WND EXCLUSIVE

TERRORISTS TURN TO WOMEN FOR SUICIDE MISSIONS

'Jihad is key to Islam's progression, and desire for martyrdom is key to jihad'

Michael Carl

The ability to recruit female suicide bombers is evidence the Nigerian Islamic terror organization Boko Haram is growing in strength, according to an analyst.

The report says at least eight of Boko Haram’s recent suicide attacks have been carried out by women, some as young as 16. The organization has more than 150 girls under age 15 trained for death.

The report was compiled by Nigeria Security Network analyst and BBC Radio 4 journalist Elizabeth Pearson for the Web magazine War on the Rocks, which analyzes foreign policy and national security affairs.

Pearson said Boko Haram has been responsible for more than 2,000 deaths this year, with
 hundreds of thousands of people displaced from Nigeria’s northeastern states.

“More importantly, in August, Boko Haram leader Shekau announced the foundation of a fledgling caliphate, fulfilling the Islamists’ long-declared 
aim to establish their own state,” she said in her report.

Hussein Solomon, an expert on Islam and counter-terrorism in Africa, noted reports of a tentative agreement between the government and Boko Haram for the release of the 250 Chibok students kidnapped months ago. But he said the fact that the government is negotiating shows Boko Haram’s growing power.

“Boko Haram is getting stronger. The evidence for this is seen in the fact that the Nigerian government seems desperate to conduct negotiations with them as opposed to fighting them,” said Solomon, a political science professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa and an analyst for the Israel-based think tank, Research on Islam and Muslims in Africa.

A former CIA station chief, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said Boko Haram’s growing strength gives them a recruiting edge.

“Yes, they are actually that effective in convincing women and other people to become Muslims,” he said.

Once a person converts, he added, accepting the rest becomes routine.

“Once that is done, martyrdom, jihad, female genital mutilation, burkhas, all follow easily. That’s because it is all based on the Quran. Once you have accepted Islam, Muhammad as the prophet and that the Quran is the direct word of God, everything else in the Quran seems natural,” he said.

The former station noted jihad is “key to Islam’s progression and the desire for martyrdom is the key to jihad.”

Analyst Maha Hamdan of Consultancy Africa Intelligence suggests there’s another reason Boko Haram could be using more women, and it isn’t good news for the terror group.

“Terrorist organizations often face vastly depleted male resources, and women represent a last resort in terms of recruitment,” Hamdan said.

However, the use of women as bombers doesn’t diminish the importance of other steps the group has taken to improve its tactical position, she said.

“The female suicide campaign can be seen as a part of their creation of what Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has called a northeastern caliphate,” she said. “This tactical innovation reflects closer links between Boko Haram and other transnational Islamist groups, such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).”

Hamdan said using woman for suicide missions hasn’t been established as a long-term tactic yet.

“This is perhaps because the female suicide explosions from Kano to Lagos were intended as a distraction of security resources from the alleged caliphate’s base in the northeast,” Hamdan said.

Their appearance could be “propaganda and media manipulation.”

Solomon said al-Qaida in Iraq originated the idea, specifically using women with Down’s Syndrome, and al-Shabaab has been targeting government buildings with the strategy.

“The rationale is that women are not as thoroughly scrutinized as men, and female suicide bombers can go undetected,” Solomon said.

Pearson, a graduate of the King’s College London School of Defense Studies, which is also the British Military’s Joint Service Command and Staff College, said the location of the attacks by Boko Haram’s female bombers is further evidence of the group’s strength.

“Attacks by women were all outside of Boko Haram’s normal regions of operations and had the potential to distract both attention and military resources away from the Northeast. This better enabled Boko Haram’s seizure and control of towns,” the report said.

WND reported in September that Boko Haram’s formal alliance with ISIS is further evidence of increasing strength.

A former analyst for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a nonprofit foundation promoting democratic institutions, said at the time that leaders Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS and Abubakar Shakau of Boko Haram “have been sharing military strategy and other information back and forth.”

The analyst, Kristina Baum, said the alliance will empower Boko Haram.

“Boko Haram is hopeful that this will give them more financial support,” she said. “Before, Boko Haram has been getting their money from kidnapping, ransom and extortion from local governments.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/terrorists-turn-to-women-for-suicide-missions/#0GG37aMYrpWtFRKq.99