Exploding donkey

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There have been several documented incidents of donkeys and mules being used to deliver bombs. All have occurred in Middle Eastern conflicts.

1 Lebanon
2 West Bank
3 Iraq
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Lebanon

After the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel, Shiite militants turned to suicide attacks to drive out the Israeli army. On one occasion, a mule was used as a bomb carrier instead.^[1] Other times, bombers were intercepted with explosives hidden on themselves while they were riding donkeys.

[edit] West Bank

One donkey was exploded near a checkpoint in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 26, 2003. No humans died in the attack, and it was uncertain as to whether the attack was meant specifically to kill Israeli soldiers; the attack coincided with Israeli advances into the Gaza Strip.

The attack did provoke a response from PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, who, after receiving many complaints, wrote a letter to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asking him to encourage others to "leave the animals out of this conflict". In the letter, she cited historical examples of US, UK, and Al Qaeda-sponsored abuses of other animals in conflicts, specifically noting dogs were simply left in Vietnam by the US during the Vietnam War, despite the fact that they were "loyal." She thus came to the conclusion that:

"Animals claim no nation. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win in the undeclared war against them. For animals, there is no Geneva Convention and no peace treaty—just our mercy."

[edit] Iraq

In 2004, during the Iraq War, a donkey in Ramadi, Iraq was loaded with explosives and set off towards a US-run checkpoint. It exploded before it was able to injure or kill anyone but itself. The incident, along with a number of similar incidents involving dogs, fueled fears of terrorist practices of using living animals as weapons, a change from an older practice of using the bodies of dead animals to hold explosives. To one official, this was a simple variation of using "mentally retarded people for operations during the elections." A colonel added that "using people and animals" was a terrorist tactic that seemed to be replacing car bombs.