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Yoram Schweitzer
Turkey, which adopted this modus operandi. Later, through the influence of Al-
Qaeda the tactic spread to many more countries.
To date, the phenomenon of suicide terrorism has spread out across 31 countries
(and 4 more if we also count interceptions) 2 in five continents around the world and
has been carried out by a large number of secular and religious terrorist groups and
networks. More than 1,450 male and female suicide terrorists have taken part in the
suicide attacks carried out between 1983 and April 2006 (see figure 2). 3
Figure 2: Graph of Worldwide Suicide Terrorism (as of 25 April 2006)
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
51
LEBANESE
265
SRI LANKANS
414
PALESTINIANS
19 138 107
TURKISH
AQ&Affiliates
CHECHENS
455
IRAQIS
Al-Qaeda under Bin Laden’s leadership was a latecomer which joined the list of
groups carrying out suicide attacks only in 1998, about 15 years after Hizbollah's
started it suicide operations. Yet Al-Qaeda has become the dominant force in
suicide terrorism and the group directly responsible for its globalization by turning
the concept of Istishhad as the organizational symbol and practice for the whole
global Jihad camp. Al-Qaeda’s involvement has led to escalating levels of death
and destruction that reached heights that were hitherto unknown.
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