[http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/14/7682 "The Cult of the Suicide Bomber"], commondreams.org, March 14, 2008.

Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent phenomenon. It was absent from the 1979{{endash}}1989 Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, an asymmetrical war where the {{lang|ar-Latn|mujahideen}} fought Soviet warplanes, helicopters and tanks primarily with light weapons. According to author Sadakat Kadri, "the very idea that Muslims might blow themselves up for God was unheard of before 1983, and it was not until the early 1990s that anyone anywhere had tried to justify killing innocent Muslims who were not on a battlefield." After 1983, the process was limited among Muslims to Hezbollah and other Lebanese Shi'a factions for more than a decade.{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ...|date=2012|publisher=macmillan|isbn=9780099523277|page=168|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law}}

Since then, videotaped pre-confession of faith by attackers known as the "vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice" have become part of "Islamic cultural consciousness". These confessions are "instantly recognizable" to Muslims, according to Noah Feldman. The tactic has spread through the Muslim world "with astonishing speed and on a surprising course".

First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. From Lebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been Shiite Iraqis. ... [In] Afghanistan, ... both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox Sunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in just three years (2003–6) as have Israelis in ten (from 1996–2006). Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence – not just to Westerners but also to Muslims themselves.

Recent research on the rationale of suicide bombing has identified both religious and sociopolitical motivations.Olivetti, Vincetto (2002), Terror's Source; {{ISBN|978-0-9543729-0-3}} {{Page needed|date=December 2011}}Esposito, John (2003) Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam; {{ISBN|978-0-19-516886-0}}{{Page needed|date=December 2011}}Ayubi, Nazih (1991)Political Islam; {{ISBN|978-0-415-10385-5}} {{Page needed|date=December 2011}}Mohammed Hafez, 2003 {{Page needed|date=December 2011}} 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.

In the media attention given to suicide bombing during the Second Intifada and after 9/11, sources hostile to radical Islamism quoted radical scholars promising various heavenly rewards, such as 70 virgins ({{langx|ar-Latn|houri}}) as wives, to Muslims who die as martyrs, specifically as suicide attackers.{{cite news|last1=Ibn Warraq|title=Virgins? What virgins?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/12/books.guardianreview5|access-date=8 October 2015|work=The Guardian|quote=In August, 2001, the American television channel CBS aired an interview with a Hamas activist Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: 'I described to him how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness.' |date=11 January 2002}}{{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=Brian R. |title=Understanding Radical Islam: Medieval Ideology in the Twenty-first Century |date=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang. |location=NY |isbn=978-0-8204-8843-1 |pages=55–56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIQ0hhu8l7IC&q=Muhammad+Abu+Wardeh+virgins&pg=PA55 |access-date=8 October 2015}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Peters|first1=Rudolph|editor1-last=Coolsaet|editor1-first=Rik|title=Jihadi Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge: European and American ...|date=2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|page=147|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GOKhAgAAQBAJ&q=jihad+go+directly+to+paradise&pg=PA147|access-date=15 October 2015|chapter=11. Dutch Extremist Islamism: Van Gogh's Murderer and his Ideas|isbn=9781409476450|quote=According to widespread Islamic belief, warriors killed in jihad are rendered free of sin and go directly to Paradise, ...}}One scholar of history (Leor Halevi) suggests that suicide killers may be motivated by the idea that by dying while waging jihad they are transported directly to paradise, thus bypassing "the tortures of the grave" ("a state akin to the late Christian concept of purgatory"). {{cite journal|last1=Bamyeh|first1=Mohammad|title=Reviewed Work: Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society by Leor Halevi|journal=Review of Middle East Studies |date=2009 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=91–93 |jstor=41888571 |doi=10.1017/S2151348100000264 |s2cid=165022804}}

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.

Islamist militant organizations including al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad argue that, despite what some Muslims claim is Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder,{{cite web |url=http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/ruling.html |title=The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations |access-date=2004-10-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041011230417/http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/ruling.html |archive-date=October 11, 2004}}. abdulhaqq.jeeran.com.{{cite web |url=http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/fatwa_sheikh_qaradhawi.html |title=Fatwa of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi |access-date=2004-10-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041009222904/http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/fatwa_sheikh_qaradhawi.html |archive-date=October 9, 2004}}. abdulhaqq.jeeran.com.

suicide attacks fulfill the obligation of {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}} 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.{{cite book|author=David Bukay|title=From Muhammad to Bin Laden: Religious and Ideological Sources of the Homicide Bombers Phenomenon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNtBgbrNGUQC&pg=PA295|access-date=August 19, 2012|year=2008|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0390-0|pages=295–}} Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the spiritual authority recognized by Hezbollah, holds similar views.

The articles maintains that Abu Huraira, a companion of the Muhammad, and Umar ibn Khattab, the second caliph of Islam, approved acts which Muslims knew would lead to certain death. The Islamic prophet Muhammad also approved of such acts, according to authors Maulana Muawiya Hussaini and Ikrimah Anwar who cited numerous Hadith of Muhammad on the authority of Islamic jurist Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. "The Sahaba [companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad] who carried out the attacks almost certainly knew that they were going to be killed during their operations but they still carried them out and such acts were extolled and praised in the sharia."{{cite web|last1=Hussaini|first1=Maulana Muawiya|last2=Anwar|first2=Ikrimah|title=Let's Understand 'Suicide Bombing'|url=http://shahamat-english.com/english/index.php/articles/32625-let-s-understand-suicide-bombing|website=Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Voices of Jihad|access-date=14 October 2015|archive-date=17 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117021403/http://shahamat-english.com/english/index.php/articles/32625-let-s-understand-suicide-bombing|url-status=dead}}

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."{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Bernard|title=The Assassins, a radical sect in Islam|orig-year=1967|year=2003|publisher=Basic Books.|pages=xi–xii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRVmL_h_PcsC&q=islamic+hashishin+suicide|access-date=13 October 2015|isbn=9780786724550}}

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 {{lang|ar-Latn|haram}} (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."{{cite book|last1=Subrahmanian|first1=V.S.|last2=Sliva|first2=Amy|last3=Shakarian|first3=Jana|last4=Dickerson|first4=John P.|last5=Mannes|first5=Aaron|title=Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media.|page=91|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ej1RD5dNykYC&q=Lashkar-e-Taiba,+fight+to+the+death&pg=PA91|access-date=6 October 2015|isbn=9781461447696|date=2012-08-28}}

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.[http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-03/world/fatwa.against.terror_1_fatwa-ul-muslim-scholar?_s=PM:WORLD Muslim scholar's fatwa condemns terrorism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919222159/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-03/world/fatwa.against.terror_1_fatwa-ul-muslim-scholar?_s=PM:WORLD |date=2010-09-19}}, Articles.cnn.com; retrieved August 19, 2012.Lewis, Bernard & Buntzie Ellis Churchill. "Islam: The Religion and the People" (p. 53), Wharton School Publishing, 2008.

