Suicide bomber kills children

[Mycernius]

From BBC News

Children die in Baghdad car bomb

Most of the victims were children, the US military says
At least 26 Iraqis, almost all of them children, have been killed by a suicide car bombing in south-eastern Baghdad.
A US soldier is also said to have died in the blast. Another three US soldiers are reported to have been injured.

A car drove up to a US army vehicle and blew up as troops gave sweets to the children, a witness said.

Hundreds of Iraqis have died in attacks by militants opposed to the US presence and a Shia-led government that took charge in Baghdad earlier this year.

'Pools of blood'

"Many Iraqi civilians, mostly children, were around the Humvee at the time of the blast," US military spokesman Sgt David Abrams told the Reuters news agency.

I rushed outside to find my son. I only found his bicycle

Victim's father

Another witness told the AFP news agency: "Children gathered round the Americans who were handing out sweets.

"Suddenly a suicide car bomber drove round from a side street and blew himself up," he said.

A television cameraman working for the Reuters agency said nearby houses had been demolished by the explosion and pools of blood collected in the street.

The blast is said to have taken place as the US patrol was passing through Baghdad's eastern al-Jedidah district which is populated mainly be Shia Muslims.

Shocked relatives

At the nearby Kindi hospital, correspondents say hundreds of distraught relatives wandered along the blood-soaked corridors shouting and screaming as they looked for their children, many of whom were badly mutilated.

An official said the bodies of 24 children had been delivered to the mortuary.

Abu Hamed, who lost his 12-year-old son in the blast, told the AFP news agency he was at home when he heard the explosion.

"I rushed outside to find my son. I only found his bicycle," he said.

He said he found his son at the Kindi hospital mortuary.

"I recognised him from his head. The rest of the body was completely burnt."

The area of eastern Baghdad where the blast took place has a mixed community of Sunnis, Shia and Christians, BBC correspondent Richard Galpin reports.

A bomb blast in Baghdad in September last year killed at least 34 children.

This attack also saw the victims gather round US troops who were handing out sweets, to mark the opening of a water treatment plant.

I heard this today on the news. I have heard of other bombings in Iraq, but this just really made me so angry that I had to pull over to calm down. I cannot believe that these people think this type of thing his helping their cause. They are just murderers warping a religion to justify their murderous ways. What has probably set me off was an article in yesterdays Daily Mail called "Inside the mind of a suicide bomber" (orginally in Time by Aparisim Ghosh) This man actually thought he was going to do good and would be forgiven in heaven by the innocents that he might kill. After reading this and hearing of this bombing today, I just seethed. Killing children at any time is wrong. There is no 'for the greater good'. Bullsh!t! It is wrong, full stop. You cannot justify it. It really depressed me.

 

[Duo]

Yes I also heard this, but is not just this incident, kids are used as soldiers in Africa and abused in so many ways. It really saddens me that in the 21st century that this is still happening. You have to wonder at the humanity of those who act this way, and wonder if we humans are so good as we proclaim to be. Crimes against children should have the highest penalty. Anyone who kills or does harm to an innocent being who can't protect itself like that doesn't deserve mercy.....

 

[bossel]

I heard this today on the news. I have heard of other bombings in Iraq, but this just really made me so angry that I had to pull over to calm down. I cannot believe that these people think this type of thing his helping their cause. They are just murderers warping a religion to justify their murderous ways. What has probably set me off was an article in yesterdays Daily Mail called "Inside the mind of a suicide bomber" (orginally in Time by Aparisim Ghosh) This man actually thought he was going to do good and would be forgiven in heaven by the innocents that he might kill. After reading this and hearing of this bombing today, I just seethed. Killing children at any time is wrong. There is no 'for the greater good'. Bullsh!t! It is wrong, full stop. You cannot justify it. It really depressed me.

Absolutely right!
But to put the blame entirely on those idiotic suicide bombers is wrong, IMO. The US troops know that they are targets of suicide bombers & they know that terrorists don't care for "collateral damage" (IIRC, al-Zarqawi openly stated that it's OK to kill 10 innocent people in order to kill 1 enemy). Hence they should avoid to attract the attention of so many children.

 

[Elizabeth]

I usually feel the worst for security or police recruits that get blown up routinely waiting in line outside the station to sign up and serve their country in the best way they know. Of course maybe 30-40% (?) are infiltrated by insurgents, but for the rest....they obviously know the odds of living through it and decide to go ahead regardless.
There's no calculation for valuing one group (women, children....) over another -- life is life and killing is terrible wherever it happens.

 

[Pararousia]

Crimes against children should have the highest penalty. QUOTE]

Amen to that!

 

[digicross]

Is my life worth less than a child's life but more than a military personnel's life?

There's no calculation for valuing one group (women, children....) over another -- life is life and killing is terrible wherever it happens.

Here's a very simple calculation:

- A person who murder (killing not for the right reason), it's as if he/she murder the whole mankind.

- A person who save a life, it's as if he/she save the whole mankind.

There, male and female, young and old, fighting force and fortify force, and so on, all have the same values on their lives.



Now... People have always the definition being murder and killing, murder is killing without a right reason. While killing might or might not have a right reason, a killing might murder, a killing might be accidental, and a killing might be done for a good intention, what ever that is.

What is killing for the right reason, for a good intention, what ever that is?
For that one... one has to found that one by oneself. It will come naturally.

Though it's natural for a human to think to kill a murderer. Was this out of anger? Which is of course bad. Or is it to spare the murderer from commiting more mistake? Which is of course while might not preferable, it's still preferable than to have the murderer running around with the possibility that he might murder again. Of course, it's much more preferable if no one was killed again.

If the murderer should be killed, then it should be done by the victim's family or relations (husband, wife, father, mother, son, owner, etc), considering that it was their lost. Unless of course, the murderer was spared from being killed by them.

It also should be noted if a murderer saved a person's life, can that person still be called a murderer? See above on the calculation.



As for one wondering on why some people decided to explode themself.

Perharps it's because some humans being coaxed by non-human factors? Humans themself realized that it's an almost impossible for themself to commit suicide. They even wondered on why their fellow colleagues decided to do so.

However, why is that some people kept calling these acts are inhumane, however rarely considered non-human factors might involved.


Anyway. It should be noted records of explosive bombers are rare (none?) in the few centuries before the two previous centuries from now. I mean that gunpowder has been easily readily avaiable in the last a couple of centuries, what is stopping an 18th century person from exploding oneself with gunpowder to cause damage and hurt others? What stopping a 12th century person from exploding oneself with gunpower to cause damage and hurt others?

It's interesting as we approached the future more and more, many of nasty king of thing happens more. Maybe we shouldn't think that it's ashamed that this kind of things still happened in the 21st century, but should wondered on why there are increasing amount of this kind of things in the present and more in the future, and the almost (or even) non-existance of them in the past.

And why is that many explosive bomber explode themself with high-tech explosives that were regulary used by the military?

Could it be that the military provide them with explosives? Was the provision voluntary or involuntary?