# Suicide Bombers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153 "2003-06-16T04:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alshml](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@alshml](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alshml)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/1 "2003-06-16T04:37:05Z")
Does anyone know of a People, other than the Palestinians and Kamakazi’s, that have been suicidal killers? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/2 "2003-06-16T04:52:55Z")
Sure…Saudi Arabians. They were the majority of the attackers in the World Trade Center attacks. This seems like a silly question that begs to find an excuse to slander a whole ‘People’. Suicide bombings have little to do with a given race or religion and more to do with economic and political realities. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/3 "2003-06-16T05:11:56Z")
If we’re talking modern suicide bombers, off the top of my head I can think of at least one Sikh separtist group in India, the ( leftist and secular ) Kurdish PKK in Turkey, several Lebanese groups ( both religious and secular ), probably ( I’d have to double-check ) Algeria’s GIA, and the most prolific of them all, the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. Older examples are a little more equivocal, like the medieval Nizaris ( the so-called “Assassins”. Here’s a couple of short older threads related to the topic: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179814](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179814) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=167785](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=167785) - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/4 "2003-06-16T06:59:47Z")
Samson in the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/5 "2003-06-16T07:11:50Z")
Don’t forget the Kamakazis during WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/6 "2003-06-16T07:12:30Z")
He didn’t, it was in the first post. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/7 "2003-06-16T07:21:42Z")
This is what I get for not reading the OP throughly. :smack: :smack: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/8 "2003-06-16T07:49:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \*probably ( I’d have to double-check ) Algeria’s GIA GIA is not known to use suicide bombings per se, at least not up to the point I was fully current on them, say late 1990s. Further, Kamakazis are not a people, if one is using “a people” it would be the Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/9 "2003-06-16T12:03:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\*This seems like a silly question that begs to find an excuse to slander a whole ‘People’. > > Suicide bombings have little to do with a given race or religion and more to do with economic and political realities. \*\* Absent a cite, I’m not sure. This isn’t a GD, and I don’t want to go that way, but factually, I think it’s fair to cite patterns of use, or non-use, of suicide tactics that do fall along “group” or, yes, “people” lines. E.g., Germans and Japanese at the end of the war were in equally desperate military, political, economic straits. Both fought bitterly, but only one airforce deliberately used its planes as bombs. E.g., various extremely poor, oppressed, all-odds-against-them, groups/nations/peoples have adopted armed or unarmed resistance. Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto did not choose (deliberately) self-destructive resistance tactics; Mohammad Atta (from a relatively wealthy Egyptian family, and not facing imminent death from his political opponents, unlike those Warsaw Jews), did. Even among admittedly-violent extra-legal ‘terrorist’ groups, I think there are legitimate factual distinctions to be drawn between the pattern of Seamus O’Semtex trying to blow up a building (or kill a bunch of Brit soldiers) and escape, and the young inept Hamas guy who’s reasonably happy, and whose family cherishes his last videotape, even though he manages only to blow himself up and slightly injure one bystander. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/10 "2003-06-16T12:20:46Z")
To answer the OP directly, Chechens have also recently gotten into the act. ---
**Author:** ![alshml](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@alshml](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alshml)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/11 "2003-06-16T14:10:52Z")
Thanks to those who sent replies. Whack-a-Mole, I’m don’t know what you meant by, “This seems like a silly question that begs to find an excuse to slander a whole ‘People’.” What excuse? to slander what People? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/12 "2003-06-16T15:34:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by alshml \* > \*\*Whack-a-Mole, I’m don’t know what you meant by, “This seems like a silly question that begs to find an excuse to slander a whole ‘People’.” > What excuse? to slander what People? \*\* Palestinians are not suicidal killers. Some people who happen to be Palestinians do engage in suicide attacks but it is an unfair characterization to say Palestinians (suggesting all of them) are suicide bombers. