Inclusion Daily Express -- Insurgents Used Teen With Down Syndrome As Human Bomb On Election Day

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Insurgents Used Teen With Down Syndrome As Human Bomb On Election Day
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 2, 2005

BAGHDAD, IRAQ--Iraqi insurgents used a young man with Down syndrome as an unsuspecting suicide bomber on the morning of the country's elections, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Nineteen-year-old Amar Ahmed Mohammed was left at home Sunday morning while his family went to vote. They assumed that he would wander his Al-Askan neighborhood like he did most days.

A short time later they heard an explosion which they first thought was part of a mortar attack. They soon learned that a man with Down syndrome had died in the blast.

Neighbors were able to identify Amar, who apparently had detonated explosives which had been strapped to his chest as he walked toward the local polling place.

Amar's family later told reporters that they believed insurgents kidnapped Amar, then wrapped the explosives around him and sent him to the voting center. The explosives went off before he got to the voting site, killing him instantly. Nobody else was injured.

"He had nothing to do with the resistance and there was nothing in the house for him to make a bomb," one of Amar's cousins told the Herald.

The paper noted that there had been unconfirmed reports of insurgents attempting to use two other people with Down syndrome in their attacks. Both plots were stopped, however.

Related:
"Disabilities And The 'War On Terror'" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/war.htm

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