Sending a slow-witted boy to blow himself up at a checkpoint seems to have backfired in every direction. He didn't blow up, the Israelis helped him get out of the bomb vest, showed the whole thing on video, the boy told the Israelis all he knew (debka says they arrested 20 terrorists), and there is even a Palestinian backlash (this from Reuters, no less). Small surprise no one has claimed 'credit' for the operation:
'God curse those who sent baby-faced bomber'
March 25 2004 at 05:21PM
By Atef Sa'ad
Nablus - Palestinian militants faced a public backlash on Thursday for using youths as suicide bombers after Israeli troops caught and persuaded a 16-year-old to take off an explosives vest at a checkpoint.
People throughout the West Bank and Gaza were shocked by the internationally-televised footage of a bewildered-looking Hussam Abdu struggling to remove the bomb belt on Wednesday with other Palestinians queued at the roadblock cowering in the background.
"God curse those who recruited and sent Hussam! How could they? He's only a boy. I'm sure whoever sent him would never have sent his own children to do this," Nasser Mbayyed, 35, a car mechanic, said in Nablus where Abdu lived with his family.
'God curse those who recruited and sent Hussam!'
Training guns on Abdu from a safe distance, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus talked the diminutive teenager into removing the vest, then lifting his shirt and dropping his pants to show he was not hiding any other weapon.
An army spokesperson said Abdu was detained for questioning to determine who dispatched him.
Palestinian militant groups vowed to escalate attacks on Israel to avenge its assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a missile attack in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Thursday's incident spread panic among parents in Nablus, the West Bank's largest city and a militant bastion, who said they feared armed factions could lure their children into embarking on suicide missions
iol.co.za |
