AFTER Iranian President Ayatollah Ruhollah al-Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979 he issued a fatwa to ‘permit’ suicide bombings in combat and was backed by then Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad.
Khomeini was the first world leader to issue a fatwa to permit suicide bombings and Iraqi Shiite Muslims known as “Hezbollah” were the first to carry out a suicide bombing against an Iraqi embassy in Beirut in 1981.
Khomeini pursued an ideal world was dominated by Islam and He said in speeches: “Every part of the body of a non-Muslim individual is impure, even the hair on his hand and his body hair, his nails, and all the secretions of his body.”
“One must avoid giving the Koran to an infidel; it is even recommended that it be forcibly taken away from him if he already has it in his hands.”
On Suicide bombing, the Hardline Islamist Leader said: “Dying does not mean nothingness: it is life.”
Following the Fatwa, a member of Hezbollah drove a white Mercedes packed with 220 pounds of high explosives into the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut. This was the first ‘Suicide Bombing’ of its kind in modern history.
Khomeini was the first world leader to issue a fatwa to permit suicide bombings and Iraqi Shiite Muslims known as “Hezbollah” were the first to carry out a suicide bombing against an Iraqi embassy in Beirut in 1981.
The blast killed 61 people, including Ambassador Abdul Razak Lafta, and ushered in the era of warfare.
Among the deadliest early suicide attacks was on April 18, 1983, when the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut occurred and killed 63 people, 17 of them Americans.
Months later a suicide bomber rammed a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks at Beirut’s airport, killing 241 American servicemen.
Syrian and Iranian backed Hezbollah got away with the birth of Suicide Bombings and U.S. President Ronald Reagan did not retaliate, he withdrew U.S. Forces and gave Assad a clear victory in the region.
The Iranian Syrian backed ‘suicide fatwa’ was later adopted by Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden who was responsible for the 9/11 Attacks on the United States in 2001 that set the western world on a collision course in the Middle East.