Explosive belt (technically, a vest) worn by a Palestinian bomber captured by Israeli police

An explosive belt (also called suicide belt, suicide vest or shaheed belt) is a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with nails, screws, bolts, and other objects that serve as shrapnel to maximize the number of casualties in the explosion. Belts may contain some types of Anti-coagulant making them more deadly. Explosive belt Scanned from Israeli Police Terror, Lets Stop It Together brochure. ... Explosive belt Scanned from Israeli Police Terror, Lets Stop It Together brochure. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... A detonator is a device used to trigger bombs, shaped charges and other forms of explosive material and explosive devices. ... A suicide bombing is a bomb attack on people or property, committed by a person who knows the explosion will cause his or her own death in addition to the attacks primary purpose (see suicide, suicide weapons). ... A pile of nails Nails This article is about nails as used in engineering. ... Screws come in a variety of shapes and sizes for different purposes. ... A bolt may be one of the following things: For bolts and capscrews, see Bolted joint. ... Comparison of a shell fragment from a HE shell, of that of two different types of shrapnel balls Shrapnel is the term used to describe the spherical shot or musket balls dispersed when a shrapnel shell bursts. ...

History

Explosive belts were introduced by the Tamil Tiger group in Sri Lanka. The first use of one was in 1991 when Thenmuli Rajaratnam, a Tamil bomber, blew herself up and killed Rajiv Gandhi. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, pronounced L-T-T), also known as the Tamil Tigers, is the main Tamil anti-government organization operating in Sri Lanka. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Thenmuli Rajaratnam was the assassin who killed Rajiv Gandhi, herself, and 16 others in a suicide bombing on May 21, 1991, in the Indian town of Sriperumbudur, near Madras. ... Rajiv Gandhi (राजीव गान्धी) (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), the first son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 6th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from their family) from his mothers death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat. ...

Today such devices are used mainly by Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, against targets in Israel. Organizations in Chechnya and Iraq have also used them in attacks. The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ... The Hamas emblem shows the Dome of the Rock, two crossed swords, Palestinian flags, and a map of the land they claim as Palestine (present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). ... The emblem of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad shows a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) superimposed on the images of the Dome of the Rock, two fists and two rifles. ... Capital Grozny Area - total - % water Ranked 80th - 15,300 km² - negligible Population - Total - Density Ranked 49th - est. ...

Description

The explosive belt usually consists of several cylinders filled with explosive (de facto pipe bombs), or in more sophisticated versions with plates of explosive. The explosive is surrounded by a fragmentation jacket that produces the shrapnel responsible for most of the bomb's lethality, effectively making the jacket a crude body-worn claymore mine. Once the vest is detonated, the explosion resembles an omnidirectional shotgun blast. The most dangerous and the most widely used shrapnel are steel ball bearings 3-7 mm in diameter. Other shrapnel material can be anything of suitable size and hardness, most often nails, screws, nuts, and thick wire. Shrapnel is responsible for about 90% of all casualties caused by this kind of device. Different pipe bombs A pipe bomb is a simple type of improvised explosive device favored by criminals, a piece of pipe filled with an explosive material. ... Fragmentation is a term that occurs in several fields and describes a process of something breaking or being divided into pieces (fragments). ... Parts of the M18A1 Claymore The M18A1 Claymore Antipersonnel Mine is a weapon often used by many countries around the world, named after the large Scottish sword, by the inventor, Norman A. MacLeod. ... A pump-action and two semi-automatic action shotguns, 20 boxes of shotgun shells, a target thrower, and three boxes of clay targets. ... Nickel-chrome plated steel balls A ball bearing is a common type of rolling-element bearing, a kind of bearing. ...

A "loaded" vest may weigh between 5 and 20 kg and may be hidden under thick clothes, usually jackets or snow coats. The international prototype, made of platinum-iridium, which is kept at the BIPM under conditions specified by the 1st CGPM in 1889. ...

There are several explosives in common use in the Middle East. C-4 is the most potent, but also the rarest because it is the most difficult to obtain. Increased crackdowns by the Palestinian Authority led to the arrest of most skilled explosive makers and made smuggling more difficult, leading to less common use of TNT. Its replacement has been the much less stable and more dangerous, but easy to make, TATP, known as Mother of Satan for its instability. This shift led to many casualties among explosive makers as well as nearby civilians, as the clandestine laboratories that produce explosive belts are often located in residential areas, and it is not uncommon to find dozens or even hundreds of kilograms of TATP in a single location during a raid. In some constructions, TATP is used only for the initiator, and the explosive itself is a homemade mixture similar to Ammonal. A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Preparing C-4 explosive C-4 or Composition C-4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive. ... The West Bank The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) is a semi-autonomous state institution nominally governing the bulk of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (which it calls the Palestinian Territories). It was established as a part of Oslo accords between the PLO and Israel. ... A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853, by Vasily Hudiakov. ... Trinitrotoluene (TNT, or Trotyl) is a pale yellow crystalline aromatic hydrocarbon compound that melts at 354 K (178 Â°F, 81 °C). ... Acetone peroxide (triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, TCAP) is an organic peroxide and a primary high explosive. ... Ammonal is an explosive mixture of ammonium nitrate, aluminium dust and stearic acid. ...

Suicide vests cover the entire stomach and usually have shoulder straps. A vest is a type of mens garment. ...

A common security drill against suspected suicide bombers is to isolate the suspect to at least 15 meters away from other people, and ask him to remove his upper clothing (coat, shirt, etc.) in order to see if there is an explosive vest strapped under them. This drill is problematic when dealing with female suicide bombers. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Though the majority of suicide bombers were and are male, female suicide bombers have carried out a number of attacks since 1985. ...

See also

• bomb
• car bomb
• terrorism
• suicide bombing
  • female suicide bomber
  • child suicide bomber
• Groups allegedly using explosive belts:
  • Hamas
  • Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
  • Al-Qaida
  • Chechen rebel groups
  • Iraqi insurgents
  • Palestinian Islamic Jihad
  • PKK
  • Tamil Tigers

The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, produced in the United States. ... A car bomb is an improvised explosive device that is placed in a car or other vehicle and then exploded. ... The term terrorism is largely synonymous with political violence or the threat of violence, and refers to a strategy of using coordinated attacks that typically fall within the time, manner of conduct, and place commonly understood as unconventional warfare. ... A suicide bombing is an attack using a bomb in which the individual(s) carrying the explosive materials composing the bomb intend(s) and expect(s) to die upon detonation (see suicide). ... Though the majority of suicide bombers were and are male, female suicide bombers have carried out a number of attacks since 1985. ... A child suicide bomber is a suicide bomber under the age of 18. ... The Hamas emblem shows the Dome of the Rock, two crossed swords, Palestinian flags, and a map of the land they claim as Palestine (present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). ... The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (كتائب شهداء الأقصى) are a Palestinian armed terrorist group closely linked to the Fatah party. ... Al-Qaeda (Arabic: القاعدة, the foundation or the base) is the name given to a worldwide network of militant Islamist organizations under the leadership of Osama bin Laden. ... Chechen can mean: Chechen people, an ethnic group Chechen language Related to Chechnya This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Iraqi militants celebrating orders that the surrounding Coalition forces were given to stand-down. ... The emblem of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad shows a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) superimposed on the images of the Dome of the Rock, two fists and two rifles. ... The Kurdistan Workers Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan or PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is a militant organization, dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state in a territory (sometimes referenced as Kurdistan) that consists of parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links

• The mechanics of a living bomb