explosive belt

The Chinese used explosive vests during the Second Sino-Japanese War.{{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 |trans-title=Taierzhuang Street Fight: The Chief Executive Order has the courage to retreat to the river |last=网易|website=war.163.com |language=zh |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619140144/http://war.163.com/15/0427/09/AO6TATTL00014OMD.html |archive-date=2018-06-19}}{{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|language=en |url-status=dead |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 |archive-date=2017-10-20 }} A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese at Sihang Warehouse. Chinese troops strapped explosives like grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves over 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|publisher=University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts|url=http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf|type=Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Zurich For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy|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|access-date=24 April 2014|url-status=dead}} This tactic was used during the Battle of Shanghai, where a Chinese suicide bomber stopped a Japanese tank column by exploding 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 rushed at Japanese tanks and blew themselves up with dynamite and grenades.{{cite journal |date=Summer 2001 |title=Chinese Tank Forces and Battles before 1949 |url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/emagazine-3/tanks/Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm |journal=TANKS! E-Magazine |issue=#4 |access-date=2 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140807012533/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/emagazine-3/tanks/Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm |archive-date=7 August 2014}}{{cite journal|author=Xin Hui |date=August 1, 2002 |title=Xinhui Presents: Chinese Tank Forces and Battles before 1949 |url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/Newsletter1-8-2/xinhui.htm |journal=Newsletter 1-8-2002 Articles |access-date=2014-08-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808050643/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/Newsletter1-8-2/xinhui.htm |archive-date=2014-08-08 }}{{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=9812610677|access-date=24 April 2014}}{{cite book |url= http://numistamp.com/Taierzhuang-1938----Stalingrad-1942-(Page-1).php |title= Taierzhuang 1938 – Stalingrad 1942 |last1= Olsen |first1= Lance |date= 2012 |website= Numistamp |publisher= Clear Mind Publishing |isbn= 978-0-9838435-9-7 |access-date= 24 April 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140426040700/http://numistamp.com/Taierzhuang-1938----Stalingrad-1942-%28Page-1%29.php |archive-date= 26 April 2014 |url-status= dead }}{{cite book|title=China Condensed: 5,000 Years of History & Culture|author=Dr 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}} During one incident at Taierzhuang, Chinese suicide bombers destroyed 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=24 April 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=24 April 2014}}

The use of suicidal attacks to inflict damage upon an enemy predates the Second World War, in which Kamikaze units (suicidal air attacks) and Kaiten ("living torpedoes") were used to attack Allied forces. Japanese soldiers routinely detonated themselves by attacking Allied tanks while carrying antitank mines, magnetic demolition charges, hand grenades and other explosive devices.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Two Palestinians Caught with an Explosives Belt.jpgThe explosive belt usually consists of several cylinders filled with explosive (de facto pipe bombs), or in more sophisticated versions with plates of explosive. The explosive is surrounded by a fragmentation jacket that produces the shrapnel responsible for most of the bomb's lethality, effectively making the jacket a crude, body-worn, Claymore mine. Once the vest is detonated, the explosion resembles an omnidirectional shotgun blast. The most dangerous and the most widely used shrapnel are steel balls {{convert|3|-|7|mm|in|frac=32|abbr=on}} in diameter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna51558990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507082138/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna51558990|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 7, 2021|title=What is Shrapnel?|website=NBC News}} Other shrapnel material can be anything of suitable size and hardness, most often nails, screws, nuts, and thick wire. Shrapnel is responsible for about 90% of all casualties caused by this kind of device.

A "loaded" vest may weigh between {{convert|5|and|20|kg|lb|round=5}} and may be hidden under thick clothes, usually jackets or snow coats.

A suicide vest may cover the entire stomach and usually has shoulder straps.

A common security procedure against suspected suicide bombers is to move the suspect at least {{convert|15|m|ft|-1}} away from other people, then ask them to remove their upper clothing. While this procedure is relatively uncontroversial for use on males, it may cause an issue when dealing with females suspected of being suicide bombers. Male security personnel may be reluctant to inspect or strip-search females, and can be accused of sexual harassment after having done so.{{cite web |url=http://news.discovery.com/human/life/sochi-suicide-bomber-threat-why-terrorists-use-women-140122.htm |title=Sochi Suicide Bomber Threat: Why Terrorists Use Women |last1=Niiler |first1=Eric |date=Jan 22, 2014 |website=Discovery.net |publisher=Discovery Communications |access-date=2014-04-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125061139/http://news.discovery.com/human/life/sochi-suicide-bomber-threat-why-terrorists-use-women-140122.htm |archive-date=2015-11-25}} Alternatively, an infrared detector can be used. There are assertions that using a millimeter wave scanner would be viable for the task, but the concept has been disputed.

The discovery of remains as well as incidentally unexploded belts or vests can offer forensic clues to the investigation after the attack.AFP/NEWSCORE [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/ugandan_police_find_suicide_vest_2mCnVBNdb1VKbskj0QEnTK "Ugandan police find suicide vest, hunts suspects"]. July 13, 2010, New York Post. Retrieved ?

Suicide bombers who wear the vests are often obliterated by the explosion; the best evidence of their identity is the head, which often remains relatively intact because it is separated and thrown clear off the body by the explosion. Journalist Joby Warrick conjectured: "The vest's tight constraints and the positioning of the explosive pouches would channel the energy of the blast outward, toward whoever stood directly in front of him. Some of that energy wave would inevitably roll upward, ripping the bomber's body apart at its weakest point, between the neck bones and lower jaw. It accounts for the curious phenomenon in which suicide bombers' heads are severed clean at the moment of detonation and are later found in a state of perfect preservation several metres away from the torso's shredded remains."{{cite book|author=Joby Warrick|title=The Triple Agent: The Al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqEwcvoakJMC&q=%22severed+clean%22&pg=PA151|year=2012|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-307-74231-5|page=151}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{commons cat|Suicide vests}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051210192038/http://www.waronline.org/en/terror/suicide.htm The mechanics of a living bomb]

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Category:Suicide weapons

Category:Improvised explosive devices

Category:Suicide bombing