Insurgents use kidnap victims in suicide bombings

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents are now using unwitting kidnap victims as suicide bombers – seizing them, booby-trapping their cars without their knowledge, then releasing them only to blow up the vehicles by remote control, the Defense Ministry warned Thursday.

The Iraqi announcement – the latest development in the deadly war waged by the insurgency – came as widespread lawlessness swept the capital Thursday with kidnappings, deadly attacks on police, the discovery of more mutilated death squad victims and a brazen daylight bank heist by men dressed as Iraqi soldiers.

It was unclear from the Defense Ministry’s statement whether the insurgents are using kidnap victims because they are having trouble finding recruits for suicide missions. Suicide car bombs are responsible for 7 percent of the total Iraqi deaths this year – down considerably from 25 percent of the overall deaths in the last eight months of 2005, according to an Associated Press count.

Although roadside bombs are the main weapon used by insurgents, suicide car bombers are often their most effective one – designed to maximize casualties and sow fear among the population. According to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, since the fall of Saddam Hussein to Sept. 17 there have been 343 suicide car bombings involved in attacks causing multiple deaths around Iraq.

“According to our intelligence information, recent car bomb explosions targeting checkpoints and public places have nothing to do with (traditional) terrorist operations,” the Defense Ministry said in its statement.

It said that first “a motorist is kidnapped with his car. They then booby-trap the car without the driver knowing. Then the kidnapped driver is released and threatened to take a certain road.”

The kidnappers then follow the car and when the unwitting victim “reaches a checkpoint, a public place, or an army or police patrol, the criminal terrorists following the driver detonate the car from a distance.”