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." Islamic legal rules of armed warfare or military {{lang|ar-Latn|jihad}} are covered in detail in the classical texts of Islamic jurisprudence,{{cite news|author=Noah Feldman|title=Islam, Terror, and the Second Nuclear Age|newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/magazine/29islam.html?pagewanted=all|date=October 29, 2006}} which forbid the killing of women, children, or non-combatants, and the destruction of cultivated or residential areas.Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill, Islam: The Religion and the People, Wharton School Publishing, 2008, pp. 145–53.Muhammad Hamidullah, The Muslim Conduct of State (Ashraf Printing Press (1987); {{ISBN|1-56744-340-0}}, pp. 205–08

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.

Several respected Muslim scholars have provided scholastic refutations of suicide bombings, condemning them as terrorism prohibited in Islam and leading their perpetrators to hell. In his over 400 page long Fatwa on Terrorism condemning suicide attacks, Muslim Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri directly disputed the rationale of Islamists. He argues that indiscriminately killing both Muslims and non-Muslims is unlawful, and brings the Muslim {{lang|ar-Latn|ummah}} into disrepute, no matter how lofty the killers intentions.{{cite news|last1=Argon|first1=Kemal|title=Who's Really Behind Tahir ul-Qadri's 500-Page Fatwa Against Terrorism and Suicide Bombings?|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kemal-argon/whos-really-behind-tahir-_b_1266232.html|access-date=14 October 2015|agency=Huffington Post Religion|date=14 February 2012}} 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".

Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh issued a {{lang|ar-Latn|fatwa}} on 12 September 2013 that suicide bombings are "great crimes" and bombers are "criminals who rush themselves to hell by their actions". Al Shaykh described suicide bombers as "robbed of their minds [...] who have been used [as tools] to destroy themselves and societies".{{cite web|url=http://en.alalam.ir/news/1543997|title=Saudi grand mufti says suicide bombers will go to hell|access-date=November 7, 2014}}

{{blockquote|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.[http://www.saudiembassy.net/latest_news/news09171302.aspx Saudi Grand Mufti condemns attacks on Non-Muslims] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101221425/http://www.saudiembassy.net/latest_news/news09171302.aspx |date=2014-01-01}}, saudiembassy.net; accessed March 22, 2015.}}

In 2005, following a series of bombings by the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), chief cleric of Bangladesh Ubaidul Haq led a protest of {{lang|ar-Latn|ulema}} denouncing terrorism.{{cite news|title=Protest against Bangladesh bombs|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4512406.stm |publisher=BBC|access-date=27 January 2016|ref=9 December 2005}} 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, {{lang|ar-Latn|Shia Marja|italics=no}} (high ranking cleric) Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei decreed a {{lang|ar-Latn|fatwa}} against suicide bombing, declaring it a "terrorist act".Noah Feldman, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/magazine/29islam.html?pagewanted=all "Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age"], New York Times, October 29, 2006{{cite news|last1=Khan|first1=Muqtedar|title=A fatwa against terrorism that might work|url=http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27467&lan=en&sp=0|access-date=14 October 2015|agency=Common Ground News Service|date=16 March 2010}} In 2005, Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti also issued a {{lang|ar-Latn|fatwa}} "Against The Targeting Of Civilians".[http://www.livingislam.org/maa/dcmm_e.html Defending the Transgressed] Fatwa against suicide bombing by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti; accessed 22 March 2015.

Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam titled The Hijacked Caravan.[http://www.ihsanic-intelligence.com/dox/The_Hijacked_Caravan.pdf The Hijacked Caravan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050906062050/http://www.ihsanic-intelligence.com/dox/The_Hijacked_Caravan.pdf |date=2005-09-06}}, ihsanic-intelligence.com; retrieved August 19, 2012. 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.[http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/ez/isl/0-sbm/The.Hijacked.Caravan.html The Hijacked Caravan: Refuting Suicide Bombings as Martyrdom Operations in Contemporary Jihad Strategy] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023075058/http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/ez/isl/0-sbm/The.Hijacked.Caravan.html |date=October 23, 2005}}, Mac.abc.se; retrieved August 19, 2012.

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.Khaled Abou Al-Fadl: The Great Theft. Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, HarperCollins, p. 243 (2005); {{ISBN|0-06-056339-7}}.

According to theologian Charles Kimball, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide" (4:29):{{cite news|last1=Burek|first1=Josh|title=Q&A: Islamic fundamentalism|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1004/p25s1-wosc.html|access-date=15 October 2015|agency=csmonitor.com|date=October 4, 2001}} "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."{{cite quran|4|29|s=ns}}

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{{cite quran|6|151|s=ns}})] as prohibiting suicide: "And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law".{{cite web |url=http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503549272&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaEAskTheScholar |title=Euthanasia: Types and Rulings |access-date=2009-06-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630072120/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503549272&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaEAskTheScholar |archive-date=June 30, 2009}} The {{lang|ar-Latn|Hadith}}, 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.'"[http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bukhari/bh2/bh2_446.htm Hadith 2:445], sacred-texts.com; retrieved August 19, 2012.Adil Salahi [http://www.aljazeerah.info/Islam/Islamic%20subjects/2004%20subjects/June/Committing%20Suicide%20Is%20Strictly%20Forbidden%20in%20Islam,%20Adil%20Salahi.htm Committing Suicide Is Strictly Forbidden in Islam], Aljazeerah.info, June 22, 2004; retrieved August 19, 2012.

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.[http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/suicide_bomb.htm Suicide Bombers – Why do they do it, and what does Islam say about their actions?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040731083315/http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/suicide_bomb.htm |date=2004-07-31}}; accessed 22 March 2015

The international community considers the use of indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations{{cite news|last1=Erlanger|first1=Steven and Fares Akram|title=Israel Warns Gaza Targets by Phone and Leaflet|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/world/middleeast/by-phone-and-leaflet-israeli-attackers-warn-gazans.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=1|website=The New York Times|date=8 July 2014 |access-date=July 10, 2014}} as illegal under international law.{{cite web|title=Protection of the civilian population|url=http://www.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/470-750065|website=Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), June 8, 1977|publisher=International Committee of the Red Cross|access-date=July 10, 2014}}

Muslim support for suicide bombings against civilian targets to defend Islam has varied over time and by country. The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of the Muslim public found that support has declined over the years since a high point immediately after 9/11. The highest support for suicide bombings has been reported in the occupied Palestinian territories, where in 2014, 46% of Muslims thought that such attacks were often or sometimes justified.

