Suicide Bombers Kill Dozens, Leading Into Iraqi Elections

March 3 — Suicide bombers launched three coordinated attacks northeast of Baghdad today, including a brazen attack on a hospital emergency ward where victims had been taken, amid heightened security as Iraqis go to the polls this weekend for the first parliamentary elections in five years.  The elections, set for Sunday, are a crucial test of Iraq’s ability to reconcile its myriad and often-warring factions ahead of a planned U.S. withdrawal. Indicators of whether the voting goes off peacefully and fairly will be in places like Baqouba, the provincial capital of Diyala, a religiously and ethnically mixed province that stretches from the Iraqi capital’s outskirts to the Iranian border, and has hosted some of the worst violence of the Iraq war.

-Aol News

Flash back six years ago to March, 2004, when fifteen year old Hussam Abdu was apprehended at an Israeli border checkpoint with live explosives strapped around his waist.   Instead of detonating the bomb, Hussam voluntarily gave himself up to the Israeli army and is now serving time in the Ha-Sharon prison for attempted murder. In the weeks that followed Hussam’s arrest, news media from around the globe received conflicting reports. The Palestinian Authority claimed that Hussam had been set up by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), while the IDF maintained that Hussam was the latest example of children recruited for suicide missions by terrorist organizations.  The multi-award winning documentary, “Making of a Martyr,” takes a look into the life of Hussam Abdu and provides a window into the world of suicide bombers.