A suicide weapon is a
weapon
A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, ...
designed to be used in a
suicide attack
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history ...
, typically based on explosives.
History
Suicide weapons have been used both in conventional warfare, as well as in
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
In the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Thea ...
, Chinese used
suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history ...
against the Japanese with
explosive vests. A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese at
Sihang Warehouse. Chinese troops strapped explosives like grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up. This tactic was used during the
Battle of Shanghai
The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of the ...
, where a Chinese suicide bomber stopped a Japanese tank column by exploding himself beneath the lead tank, and at the
Battle of Taierzhuang where dynamite and grenades were strapped on by Chinese troops who rushed at Japanese tanks and blew themselves up.> During one incident at Taierzhuang, Chinese suicide bombers obliterated four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles.
The
Pacific War of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
bore witness to the Japanese
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...
suicide attack pilots ("kamikaze" was not a term used by the Japanese themselves). Late in the war, as the tide turned against Japan, kamikaze pilots were deployed to attempt to crash their aircraft into
American and
allied ships in the Pacific. The Japanese even developed specialized aircraft for the tactic, such as the Yokosuka
Ohka
The Yokosuka MXY-7 was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided ''kamikaze'' attack aircraft employed by Japan against Allied ships towards the end of the Pacific War during World War II. Although extremely fast, the very short range of th ...
flying bomb. A successful kamikaze attack would both kill the plane's pilot and damage the target ship, possibly even sinking it. Related tactics included the
kaiten
were crewed torpedoes and suicide craft, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.
History
In recognition of the unfavorable progress of the war, towards the end of 1943 the Japanese high command considered s ...
suicide minisub, a
human torpedo which a single Japanese pilot would steer into an Allied ship.
North Korean tanks were attacked by South Koreans with suicide tactics during the
Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top: ...
.
American tanks at Seoul were also attacked by North Korean suicide squads,
who carried satchel charges on their bodies.
A North Korean soldier named Li Su-Bok, who destroyed an American tank during one such attack, is hailed as a hero in North Korean propaganda.
Certain aircraft built or projected for the ''
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
'' during the time of the
Allied bombing before the
surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II, such as the
Bachem Ba 349, ''
Fliegende Panzerfaust'',
Sombold So 344,
Zeppelin Rammer or the
Blohm & Voss BV 40 are sometimes listed as suicide weapons. However, they were not intended as such, even though the chances of survival would have been very limited for the pilots of such dangerous artifacts. In those years Nazi authorities considered the use of ''
selbstopfer'' (suicide) planes such as the
Messerschmitt Me 328 and the
Fieseler 103
The Fieseler Fi 103R, code-named ''Reichenberg'', was German manned version of the V-1 flying bomb (more correctly known as the ''Fieseler Fi 103''). It was developed towards the end of the Second World War and, although it never entered serv ...
.
Political groups using suicide weapons in the post-
Cold War era include mainly outfits affiliated to
Islamic terrorism
Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Incidents and fatalities ...
, among which even children have been used in order to escape detection when carrying out suicide attacks. However, non-Islamic groups, such as the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
, also have been prone to use suicide weapons.Today, the most common suicide weapons used to carry out terrorist attacks are
car bombs or truck bombs, as well as antipersonnel bombs carried by a single person.
Suicide bombers
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history ...
strap explosives, often covered with nails, screws, or other items intended to act as
fragments, to their bodies or otherwise carry them into populated areas and detonate them. The Tamil Tigers of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
are known for having made high-profile use of this method in the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Similar methods have been also used by
Palestinian terrorist groups in the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other eff ...
, among others.
Kamikaze attacks were mimicked in the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, in which a group of mostly
Saudi Saudi may refer to:
* Saudi Arabia
* Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia
* Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia
* House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is c ...
terrorists destroyed the
World Trade Center and part of
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metonym ...
by flying hijacked jet airliners into them. It was the first and only time in history that hijacked jet airliners filled with fuel were used as cruise missiles against targets of such magnitude.
Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
/ref>
Examples
* Suicide bombs
** Explosive belt
** SVBIEDs
*** Car bomb
* Kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...
attacks by Japan in WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
** Kaiten
were crewed torpedoes and suicide craft, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.
History
In recognition of the unfavorable progress of the war, towards the end of 1943 the Japanese high command considered s ...
- human-steered torpedo
** Ohka
The Yokosuka MXY-7 was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided ''kamikaze'' attack aircraft employed by Japan against Allied ships towards the end of the Pacific War during World War II. Although extremely fast, the very short range of th ...
- human-controlled missile/suicide attack parasite aircraft
** Shin'yō - human-steered suicide speedboat
** Fukuryu - suicide attack frogmen
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, com ...
** Lunge mine - suicidal anti-tank mine
See also
* Japanese Special Attack Units
References
External links
*{{Commons category-inline, Suicide weapons
Japanese suicide weapon:Human torpedo ''Kaiten'' and Human Bomb ''Ohoka''
Japanese)