Keyanna Spears
2/14/2009
8:22 am
Suicide bomber kills dozens of Shiite pilgrims in Iraq
www.washingtonpost.com
Friday February 13, a woman strapped with explosives killed at least thirty-five Shiite pilgrims and injured at least sixty-seven who were in route to Karbala, a holy city in Iraq. It is considered to be the deadliest attack in Iraq this year, and is causing an increase in fear of safety since the violence was beginning to show decrease. Iraqi and US officials believe the attacks on the Shiite Pilgrims were caused by insurgents trying to promote disharmony between the Shiite and Sunnis. However, a witness was quoted saying as the bodies were being recovered from the site of the attacks the people were chanting, “Long live Iraq, long live Sunni and Shiite brotherhood.” The recent suicide bombers have been increasing with women being the bombers. These women tend to be widows of insurgents whose motivation in to seek revenge on the US. Also, the women may feel at ease to know that their children will be taken care of by the insurgents once they commit the killings. In light of the recent killings security forces have been on high alert for female bombers targeting pilgrims.
As I stated in my last current event the US needs to rid Iraq of these type of insurgents before we pull out in order to leave Iraq as safe as possible. The insurgents know that the US tend to show emotion towards kids and women so they have developed this strategy of making women insurgents. The US needs to also make sure that the Iraqi militia is correctly trained to handle these type of situations once we pull out.
3 comments:
I still find to figure out how you could convince someone to blow their own people as a method to take revenge on a foreign power. The fact that they leave their kids in the care of those lunatics is also a little off putting to say the least. Maybe some sort of Information campaign to show those extremists as the danger to the public that they are would encourage less people to join up with them.
I don't understand why or how you could get someone to do such a thing. I mean why would you want to kill your own people, or yourself for that matter. And i agree, they are using women and children because they know how emotional Americans are towards it.
I find it interesting that insurgency groups are increasingly using women for attacks. I wonder if it has anything to do with women's limited opportunities. I assume the widows of insurgents shared some views with their deceased husbands, which explains their mindset, but maybe if they had more opportunities to work or get an education, they would have an increased ability to influence Iraqi politics in a nonviolent way. It is quite tragic.
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