File:Suicide bombing simulation 110521-F-QI434-130.jpg

{{see also|Female suicide bomber}}

Suicide operatives are overwhelmingly male in most groups, but among Chechen rebels[http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/10/international/0910BOMBERSch.gif Women Armed for Terror], nytimes.com; accessed 22 March 2015 and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) women form the majority of the attackers.Pape, Dying to Win, p. 209.

Female suicide bombers have been observed in many predominantly nationalist conflicts by a variety of organizations against both military and civilian targets. In February 2002, however, religious leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin issued a {{lang|ar-Latn|fatwa}} permitting women to participate in suicide attacks.

During the 1980s, the greatest number of female suicide attacks in any single year was five. By contrast, in 2008 alone there were 35 female suicide attacks and in 2014 there were 15 such attacks according to the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST) Suicide Attack Database.{{cite web|title = UChicago CPOST|url = http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php|website = cpostdata.uchicago.edu|access-date = 2015-12-10|archive-date = 2014-08-23|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140823175940/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php|url-status = dead}}

In Lebanon on 9 April 1985, Sana'a Mehaidli, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), detonated an explosive-laden vehicle that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured twelve more. She is believed to have been the first female suicide bomber. She is known as "the Bride of the South".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dI4wOL2ETqAC |title=Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria |author=Lisa Wedeen |date= 1999-06-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press |access-date=2016-01-17|isbn=9780226877884}} During the Lebanese Civil War, female SSNP members bombed Israeli troops and the Israeli proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Sri Lanka's militant organization, the Black Wing Tigers, executed 330 suicide bombing attacks which were executed mainly by women. The group was formed in 1987 and was disbanded in 2009.

On 21 May 1991, former Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Approximately 30% of the organization's suicide bombings were carried out by women.{{cite book|title=Human Security Report 2005: War and Peace in the 21st Century|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=111|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSIrNeFWIfcC&pg=PA111|access-date=13 October 2015|isbn=9780195307399}}

The Chechen shahidkas have attacked Russian troops in Chechnya and Russian civilians elsewhere. For example, in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Women of the PKK have carried out suicide bombings primarily against Turkish Armed Forces. In some cases they strapped explosives to their abdomen to simulate pregnancy.Cragin, Kim; Daly, Sara A. (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=GTN0481FXRYC&pg=PA66 Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs], ABC-CLIO; accessed March 22, 2015.{{rp|66}}

Wafa Idris, under the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, became the first Palestinian female suicide bomber on 28 January 2002, when she blew herself up on Jaffa Road in Central Jerusalem.{{cite book|last=Rajan|first=V.G. Julie|title=Women Suicide Bombers: narratives of violence|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8CsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA221|isbn=978-0-415-55225-7}}{{rp|221}}

On 27 February 2002, Darine Abu Aisha carried out a suicide bombing at the Maccabim checkpoint of the Israeli army near Jerusalem. On the same day, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the religious leader of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, issued a {{lang|ar-Latn|fatwa}} that permitted women to participate in suicide attacks and stated that they would be rewarded in the afterlife.Cook, Bernard A. (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lyZYS_GxglIC&pg=PA315 Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present], ABC-CLIO; accessed March 22, 2015.{{rp|315}}

Ayat al-Akhras, the third and youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber at age 18, killed herself and two Israeli civilians on 29 March 2002 by detonating explosives belted to her body in a supermarket. She had been trained by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to the armed branch of Fatah. The killings gained widespread international attention due to Ayat's age and gender and the fact that one of the victims was also a teenage girl.

Hamas deployed its first female suicide bomber, Reem Riyashi, on 14 January 2004. Al-Riyashi attacked Erez checkpoint, killing 7 people.{{rp|171}}

Two female attackers attacked U.S. troops in Iraq on 5 August 2003. Whereas female suicide bombers are not typically introduced in initial stages of a conflict, this attack demonstrated the early and significant involvement of Iraqi women in the Iraq War.{{rp|284}}

On 29 March 2010, two female Chechen terrorists bombed two Moscow subway stations killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 60 people.

The Taliban has used at least one female suicide bomber in Afghanistan.[https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/female-suicide-bomber-kills-15-at-crowded-afghan-market-1.709104 "Female suicide bomber kills 15 at crowded Afghan market"], CBC News, May 15, 2008; retrieved April 29, 2012.

On 25 December 2010, the first female suicide bomber in Pakistan detonated her explosives-laden vest, killing at least 43 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan.[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/12/25/2010-12-25_female_suicide_bomber_kills_dozens_at_pakistan_food_center_after_militants_kille.html "Female suicide bomber kills dozens at Pakistan food center after militants killed near Afghan border"], nydailynews.com, December 25, 2010; retrieved April 29, 2012.

On 29 December 2013, a female Chechen suicide bomber detonated her vest in the Volgograd railway station killing at least 17 people.{{cite news|title=Suicide bomber kills several at train station in Russia|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/female-suicide-bomber-kills-several-at-train-station-in-russia/|access-date=13 October 2015|agency=CBS News|date=December 29, 2013}}

On 23 December 2016, the first female suicide bomber in Bangladesh detonated her explosive during a police raid.{{cite news|url=http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/12/24/bangladesh-sees-first-female-suicide-bomber/ |title=Bangladesh's female jihadists |newspaper=Dhaka Tribune |date=2016-12-23 |access-date=2016-12-27}}

According to a report issued by intelligence analysts in the U.S. army in 2011, "Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 4% of male attackers." The report further stated that female suicide bombers often were "grieving the loss of family members [and] seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss, unable to produce children, [and/or] dishonored through sexual indiscretion."[http://publicintelligence.net/ufouo-u-s-army-female-suicide-bombers-report U.S. Army Female Suicide Bombers Report (p. 71)], publicintelligence.net; accessed July 11, 2015.[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3198362,00.html Study: Female suicide bombers seek atonement], ynetnews.com; accessed 22 March 2015 Male suicide bombers are presented as being motivated more by political factors than female suicide bombers are.{{cite book|last=Rajan|first=V.G. Julie|title=Women Suicide Bombers: narratives of violence|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8CsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|isbn=978-0-415-55225-7|page=79}}

Another study of suicide bombers from 1981 and July 2008 by Lindsey A. O'Rourke found female bombers are generally in their late twenties, significantly older than their male counterparts.{{cite journal|last1=O'Rourke|first1=L.A.|title=What Special About Female Suicide Terrorism?|journal=Security Studies|date=2009|volume=18|issue=4|pages=681–718|doi=10.1080/09636410903369084|s2cid=55378946}}

