Government moves to curb suicide bombings

The Iraqi police are to start rounding up beggars, mentally disabled persons and others living on the streets to prevent them from being used by militant groups in suicide attacks, the Interior Ministry said on 19 February.

“Terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq have started exploiting these people to launch suicide attacks as they do not raise suspicions,” ministry spokesman Maj-Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf said in a statement.

“These terrorist groups are luring those in desperate need of money to help them in their attacks, or exploiting their bad mental condition to use them as suicide bombers,” Khalaf said.

According to Khalaf, the Interior Ministry intends to physically round up these most vulnerable persons and hand them over to the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, which will be responsible for caring for and rehabilitating them.

The move comes as militants are said to have increased their reliance on desperate women and disabled persons for the carrying out of suicide attacks.

On 1 February two suicide bombers struck in two separate attacks on pet markets in Baghdad, killing at least 99 civilians and wounding up to 200.

Iraqi officials said the suicide bombers were two mentally disabled women with Downs Syndrome. They had 15 kg of explosives strapped to them which was detonated by remote control.

Rehabilitation programmes

Teams from the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs are gearing up to receive these people nationwide and to include them in their rehabilitation programmes.

“The ministry’s rehabilitation directorate is preparing shelters in Baghdad and other provinces in cooperation with the Interior Ministry to end this bad and uncivilised phenomenon,” said Abdullah al-Lami, spokesman of the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs.

“We’ve prepared comprehensive educational and social programmes to be delivered in these shelters in order to turn them [recipients] into active and productive people who can mix properly in society,” al-Lami told IRIN.

These programmes would include religious courses, in cooperation with both Sunni and Shia establishments, he said, adding that no specific time frame had been set for completion of the programmes.

“The militants are changing their tactics and the government must do this, too. It will definitely have a positive impact on the security situation,” said Anbar university security analyst Hussein Sabah al-Dulaimi, referring to the new government move. It would help deny resources to militants, he said.

sm/ar/cb