Mentally Disabled Women in Baghdad Bombing
February 2, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Remote-controlled explosives were strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome and detonated in coordinated attacks on two Friday morning markets in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 73 people and wounding nearly 150. The first targeted shoppers at a pet market in the al-Ghazl area, killing 46 people and injuring 100. About 20 minutes later, a second bomber struck at a smaller bird market in south-eastern Baghdad, killing 27 people and wounding at least 67.
This is from today’s Guardian, which also notes that explosives were hidden in the two women’s black abaya robes and were not detected by security checks. The explosives were detonated by remote control—indicating that the two women “may not have been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped-up security measures.”
The New York Times reports that Iraqi security officials “said the women were mentally disabled, but offered no conclusive evidence,” and that “Iraqi officials have made similar claims in the past.” The BBC news also has a report.
There’s a lot we in the autism community don’t agree about but, for me at least, this terrible story reminds me, at least, that there’s a lot more at stake, a lot, a lot more.
Wow – and they call “us” infidels? I pray there’s a very “special” place in hell for those who engineered this…
There has to be a special place in hell for people like that.
As far as mental handicaps go, people with Down’s are the most delightful, charming and sweet people on earth. We could learn a lot from their persistence (stubborness!!!), innocence, and complete joy with everything around them.
My “foster brother”, who is now almost 30 years old and came into our family when 3 months old, has Down’s syndrome.
I read a story like this in the news several years ago. Some Palestinian terrorists along the Israeli border strapped an explosive-filled vest on a child with Down’s syndrome and told him to walk to an army checkpoint. Thankfully, the soldiers were decent people and didn’t shoot the kid. Instead, they cleared the area to make sure there wasn’t anyone in remote control range, and then they sent in the bomb squad to take off the vest.
The inhumanity is completely incomprehensible to me.
Best wishes
Horrible.
I am sometimes staggered by what humans are capable of.
This chilled me no end.
I cringe at this thought…you are so right…there is so much more at stake.