O'Rourke found the average number of victims killed by a female suicide attacker was higher than that for male attackers for every group studied, which included Tamil, PKK, Lebanese, Chechen, and Palestinian attackers.{{cite journal|last1=O'Rourke|first1=L.A.|title=What Special About Female Suicide Terrorism?|journal=Security Studies|date=2009|volume=18|issue=4|page=688, Table 2|doi=10.1080/09636410903369084|s2cid=55378946}} Consequently, terrorist organizations recruit and motivate women to participate in suicide attacks, using traditional attitudes of honor, feminine harmlessness, and vulnerability among target populations to insert attackers where they can cause a maximum of death and destruction. Bombs have been disguised as a pregnant stomach, avoiding invasive searches, seen as taboo. By stumbling or calling out in distress, more victims may be drawn to the explosion. These women have proven to be deadlier with higher completion rates with more casualties and deaths than their male counterparts. The female bomb carriers are not permitted to hold and control the detonator, which the men in charge still hold. Until recently, attacks of female bombers were considered more newsworthy because of the "unladylike" behavior of their perpetrator.{{cite journal|last1=Yarchi|first1=Moran|title=The Effect of Female Suicide Attacks on Foreign Media Framing of Conflicts: The Case of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict|journal=Studies in Conflict and Terrorism|date=2014|volume=37|issue=8|pages=674–688|doi=10.1080/1057610x.2014.921768|s2cid=111161699}}

In some traditions,{{who|date=April 2025}} women are customarily seen as peace-makers rather than as front-line actors in conflicts.Clonan, Tom. "The History of Women in Combat." Technological School of Dublin, School of Media, 1998, pp. 117-162 This misconception 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.O'Rourke, L. "What's Special about Female Suicide Terrorism." Security Studies. Vol. 18. 2009. Pp. 681-718 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."Bloom, Mia. "Female Suicide Bombers: A Global Trend." Daedalus, vol. 136, no. 1, The MIT Press, 2007, pp. 94–102, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20028092. Some earlier literature suggested that women tend to be motivated by personal trauma rather than by ideological reasons. Other researchers disagree with this assessment and state that it reduces women's political agency, seeing as they are just as capable of making a choice based on ideology.Gowrinathan, Nimmi. "Evident Truths: American Women at War." Los Angeles Review of Books, LA Review of Books, 2 Apr. 2021, lareviewofbooks.org/article/evident-truths-american-women-at-war/. Women's as well as men's usual motivations for becoming suicide bombers should be assumed to be nuanced and complex.Amireh, Amal. "Palestinian Women's Disappearing Act: The Suicide Bomber through Western Feminist Eyes." MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 5, Spring 2005. Pp. 228-242

File:Mohamed Atta.jpg

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 {{lang|ar-Latn|Masjad al-Quds|italics=no}} 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.{{cite web|last1=Atran|first1=Scott|title=The Making of a Terrorist: A Need for Understanding from the Field Testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Washington, DC |url=http://sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/atran_congress_12march08.pdf |website=umich.edu |access-date=4 October 2015 |date=March 12, 2008}}

File:אתר דובר צהל - הפיגוע בבית ליד (2001).jpg

Hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign from 2003 to 2004 involved several members of Hebron's {{lang|ar-Latn|Masjad|italics=no}} (mosque) al-Jihad soccer team. Most lived in the Wad Abu Katila neighborhood and belonged to the al-Qawasmeh {{lang|ar-Latn|hamula}} (clan). Several were classmates in the neighborhood's local branch of the Palestinian Polytechnic College. Their ages ranged from 18 to 22. At least eight team members were dispatched to suicide shooting and bombing operations by the Hamas military leader in Hebron, Abdullah al-Qawasmeh. Al-Qawasmeh was killed by Israeli forces in June 2003 and succeeded by his relatives Basel al-Qawasmeh, killed in September 2003, and Imad al-Qawasmeh, captured on 133 October 2004. In retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on 22 March 2004 and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi on 17 April 2004, Imad al-Qawasmeh dispatched Ahmed al-Qawasmeh and Nasim al-Ja'abri for a suicide attack on two buses in Beer Sheva. The attack took place on 31 August 2004. In December 2004, Hamas declared a halt to suicide attacks.

On 15 January 2008, the son of Mahmoud al-Zahar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was killed. Another son had been killed in a 2003 assassination attempt on Zahar. Three days later, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israel Defense Forces to seal all border crossings with Gaza, cutting off the flow of supplies to the territory in an attempt to stop rocket barrages on Israeli border towns. Nevertheless, violence from both sides only increased. On 4 February 2008, friends Mohammed Herbawi and Shadi Zghayer, who were members of the Masjad al-Jihad soccer team, staged a suicide bombing at a commercial center in Dimona, Israel. Herbawi had previously been arrested as a 17-year-old on 15 March 2003 shortly after a suicide bombing on Haifa bus, which was done by Mamoud al-Qawasmeh on March 5, 2003. Herbawi had coordinated suicide shooting attacks on Israeli settlements by others on the team, such as on 7 March 2003 with an attack by Muhsein, Hazem al-Qawasmeh, Fadi Fahuri, and Sufian Hariz. He was also involved with another set of suicide bombings in Hebron and Jerusalem on 17 and 18 May 2003 by Fuad al-Qawasmeh, Basem Takruri, and Mujahed al-Ja'abri. Although Hamas claimed responsibility for the Dimona attack, the politburo leadership in Damascus and Beirut was initially unaware of who initiated and carried out the attack. It appears that Ahmad al-Ja'abri, military commander of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza, requested the suicide attack through Ayoub Qawasmeh, Hamas's military liaison in Hebron, who knew where to look for eager young men who had self-radicalized together and had already mentally prepared themselves for martyrdom.[http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_9.html#atran THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2008 (p. 9)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407141943/http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_9.html#atran |date=2013-04-07}}, Edge.org; retrieved August 19, 2012.

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".{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1703/17031060.htm|title=The LTTE and suicide terrorism|publisher=Hinduonnet.com|access-date=May 19, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100504204040/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1703/17031060.htm|archive-date=May 4, 2010}}

{{ further | Islamic State | Islamic State in Iraq and Syria | Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant | Islamic State – Khorasan Province }}

The self-declared "Islamic State" (ISIS){{efn| {{langx|ar|داعش|Da'esh}}, {{langx|he|דאעש|Da'esh}}. https://www.ynet.co.il/topics/%D7%93%D7%90%D7%A2%D7%A9 https://www.kan.org.il/tags/generaltags/%D7%93%D7%90%D7%A2%D7%A9/ https://www.israelhayom.co.il/tag/%D7%93%D7%90%D7%A2%D7%A9 }} 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.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

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 {{lang|ja-Latn|kamikaze}} operations.{{cite news |author=Jamie Gierson |title=Isis has industrialised martyrdom, says report into suicide attacks |newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 28, 2017}} Charlie Winter, the author of the study, indicated that ISIL 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.

