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Portrait of the Suicide Bomber as a Young Man

Posted Mar 17, 08 11:03 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – The people carrying out suicide bombings in Iraq are overwhelmingly young men from other countries who grew up in large, poor families, the LA Times reports. After interrogating four dozen men taken into custody over 4 months, the American military has drafted a profile of the typical suicide bomber, who is in his late teens or 20s and in thrall to al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to a report released yesterday.

The men came to Iraq, most often from Saudi Arabia, to distinguish themselves, yet “did not tell their families they were going off to Iraq to fight for al-Qaeda out of fear of disapproval," said a US spokesman. Suicide bombings have accounted for some 10,000 deaths, but "they felt misled," the spokesman said of the recruits. "They had not come here to kill Iraqi civilians."

Source Los Angeles Times

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In this undated image taken at an unknown location and made available on the website www.sehadetvakti.com (meaning "time for martyrdom" in Turkish), a man identified by the website as Cuneyt Ciftci, is...   (AP Photo)
US soldiers inspect the site of suicide car bombing in Samarra, Iraq, Wednesday, March 5, 2008. The suicide bombers who have killed 10,000 people in Iraq usually are alienated young men, says the US.   (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed)
Iraqi police with the body of a would-be suicide bomber in this Dec. 19, 2007, file photo. The suicide bombers who have killed 10,000 people in Iraq usually are alienated young men, says the US.   (AP Photo)
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