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/13 "2003-06-16T22:08:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Huerta88 \* > \*\*E.g., Germans and Japanese at the end of the war were in equally desperate military, political, economic straits. Both fought bitterly, but only one airforce deliberately used its planes as bombs. > \*\* Actually, no. Towards the end at least one group of germans did try suicide attacks with their planes. They weren’t terribly successful (unlike the kamakaze’s) and as far as I’m aware never tried it again. From what I recall they carried out their suicide attacks against american bombers, unlike the kamakaze’s who attached ships. Someone more familiar with world war ii can probably give a lot more details than I can. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/14 "2003-06-16T23:10:38Z")
Welcome to the boards **alshml**. As you can see we can get a bit anal in here about expressing exactly what one means. I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean to assert that all Palestinians are suicidal killers, or think that the Kamakazes were a race of people. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/15 "2003-06-17T00:20:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \* > \*\*probably ( I’d have to double-check ) Algeria’s GIA, \*\* I don’t think so. Though I could be mistaken, I don’t remember having ever heard about a suicide bombing in Algeria. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/16 "2003-06-17T00:24:19Z")
Ok…As usual, I should read the whole thread before responding, since someone else already posted essentially the same thing. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/17 "2003-06-17T00:48:12Z")
> [@](#): > > a People, other than the Palestinians and Kamakazi’s, that have been suicidal killers? The Jews: Sicairis Tamils: Tamil Tigers. British: Light Brigade, Crimean War. I suspect that all nations and peoples have knowingly odered their soldiers into suicidal assaults at some stage of their history. It’s something that occcasionally needs to be done in wartime. I would like to ask the suplemental quiestion: has any US officer ever at any stage ordered any soldiers or orperatives to engage in a suicide mission? I imagine they have done, but I’d like to have a named example. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/18 "2003-06-17T01:34:17Z")
**Blake** , do you have a good cite that the Sicarii (Latin name, known in English as Sicairis and in Hebrew as Sikarikin, romanized spelling obviously variable) were suicide terrorists in the sense the OP was asking? While they were suicidal (they killed themselves at the top of the Masada so the Romans would not take them alive), and they were killers (assassins specifically) I don’t believe they ever combined the two as, e.g., the Palestinian groups and the LTTE have. The only cite I can find is [this](http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=112) which only mentions it in passing: > [@](#): > > In ancient times two notorious sects, the Jewish Sicairis and the Islamic Hashishiyun became infamous for such attacks. It would be nice to have something more substantial. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/19 "2003-06-17T01:41:10Z")
Oh and a note on **Collounsbury** ’s and **clairobscur** ’s comments re the GIA. The GIA has staged two suicide operations, one successful, one unsuccessful: > [@](#): > > Algeria has faced suicide attacks from the Group Islamique Armé (GIA) during the civil war between the Islamists and the military that began in 1991. For instance, in January 1994, a suicide bomber killed 42 people and injured some 300 others near the Algiers central police station. Later in 1994, in a case that has special resonance today, the GIA hijacked an Air France flight and forced it to land in Marseille; there, they demanded that extra fuel be loaded, intending to crash the fully fueled plane into the Eiffel Tower. The attack was foiled when the plane was stormed by French commandos. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153/20 "2003-06-17T02:31:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by engineer\_comp\_geek \* > \*\*Towards the end at least one group of germans did try suicide attacks with their planes. They weren’t terribly successful (unlike the kamakaze’s) and as far as I’m aware never tried it again. From what I recall they carried out their suicide attacks against american bombers, unlike the kamakaze’s who attached ships. > \*\* On April 7, 1945, the Luftwaffe set out to ram U.S. bombers. Two bombers from the 490th Bomb Group were downed over the continent. One was apparently shot down, the other (commanded by Lt. Carrol Cagle) was rammed by a German plane and forced to make an emergency landing. As far as I know, the crew of Cagle’s plane survived. I’m not sure if the German pilot died, but I suspect so. There is a book about the incident, which I have not read yet: _The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe_ by Adrian Weir [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-bombers/182153.md?page=2)