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".

In the West Bank, the IDF has at times demolished homes that belong to families whose children or landlords whose tenants had volunteered for such missions, whether completed or not.[http://www.btselem.org/download/200411_Punitive_House_Demolitions_Eng.pdf Through No Fault of Their Own: Punitive House Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada] B'Tselem, November 2004 An internal review starting in October 2004 brought an end to the policy, but it was resumed in 2014.{{cite web| author = Ed Farrian | url = http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Law/Legal+Issues+and+Rulings/Human+Rights+Issues+for+the+Palestinian+population+-+April+2005.htm | title = Human Rights Issues for the Palestinian population | date = April 2005 | publisher = Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel) | website = mfa.gov.il | access-date = 11 July 2015 }} 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 {{convert|650|km|mi}} Israeli West Bank barrier in and around the West Bank.{{cite web|title=Frontline : Shattered Dreams of Peace|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/negotiations/|website=PBS.ORG|access-date=21 October 2015|quote=On March 29, 2002, after a suicide bomber killed 30 people, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. Israel's troops re-entered Palestinian cities and refugee camps, hunting down terrorists and often leaving massive destruction in their wake. Three months later, in mid-June 2002, two more suicide bombings struck Israel. Sharon announced Israel would immediately begin a policy of taking back land in the West Bank, and holding it, until the terror attacks stopped.}} 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.{{cite news|title=Analysis: Palestinian suicide attacks|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3256858.stm|access-date=13 October 2015|agency=BBC News|date=29 January 2007}} 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.

In the United States, the element of suicide in the 9/11 attacks persuaded many that previously unthinkable, "out of the box" strategic policies in a "war on terrorism" were necessary. This included "preventive war" against countries not immediately attacking the U.S., to almost unlimited surveillance of virtually any person in the United States by the government without normal congressional and judicial oversight.[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130492404 Understanding Suicide Terrorism And How To Stop It], npr.org; accessed 22 March 2015 These responses "produced their own costs and risks—in lives, national debt, and America's standing in the world".

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.{{cite journal|last1=Hoffman|first1=Bruce|title=The Logic of Suicide Terrorism|journal=The Atlantic|date=June 2003|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/06/the-logic-of-suicide-terrorism/302739/|access-date=13 October 2015}} 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".

File:IDF-Caterpillar-D9N-1133.jpg

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.{{cite news|last1=Boot|first1=Max|title=When suicide bombing is simply strategic suicide|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-apr-07-la-oe-boot7-2010apr07-story.html|access-date=7 October 2015|work=Los Angeles Times|date=7 April 2010}}{{better source needed|date=April 2023}}

Other groups have 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". Their struggle for an independent state in the North and East of the island lasted for 26 years and led to the deaths of two heads of state or government, several ministers, and up to 100,000 combatants and civilians, from by a UN estimate.{{Cite news| url =http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/20/2576543.htm | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090524162659/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/20/2576543.htm | url-status =dead | archive-date =24 May 2009 | title =Up to 100,000 killed in Sri Lanka's civil war: UN| publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date = 20 May 2009}} 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.{{ciation needed|date=April 2025}}

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. according to the BBC.{{cite news|title=Who are Hamas?|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1654510.stm|access-date=14 November 2015|agency=BBC News|date=4 January 2009}}[http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Fatal+Terrorist+Attacks+in+Israel+Since+the+DOP+-S.htm Fatal Terrorist Attacks in Israel Since the DOP (September 1993)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206172711/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Fatal+Terrorist+Attacks+in+Israel+Since+the+DOP+-S.htm |date=2010-12-06}}, Mfa.gov.il; retrieved August 19, 2012. The accords were sidetracked after the 1996 election of right-wing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. From 1994 to 1997, there were 14 suicide attacks that killed 159, not all of which were attributed to Hamas.{{cite web|title=Year: 1982–2015. Group|url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|website=Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database|access-date=2015-11-20|archive-date=2016-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|url-status=dead}} Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location", click Israel and after getting the results click "year". Hamas's suicide bombings of Israeli targets "were widely" credited for the popularity among Israelis of the hardline Netanyahu, who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords, but an even stauncher enemy of Hamas.

The efficacy of suicide bombing, however, does not appear to have been demonstrated by the al-Aqsa Intifada. During this Intifada, the number of suicide attacks increased markedly. In the first campaign from 1994 to 1997, there were 14 suicide attacks, in the second from 2001 to 2005, there were 93 attacks.(Click "Search Database", then under "filter by", click "location", click Israel and after getting the results click "year".){{cite web|title=Year: 1982–2015. Group|url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|website=Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database|access-date=2015-11-20|archive-date=2016-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124204240/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php?clear=1|url-status=dead}} These attacks petered out around 2005 following harsh Israeli security measures, such as "targeted assassinations" of Palestinians reportedly involved in terrorism, and the building of a "separation barrier" that severely hampered Palestinian travel, but with no withdrawal by the Israelis from any occupied territory.{{ciation needed|date=April 2025}}

The drop in suicide bombings in Israel has been explained by the many security measures taken by the Israeli government, especially the building of the "separation barrier",{{cite web|last1=Weinstein|first1=Jamie|title=Barrier's Success Counted In Lives|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-02-02/news/0401300663_1_west-bank-barrier-sound-barriers-suicide-bombings|website=Sun-Sentinel|date=February 2, 2004|access-date=August 1, 2014|archive-date=August 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811072549/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-02-02/news/0401300663_1_west-bank-barrier-sound-barriers-suicide-bombings|url-status=dead}} and a general consensus among Palestinians that the bombings were a "losing strategy".{{cite news|last1=Steves|first1=Rick|title=The Security Fence, the Anti-Terrorism Barrier, the Wall|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-steves/the-security-fence-the-an_b_4296601.html|access-date=13 October 2015|agency=HuffPost|date=2013-11-18}} The suicides and other attacks on civilians had "a major impact" on the attitudes of the Israeli public. Instead of creating demoralization, the attacks generated even greater support for the right-wing Likud party which brought to office another hardliner, the former general Ariel Sharon. In 2001, 89% of Israeli Jews supported the Sharon government's policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants involved in terrorism against Israel, the number rising to 92% in 2003.{{cite journal|last1=Waxman|first1=Dov|title=Living with terror, not Living in Terror: The Impact of Chronic Terrorism on Israeli Society |journal=Perspectives on Terrorism|date=2011|volume=5|issue=5–6|url=http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/living-with-terror/html|access-date=14 October 2015|quote=Palestinian terrorism during the second Intifada clearly affected the political preferences of the Israeli electorate. Sharon's resounding victory in the 2001 election was one indication of this effect. Another was the Likud party's decisive win in the 2003 Knesset elections, doubling the number of its seats in parliament (from 19 to 38), while the rival pro-negotiation center-left Labor party lost seven seats (dropping from 26 to 19 seats). Not only did Palestinian terrorism boost the electoral appeal of the political right in Israel, it also helped to bring about a rightward shift in the political positions of the Israeli public. In general, more Israelis identified themselves as right-wing and fewer as left-wing. ... Palestinian terrorism ... had a major impact on their attitudes towards the use of force against Palestinians. Israeli Jews became much more militant and ‘hawkish.' ... Angry and embittered by the seemingly endless series of gruesome Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel, the vast majority of the Israeli public staunchly supported the Sharon government's offensive military measures against the Palestinians. In 2001, for instance, 89 percent of Israeli Jews supported the Sharon government's policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants involved in terrorism against Israel}} Opinion polls of the Jewish Israelis found 78{{endash}}84% supported the "separation barrier" in 2004.[https://www.haaretz.com/1.4751323 Peace Index / Most Israelis support the fence, despite Palestinian suffering] – Haaretz — Israel News — Ephraim Yaar, Tamar Hermann — March 10, 2004

