The Arab World – Incubator of Innovation in Terrorism

Indeed, the area where the Arabophones seem most adept at innovation would be terrorism. Airplane hijackings, suicide bombings, and mega-terrorism are among their claims to originality.

And now comes the wave of suicide bombers. Note the news from Iraq, “3 suicide bombers used to kill tenacious Iraqi cop,” concerning the assassination of police commander Lt. Col. Shamil al-Jabouri by al-Qaida:

As al-Jabouri slept Wednesday morning on a couch in his office, three men wearing police uniforms over vests laden with explosives slipped through an opening in the blast walls surrounding the compound where his building stood, police said.

Police manning one of at least four observation towers surrounding the compound shot one of the attackers in a yard and his vest exploded. Under the cover of that blast, police said, the other two suicide bombers charged about 100 yards (90 meters) and made it into al-Jabouri’s single-story building.

They detonated their vests simultaneously – one at the door of al-Jabouri’s office – killing the commander instantly and injuring a policeman sleeping in a trailer nearby. The two blasts brought the whole building down, burying the slain commander under the rubble, police said.

Comment: The effectiveness of this cruel new tactic makes it likely to be repeated, and not just in Arabic-speaking countries, either. (December 29, 2010)