The women who blew themselves up on Moscow’s subway system on March 29, 2010 probably came from a group known in Russia as the “Black Widows.” According to Tony Halpin writing for The Times (March 30, 2010) from Moscow, “Russia’s security services believe that the women…were part of a group of up to 30 suicide bombers trained by a Chechen terrorist leader.”
These female suicide bombers have gathered a fearsome reputation over the years.
Andrew Kramer in The New York Times (March 30, 2010) reports that 19 of the 41 people who attacked a Moscow theatre in October 2002 were “Black Widows.” Security forces released a gas into the theatre that induced sleep. Kramer writes that “When soldiers entered the auditorium they reportedly walked among the slumped forms and shot dead the black widows where they lay, lest they wake up and explode.”
Suicide Bombing mostly a Male Occupation
The now familiar carnage caused by suicide bombers, whether they fly planes into buildings or blow themselves up in restaurants and bars, is usually associated with male Muslim extremists. However, women have been involved in the terror tactic for at least 25 years.
In her 2004 book Female Suicide Bombers, Debra D. Zedalis writes that the first woman to launch a suicidal attack was 16-year-old Khyadali Sana. In 1985 she drove an explosives-laden truck into an Israeli Army convoy in Lebanon.
Women were also prominent in Tamil Tiger suicide attacks in Sri Lanka. In 1991, a Tamil Tiger woman wearing a vest filled with explosives blew herself up in front of Rajiv Gandhi, killing the Indian prime minister.
War in the North Caucasus
The Chechen people, who are mostly Muslim, have a long history of resistance to Russian domination going back well into the pre-communist era.
The latest outbreak of nationalism came in 1991 when Chechnya declared itself independent. In December 1994, Russia sent in the troops. They bombarded the capital city, Grozny, and just about flattened it. At its heaviest, shells were falling on Grozny at the rate of 900 an hour – the greatest destructive firepower aimed at a European city since World War II.
Chechens Adopt Suicide Bombing
Unable to take on the full might of the Russian military, Chechens have resorted to terror tactics. Seeing the unsettling effect of Muslim suicide bombers in the Middle East, the Chechens have adopted this strategy.
Among the bombers is one group of 30 females known as the “Martyrs Brigade” to their own people. Russians refer to them as “Black Widows,” because it had been their habit to wear long, black Islamic gowns to conceal the bombs they carried.
Black Widow Group still at Large
Writing for The Telegraph (March 30, 2010) Andrew Osborn reports that “The terrorist who trained the brigade, an Islamist convert calling himself Said Buryatsky, was killed in a special forces operation earlier this month in Ingushetia, a strife-torn region bordering Chechnya.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is speculating that the subway attack may have been carried out to avenge Buryatsky’s death.
And, Tony Halpin of The Times adds that “Kommersant newspaper reported…that the FSB believed that nine of the 30 trainees had already blown themselves up on suicide missions.”
The rest may be laying low waiting for orders to carry out their assigned tasks.
Sources
“Russian Security Services Hunt 21-strong ‘Black Widow’ Cell.” Tony Halpin, Times Online, March 30, 2010.
“(Female) Suicide Bombers.” Courtney E. Martin, Huffington Post, August 4, 2008.
“No Surrender.” Canada and the World Backgrounder – Central Asia, March 2003.
“Moscow Metro: 21 Black Widows could Launch Fresh Attacks.” Andrew Osborn, The Telegraph, March 30, 2010.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
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