In the case of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., at least in the short term, the results were negative for Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban. Since the attacks, Western nations have diverted massive resources towards stopping similar actions, as well as increasing border security, and military actions against various countries believed to have been involved with terrorism.{{cite book|title=Servamus, Volume 99|date=2006|publisher=SARP-Uitgevers|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yDgFAQAAIAAJ&q=have+diverted+massive+resources+towards+stopping+similar+actions,+as+well+as+tightening+up+borders,|access-date=15 October 2015}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

{{div col}}

• {{Annotated link |7 July 2005 London bombings}}
• {{Annotated link |2010 Austin plane crash}}
• {{Slink |Islamophobic trope #72 Virgins}}
• {{Annotated link |Austin serial bombings|2018 Austin bombings}}
• {{Annotated link |Child suicide bombers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict}}
• {{Annotated link |Explosive belt}}
• {{Annotated link |Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg}}
• {{Annotated link |Heather Penney}}
• {{Annotated link |Japanese Special Attack Units}}
• {{Annotated link |Kamikaze}}
• {{Annotated link |Martyr}}
• {{Annotated link |Martyrdom video}}
• {{Annotated link |Martyrdom in Islam}}
• {{Annotated link |Martyrdom in Palestinian society}}
• {{Annotated link |Murder-suicide}}
• {{Annotated link |Olei Hagardom}}
• {{Annotated link |Palestinian suicide attacks}}
• {{Annotated link |Pierre Rehov}}

{{end div col}}

{{notelist| group = lower-alpha | refs =

{{efn|name=Benazir| Named in honour of the martyr (shaheed) Benazir Bhutto, after she was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007:

• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University
• Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Medical College
• Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical College
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto City University in Karachi, Sindh
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Dewan University in Karachi, Sindh
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (Shaheed Benazirabad) in Nawabshah, Sindh
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences in Sakrand, Sindh
• Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University (Karachi) in Karachi, Sindh
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (Sheringal) in Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University (previously known as the Frontier Women University, in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) }}

}}

{{reflist|1=30em|refs=

From Judges 16:30 – Usually translated as 'Let me die with the Philistines' – {{cite web| title = Judges 16: Hebrew - English Bible - Mechon-Mamre | url = https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0716.htm | website = mechon-mamre.org }} English: 30 And Samson said: 'Let me die with the Philistines'. And he bent with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead that he slew at his death were more than they that he slew in his life. Hebrew: {{lang|he|ל וַיֹּאמֶר שִׁמְשׁוֹן, תָּמוֹת נַפְשִׁי עִם-פְּלִשְׁתִּים, וַיֵּט בְּכֹחַ, וַיִּפֹּל הַבַּיִת עַל-הַסְּרָנִים וְעַל-כָּל-הָעָם אֲשֶׁר-בּוֹ; וַיִּהְיוּ הַמֵּתִים, אֲשֶׁר הֵמִית בְּמוֹתוֹ, רַבִּים, מֵאֲשֶׁר הֵמִית בְּחַיָּיו.}}

{{cite book|last1=Hassan|first1=Riaz|title=Suicide Bombings|date=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis.|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgQ_opkHdJ0C&q=Jewish++sect+suicidal&pg=PA8|access-date=13 October 2015|isbn=9781136804526}}

• Quote: "Members of these sects numbered in the hundreds and, starting around AD 48, carried out suicidal missions to kill prominent Jews, temple priests who had succumbed to Hellenistic culture and Roman soldiers … Zealots and Sicarii continued their attacks for a quarter of a century, provoking brutal Roman retaliatory reprisals … The Jewish War finally ended at Masada. When the Roman army attacked this fortress at the end of AD 72, there were 960 insurgents and refugees within. Once the fall of the fortress became inevitable, Eleazar, the leader of the Zealots, persuaded Masada's defenders to engage in what remains one of the most famous group suicides in history. The Zealots in Masada preferred to die by their own hand rather than be captured by their Roman enemies. The symbolic act demonstrated their steadfast opposition to Roman oppression. The act of mass suicide was a political act."
• Citing (Rapoport 1984: 670): "… To generate a mass uprising, they escalated the struggle by shock tactics to manipulate fear, outrage, sympathy and guilt. Sometimes these emotional effects were provoked by terrorist atrocities which went beyond the consensual norms governing violence; at other times, they were produced by provoking the enemy into committing atrocities against his will."
• Citing (Pape 2005: 34): "… to be able to die nobly and freely… Only our shared death is able to protect our wives and children from violation and slavery … We, who have been brought up at home in this way, should set an example to others in our readiness to die… This suicide is commanded by our laws. Our wives and children ask for it. God himself has sent us the necessity for it."

