Reply #25: Appears Hizbollah gets the palm: [View All]

[bemildred]

This dates from 2000, but I believe the basic points still hold:

http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=112

Looking at history of terrorism, it can be seen that suicide attacks are in actuality a very old modus operandi . In ancient times two notorious sects, the Jewish
Sicairis and the Islamic Hashishiyun became infamous for such attacks. In the 18th century, suicide tactics were used on the Malabar coast of Southwestern
India, in Atjeh in Northern Sumatra and in Mindanao and Sulu in the Southern Philippines. In all of these places Muslims carried out suicide attacks in their fight
against Western hegemony and colonial rule. <1>

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Hizballah suicide terrorism

Suicide terror attacks started in Lebanon in April 1983. A small-and until then unknown-group by the name of Hizballah directed a number of suicide attacks
against Western targets. The first attack was directed at the American embassy in Beirut (April 1983), followed by attacks on the U.S. Marines headquarters and
the French Multinational Force (October 1983). The last two were executed simultaneously and resulted in 300 casualties and dozens of wounded. The later
attack made an indelible impression on world public opinion and terror organizations alike.

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The LTTE

One of the groups that followed Hizballah-even exceeding it in both execution and number of incidents-was the LTTE, the Tamil separatist group in Sri-Lanka.

The LTTE is unequivocally the most effective and brutal terrorist organization ever to utilize suicide terrorism. Between July 1987 and February 2000 it has
carried out 168 suicide terror attacks in Sri-Lanka and India leaving thousands of innocent bystanders dead or wounded.<2> Its suicide unit, ?The Black
Panthers? is comprised of both men and women. One characteristic unique to the LTTE is the fact that every member of the group carries a cyanide capsule
around his/her neck, which he or she may consume upon capture in order not to disclose the group?s secrets. The members of the ?Black Panthers? unit have
demonstrated their continuous readiness to die when they were surrounded by security forces. In many instances they blew themup or bit cyanide capsules
rather than risk captivity and subsequent interrogation which could force them to betray their comrades.

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Some other links:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_SeptOct_2001/sprinzak.html
http://www.cdiss.org/terror.htm
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=887