Talk:Suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003

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Contents 1 resources for research 2 areas requiring improvement 3 list of attacks incorrectly attributed to suicide bombers 4 draw wiki data from... 5 Al Qaeda-issued compendium?... 6 Wow, this article is a mess 7 Update the article 8 IAI

[edit] resources for research

The main resources for monitoring / tracing attacks should be...

- Reuters' daily Security Developments bulletin. Available at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/index.htm?period=7&fb_emergencycodes=571273 (do not cite as these pages are deleted after six months)

- McClatchy Newspapers daily Roundup of Iraq Violence http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/

- Iraq Today's Daily Security Incidents blog http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/index.html (check & reference the news agency citations within this page - do not directly cite blogs)

- Iraq Body Count http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/bodycount_date_down_all.php?ts=1174541175 (only records attacks that cause fatalities)

- News agency search engines, including http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Iraq -- http://www.findarticles.com/p/advanced?tb=art -- http://news.google.com

- The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base http://www.tkb.org/ (comprehensive backlogged compendium)

- The SITE Institute http://www.siteinstitute.org/ (terrorist communique archive: skepticism must be exercised with regard to outlandish claims made by insurgent groups, especially with regard to casualty figures)

- findarticles.com

- http://www.harpers.org/SuicideBombing.html (some info re 2003-5 suicide attacks)

Due care should be taken with regard to the qualitative problem of identifying whether an attack can fairly be considered a "suicide bombing." Car bombs destined to be parked & detonated remotely may explode prematurely, with their drivers still on board; or, more disturbingly, kidnap victims / naive footsoldiers may become unwitting suicide bombers.[1]

Please update this post if you know of more useful resources.

[edit] areas requiring improvement

Incomplete earlier entries: The '05 / '06 lists are still incomplete (especially '05. Specific detail is also lacking for attacks in the first half of '06. Anyone who wants to help should trawl through some of the research resources - especially MIPT TDK - above and find isolated events.

Inadequate citations: Do not cite transiet sites such as portals (Yahoo), unreliable local (US / Iraqi) media sources and Reuters Alertnet. Such citations quickly go dead hence are worthless - use Google News to find replacements instead. Best bet is always big names (AP, CNN, BBC, Fox, Guardian, NY Times, Xinuah etc).

Formal regularity: State the type of bombing (vehicle / vest), the location & target, the casualty figures, and very little else. Only for exceptional / idiosyncratic attacks should prefatory / circumstantial detail be provided. Use the past tense, and give the most compelling details early on in the entry. Numbers under 11 should be written in full (one to ten).

Cross-referenced monthly figures: Cross-referencing external monthly / yearly estimates with the wiki data would be helpful. The best way to do this is probably having a range for each month, as the two sets of data will never match perfectly (e.g. 2003: the JCSS think-tank report claims a maximum of 29 attacks from March-December, whereas the wiki data suggests cites up to 40).

[edit] list of attacks incorrectly attributed to suicide bombers

Sometimes news agencies will initially attribute an incident to a suicide bomber, but later retract that claim once further details / updated statements have been released. Such wrongly attributed attacks are therefore listed here to help prevent back-dated research from dragging up already-discounted attacks. Most of the time two citations will be required here (one claiming a suicide attack, another more reputable report suggesting otherwise), but sometimes one single citation will suffice (as with March 19 2007). Detail should be kept to a bare minimum - please update!

• March 19 2007: Shiite mosque bomb in Baghdad[2]
• April 27 2007: checkpoint car bomb in Tal Afar[3]

[edit] draw wiki data from...

Al-Qaeda in Iraq

[edit] Al Qaeda-issued compendium?...

Roughly around the time Tawhid Wal Jihad changed their name to Al Qaeda in Iraq, Zarqawi released a compendium of all the operations they had claimed thus far. A translation of this communique would be an invaluable cross-referncing source.

[edit] Wow, this article is a mess

Needs a REAL cleanup. --HanzoHattori (talk) 12:44, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Update the article

I just added a few suicide bombings from March and April to the list, from the list it looks as if there are no suicide bombings at all, anymore. But actually it's just that no-one is bothering to update it... The Honorable Kermanshahi (talk) 20:19, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] IAI

It is well known that the Islamic Army in Iraq does NOT suicide bomb I think they mean Islamic State of Iraq

sources: everywhere