128 Lehi Martyrs

• {{cite web | title = חללי לח"י – העמותה להנצחת מורשת לח״י | url = https://lehi.org.il/he/%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%99/ |language=he-IL}}
• {{cite news | trans-title = Memorial Day ceremony for the fallen of Israel's armed forces, victims of hostilities, and 128 martyrs of the Lehi movement… | title = טקס יום הזיכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל, נפגעי פעולות האיבה ו-128 חללי לח"י, יום רביעי, 30.4.25, ב' באייר תשפ"ה, בשעה 10:30 – העמותה להנצחת מורשת לח״י | url = https://lehi.org.il/he/%d7%98%d7%a7%d7%a1-%d7%99%d7%95%d7%9d-%d7%94%d7%96%d7%99%d7%9b%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%9f-%d7%9c%d7%97%d7%9c%d7%9c%d7%99-%d7%9e%d7%a2%d7%a8%d7%9b%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%99%d7%a9%d7%a8%d7%90%d7%9c-%d7%a0%d7%a4%d7%92/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250417050159/https://lehi.org.il/he/%D7%98%D7%A7%D7%A1-%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%96%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%A0%D7%A4%D7%92/ | archive-date = 17 April 2025 | access-date = 17 April 2025 |language=he-IL}}

{{cite web| script-title = he: רסקין פַניה – "מרגלית" – העמותה להנצחת מורשת לח״י | url= https://lehi.org.il/he/%d7%a8%d7%a1%d7%a7%d7%99%d7%9f-%d7%a4%d6%b7%d7%a0%d7%99%d7%94/ | quote = הנצחה באנדרטה ביער לח"י במשמר איילון … שמה של פניה רסקין חרוט על לוח באנדרטה ביער לח"י | trans-quote = Commemoration at the monument in the Lehi Forest in Mishmar Ayalon … Fania Raskin's name is engraved on a plaque at the Lehi Forest memorial. |language=he-IL}}

Description: In the close up image, her name is the last on the list, with her Hebrew alias in brackets {{langx|he| פניה רסקין (מרגלית) |Fania Raskin (Margalit)}}.

{{cite web | title= Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association | url= https://lehi.org.il/en/raskin-fania/ | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220707020736/https://lehi.org.il/en/raskin-fania/ | archive-date= 7 July 2022 | quote= "Fania then spoke up and volunteered herself. She was sure that for an operation such as this, she would find the strength to stand and walk. "My life is no life anyway" she added. This was a "{{ill|Let me die with the Philistines|he|תמות נפשי עם פלשתים| lt =Let my soul die with the Philistines}}" proposal, the Samson option. Of course, her suggestion was rejected. Fania Raskin passed away on 20 July 1947, in Jerusalem. She was thirty-one."}}

{{cite book | title= Lehi People | script-title= he: לח"י אנשים | date= 2002 | location= Tel Aviv |page=800| url= https://books.lehi.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-2-%D7%93%D7%99%D7%92%D7%99%D7%98%D7%9C%D7%99.pdf | access-date= 21 December 2024 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241221184320/https://books.lehi.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-2-%D7%93%D7%99%D7%92%D7%99%D7%98%D7%9C%D7%99.pdf | archive-date= 21 December 2024 | quote= כאשר תוכננה התנקשות בגנרל בארקר, מפקד הצבא הבריטי בארץ־ישראל, הועלה רעיון, שבחורה תטייל עם עגלת תינוק, שתתפוצץ כאשר הגנרל יעבור לידה. נשאלה השאלה איך הבחורה תצליח להסתלק לפני ההתפוצצות. כאן התפרצה פניה והציעה את עצמה. בשביל פעולה כזאת, אמרה, היא תמצא כוחות לעמוד וללכת. ״ממילא חיי אינם חיים״, הוסיפה היא התכוונה לפעולת ״תמות נפשי עם פלשתים״. הצעתה נדחתה, כמובן. פניה רסקין הלכה לעולמה ב־-20.7.1947ג׳ מנחם אב תש״ז, בירושלים והיא בת 31 |language=he-IL}}

{{cite news | author1 = דרור פויר | title = תמות נפשי עם פלישתים | url = https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000419938 | work = Globes (newspaper) www.globes.co.il | date = 26 January 2009 | quote = שבצה"ל החמירו את נוהל "חניבעל" והנחו את החיילים למנוע בכל מחיר מקרה של "גלעד שליט 2". כלומר: אם אתה חייל ומנסים לחטוף אותך, עליך להתנגד. לא הולך? עליך להתאבד ולקחת כמה שיותר לוחמי חמאס אתך (מג"ד מגולני ממליץ על שימוש ברימון אישי…) … אם זהו הלך המחשבה, למה שלא יקחו את נוהל "חניבעל" וישדרגו אותו עוד קצת ויהפכו אותו לנוהל "שמשון"? למה לחכות שיבואו חוטפים כשאפשר לקחת את החיילים ולשלוח אותם ישר להתאבד, בבחינת תמות נפשי עם פלשתים, ולסגור עניין. }}

{{cite news | title = שלושה אירועי "תָּמוֹת נַפְשִׁי עִם פְּלִשְׁתִּים" של גיבורינו בעזה | url = https://www.kikar.co.il/haredim-news/s8s5o8 | work = כיכר השבת www.kikar.co.il | date = 13 February 2024 |language=he| quote = כתב ההיסטוריון צבי אילן כי במהלך הקרב הקשה הוצת זחל"מ ישראלי, ונהגו ביצע מעשה הקרבה בל יאמן. הוא הסיע את הרכב הבוער לעבר שני זחל"מים מצריים, התנגש בהם ופוצץ אותם על יושביהם. מהדורה זו היא שלישית במספר של "תמות נפשי עם פלישתים", וההיסטוריה חוזרת על עצמה שוב ושוב בגבורת העם היהודי הנאבק באויביו.}}

{{cite news | author1 = Shakib Ali ({{langx|ar|شكيب علي}}) {{langx|he|שקיב (שכיב) עלי}} | title = לשחרר אותם לפני שלחמאס לא יהיה מה להפסיד | url= https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/r1qcbdeit | work = Ynet | date = 8 December 2023 |language=he| quote = מצמררת המחשבה על הסיפור המקראי על שמשון הגיבור, שנתפס על ידי הפלישתים והוחזק בעזה, שם נקשר לעמודי המקדש. אחרי שהבין שלא יוכל להשתחרר, העדיף לנקום באויביו ומוטט את עמודי המבנה עליו ועל שוביו ואמר "תמות נפשי עם פלישתים".}}

{{cite news | title = Palestine Military Commander Orders Two More Jews to Hang; Commutes Sentence of Third | url = https://www.jta.org/archive/palestine-military-commander-orders-two-more-jews-to-hang-commutes-sentence-of-third | work = Jewish Telegraphic Agency | date = 18 April 1947 | quote = Lt. Gen. Gordon H.A. MacMillan, Palestine military commander, today confirmed the death sentences imposed on two Palestine Jews and commuted the sentence of a third to life imprisonment. Under amendments to the ##rgency Defense Regulations published yesterday there is no appeal from his ##cision. The condemned men are Moshe Barazani, 21, and Meir Feinstein, whose age the ##secution claims is 23. The third youth is Daniel Azulai. Barazani is a self-##fessed Sternist, who told the military court which convicted him that "you will ## frighten us with your gallows." Feinstein's mother insists that her son, a ##teran of the British Army, is only 17. Barazani was captured in Jerusalem during the imposition of martial law with hand grenade in his possession. The other two youths were charged with having participated in an attack on the Jerusalem central railroad station last October.}}

