Who Makes a Good Bomber?

The suicide bombers who have killed Coalition troops are estranged young men from large families outside Iraq but who are desperate to stand out from the crowd according to a U.S. military study. The question I would have of the conclusion is that it may contradict other studies which show bombers are largely better educated and more prosperous than their peers.

Saudi Arabia is the single largest point of origin. Al-Qaida is a primary recruiter.

The study profiles 48 foreign fighters who were captured or surrendered. The interrogators of the study concluded that most foreign fighters are Sunni Muslim men from 18 to 30, with the mean age of 22. They are almost always single males with no children, and tend to be students or hold blue-collar jobs ranging from taxi drivers to construction and retail sales. The majority of the bombers have six to 12 years of schooling, with very few having gone to college. Most come from families in the poor or middle-classes and have six to eight siblings.

According to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, 949 suicide bombers killed 10,119 people and wounded 22,995 from the beginning of 2004 until now. Data compiled by the AP through its own reporting found that between April 28, 2005 and March 13, 2008 there were 708 incidents involving suicide bombings, with a total of 14,633 Iraqis wounded and 7,098 killed.

Mohammed Hafez' study, "Suicide Bombers in Iraq," states there have been 1,800 suicide attacks worldwide since the phenomenon began in the early 1980s. Of those, more than half have taken place in Iraq.

Records seized by the U.S. military shows that 40 percent of bombers come from North African countries such as Libya and Algeria, and 41 percent from Saudi Arabia.