What makes an Al-Qaida suicide bomber?
Peter Taylor on what makes an al- Qaida suicide bomber.
Hat Tip, LottieP
This was the part that upset me the most.
''In Jordan, I saw the sorrow of parents who had lost a son. Raed Elbana was a young lawyer who went to California and enjoyed a rock'n'roll lifestyle. He returned to Jordan during the Iraq war where, according to one of his college friends, Abdullah Abu Rahman, he was radicalised by Salafi jihadis. "They told him about holy war and fighting the Americans," he said. When his father noticed that he was growing a beard, Elbana explained it away by saying he had been travelling for three days and had not had a chance to shave. He then told his parents he was leaving for Dubai, where he had got a legal job. Later, his father got a phone call from Iraq saying, "Father of Raed, I congratulate you. Raed was martyred." Then the line went dead.
According to al-Qaida in Iraq's website, Elbana was a shaheed who attacked a Shia clinic in the Iraqi town of Hi'lla; 118 died. It was said he was handcuffed to the steering wheel of the car bomb.''
UPDATE: BBC article
Hat Tip, LottieP
This was the part that upset me the most.
''In Jordan, I saw the sorrow of parents who had lost a son. Raed Elbana was a young lawyer who went to California and enjoyed a rock'n'roll lifestyle. He returned to Jordan during the Iraq war where, according to one of his college friends, Abdullah Abu Rahman, he was radicalised by Salafi jihadis. "They told him about holy war and fighting the Americans," he said. When his father noticed that he was growing a beard, Elbana explained it away by saying he had been travelling for three days and had not had a chance to shave. He then told his parents he was leaving for Dubai, where he had got a legal job. Later, his father got a phone call from Iraq saying, "Father of Raed, I congratulate you. Raed was martyred." Then the line went dead.
According to al-Qaida in Iraq's website, Elbana was a shaheed who attacked a Shia clinic in the Iraqi town of Hi'lla; 118 died. It was said he was handcuffed to the steering wheel of the car bomb.''
UPDATE: BBC article
posted by Rachel at 3:44 pm