{{cite web | title = The good jailer | last = Sheleg | first = Yair | publisher = Haaretz | date = 7 April 2007 | url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846330.html | access-date = 24 July 2008 | archive-date = 26 March 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090326071126/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846330.html | url-status = dead}} (Live link: {{cite web | last1=Sheleg | first1=Yair | title = The good jailer | url = https://www.haaretz.com/2007-04-07/ty-article/the-good-jailer/0000017f-e225-d75c-a7ff-feaddde60000 | website = Haaretz.com |language=en}}) Quote 1: "Of course, we needed the condemned men's approval," (the Lehi veteran) recalls. "Moshe agreed right away, but since there was an Irgun man with him we had to request their approval, too. We asked the person responsible for Irgun prisoners in the jail, Yehoshua Tamler, what he thought, and he said they needed the consent of the top command. We had to wait a few days, despite fearing that they would be taken to the gallows in the meantime, until approval arrived from the commander of the Irgun, Menachem Begin." Quote 2: (Yoram Tamir director of the Museum of Underground Prisoners) "…says the Lehi had envisioned a suicide operation during the hanging of one of their men prior to this incident: "They called it Operation Samson, in an allusion to the suicide of the biblical figure." Eliezer Ben-Ami, who prepared the makeshift orange grenades while he was imprisoned along with the two men, confirms that the plan was to turn their ascent to the gallows into an action that would harm the British authorities."

{{cite web | title = Ben-Ami (Chissin) Eliezer – "Yechezkel" – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association | url = https://lehi.org.il/en/ben-ami-chassin-eliezer/ | work=lehi.org.il/en | quote = He became known for assembling ‘Grenade Filled Oranges' used by Moshe Barazani and Meir Feinstein, who blew themselves up three hours before their British-planned execution. He was released 8 February 1948, and stayed active until joining the IDF 31 May 1948. He was discharged September 1969 ranking Lieutenant-Colonel. Eliezer served in the 8th Brigade, the Engineering Corps and the Ordnance Corps, from dismantling bombshells to Commanding a Battalion. In 1951 he successfully finished an Engineer Corps Officers' Course and was sent to study at the Technion. He was involved in developing and testing armaments. He graduated Command and HQ School. Among his positions: instructor, sapper, Production Officer, Experimental Branch Head, 276 Battalion Commander and Head of the Atomic-Biological-Chemical Weapons Branch. }}

{{cite web | author1 = מנחם בגין | title = ירושלים (מאיר פיינשטיין ומשה ברזני) | url = https://db.begincenter.org.il/article/%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A8-%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%98%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%96%D7%A0%D7%99/ | website = מאגר כתבי מנחם בגין - מרכז מורשת בגין | date = April 1947 | quote = הם לא איבדו את עצמם לדעת. הם נרצחו על-ידי התליין הבריטי. |language=he-IL}}

}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Atran |first1=Scott |author1-link=Scott Atran |url=http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/twq06spring_atran.pdf |title=The Moral Logic and Growth of Suicide Terrorism |journal=The Washington Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=127–147 |year=2006 |doi=10.1162/016366006776026239 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623022648/http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/twq06spring_atran.pdf |archive-date=June 23, 2015 }}
• {{cite book|title=The General: Charles DeGaulle and the France He Saved|first=Jonathan|last=Fenby|year=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhuNIR6GKPcC&q=dare+to+die+corps+swords&pg=PA319|page=319|isbn=978-0857200679|access-date=April 24, 2014}}
• {{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Modern China (1800–1949)|first=James Z.|last=Gao|volume=25 of Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras|edition=illustrated|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wJrLhcgog8oC&q=dare+to+die+taierzhuang+japanese&pg=PA350|page=350|isbn=978-0810863088|access-date=24 April 2014}}
• {{Cite book|author=Lankford, Adam|title=The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QXNiFSGpjEC&q=myth+of+martyrdom|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|year=2013|isbn=978-0-230-34213-2}}
• {{cite book|title=Bittersweet|first=Leslie|last=Li|year=1992|publisher=C.E. Tuttle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N68GRK67FjQC&q=dare+to+die+taierzhuang+japanese|page=234|isbn=978-0804817776|access-date=April 24, 2014}}
• {{Cite book|last=Pape|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Pape|title=Dying to Win|publisher=Random House|location=New York|year=2005|isbn=9781588364609|url=https://archive.org/details/dyingtowinstrate00pape}}
• {{cite book|author=Pedahzur, Ami|title=Suicide Terrorism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5XBVsosvzYC&pg=PA66|year=2004|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3383-1|access-date=March 22, 2015}}
• {{cite news| last1 = Rinon | first1 = Yoav | title = The destructive wish for revenge followed by suicide is rooted in the Israeli ethos | url = https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-03-16/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-destructive-wish-for-revenge-followed-by-suicide-is-rooted-in-the-israeli-ethos/0000018e-42e8-de41-adef-d7ed95dc0000 | work = Haaretz | date = 16 March 2024 | year = 2024 |language=en}}
• {{cite web | title = The good jailer | last = Sheleg | first = Yair | publisher = Haaretz | year = 2007 | date = 7 April 2007 | url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846330.html | access-date = 24 July 2008 | archive-date = 26 March 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090326071126/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846330.html | url-status = dead}} (Live link: {{cite web | last1=Sheleg | first1=Yair | title = The good jailer | url = https://www.haaretz.com/2007-04-07/ty-article/the-good-jailer/0000017f-e225-d75c-a7ff-feaddde60000 | website = Haaretz.com |language=en}})

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• {{cite journal | last1 = Atran | first1 = Scott |author1-link=Scott Atran |year = 2003 | title = Genesis of suicide terrorism | url = https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00509568/file/genesis_of_Suicide_terrorism.pdf| journal = Science | volume = 299 | issue = 5612| pages = 1534–39 | doi=10.1126/science.1078854 | pmid=12624256| bibcode = 2003Sci...299.1534A | s2cid = 12114032 }}
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• Kassim, Sadik H. [http://btci.stanford.clockss.org/cgi/reprint/8/2/204.pdf "The Role of Religion in the Generation of Suicide Bombers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606091254/http://btci.stanford.clockss.org/cgi/reprint/8/2/204.pdf |date=2013-06-06 }}; accessed March 22, 2015.
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{{commons category|Suicide terrorism}}

• Dataset: The CPOST Database on Suicide Attacks (DSAT)

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