Anyone who is prepared to die to kill their enemy, on the other hand, is a much more serious threat. If a person is intent upon dying on the mission then they cannot be stopped by threats of retribution or risk of capture. They are also not limited to operations where they have any chance of escape at all. Anywhere to which they can gain access is an acceptable and attainable target.

General tactics for suicide bombers

First of all you must realize that the suicide bomb is in principle a terrorist weapon for use against civilians. I say this because in a military conflict you would shoot a suicide bomber running towards you like you would any other assailant. Where a suicide bomber comes into his or her own is for attacking groups of civilians shopping, dining, watching a play or working in government offices. By this type of attack the terrorist/insurgent group spreads terror amongst the civilian population, disrupts the running of the country and brings about calls from the public to give in to the insurgents’ demands. We are looking at suicide bombers because, you, the soldier, will be called upon to protect civilian targets, both at home and abroad, and therefore stopping the suicide bombers before they reach their target. When you become Special Forces then the tasks just get trickier. This is not a good job, in the general scheme of things, but we will see how best to achieve it and stay alive shortly.

The use of a suicide bomber as a delivery technique has two advantages over a planted bomb from the point of view of the terrorist/insurgent cell leader: firstly it is very likely that the bomb will not be detected by the casual observer and disarmed by the security services before it is detonated. Secondly, the non-suicide bomber has the hope of escape, and he/she may choose not to place the bomb in the ideal place on the spur of the moment, substituting a safer location, and that choice can spoil an operation from his/her handler’s point of view. In every way therefore it is better that the bomber has no hope of survival and they will then not spoil or limit the operation by being tempted to try to allow for their own escape.

The tactics employed by the handlers of the suicide bombers vary slightly according to the situation. Because non-suicide, hidden bombs can be placed pretty much anywhere lacking high security the field is pretty much open to what the insurgents want to achieve. But after the first hidden, timed, bomb attack the area of operation will become security conscious with measures taken to combat both planted bombs and suicide bombers. This reaction, forced upon the local government, immediately gives the terrorists/insurgents an early victory by costing their enemy – the state – money and political strength. But these initial reactions, such as extra vigilance, removing waste paper baskets from public places and checks on the entrance to public buildings, will make the future planting of timed bombs in the most effective places much more difficult and bring forward the use of suicide bombers which are harder to detect and to stop.

Pakistani security officials show suicide bomb vests, arms and ammunition recovered from Taliban militants during an operation, in the southern port city of Karachi Pakistan on 30 November 2010. (Corbis)

Walking bomb

The problem with a walking bomb, from our point of view, is that it doesn’t take a lot of explosive to do a lot of damage. It is not difficult to hide 20lb of explosive covered in ball bearings fitted into a sort of vest and hidden under a coat without looking too suspicious. Compare the damage potential of that package with the 1oz of explosive in a hand grenade. And you can get a lot more explosive than that in a rucksack.

TOP TIP!

Don’t become desensitized

If you have ever done checkpoint duty will know already that people come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – and most of them are doing nothing wrong at all. I would even go so far as to say that the most suspicious characters are probably innocent and the most innocent looking are likely to have a bomb. You wouldn’t send in someone looking suspicious with a bomb would you?

No, you would send half a dozen suspicious characters through the checkpoint spread out through the day. The guards would see their shifty eyes, nervous movement etc and check them out carefully. By the end of the day, end of the week or end of the tour the guards would be sick of looking too closely at anyone who looked wrong. The target has been desensitized. Then the real bomber would come in looking like sweetness and light – just before blowing everyone and everything to Hell. Moral of the story: never relax your guard and remember that appearances are often deceptive.

The vest bomb

This is the traditional hidden bomb beloved of terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere. The charge is generally limited to around 20lb of explosive and this charge is often covered in ball bearings to increase the shrapnel produced at detonation.

The rucksack bomb

The rucksack bomb is favoured in low intensity areas such as Western cities where a rucksack is not immediately assumed to be a bomb. Several of these bombs were used in the attack on the London subway on 7 July 2005. The advantage is that a rucksack can contain much more explosive than a waistcoat. The only real limit to the use of these bombs is the ability of the terrorist to obtain or manufacture explosive.

Suicide bomb design features

All of the following concepts apply to the detonation of walking bombs. Some of them apply to vehicle bombs too:

Suicide trigger: All suicide bombs are set up so the carrier can set off the bomb when they feel the moment is right. If you stop a bomber and it looks like they will be prevented from reaching their actual target they will certainly trigger the bomb to take at least the search crew with them.

Dead man’s handle: Very often, bombers are wired with a ‘Dead-man’s handle’ so that if they lose consciousness through being shot the bomb still goes off.

Remote detonation: Just to make things a little more interesting, the bombs carried by suicide bombers are sometimes rigged for remote detonation by a watching handler just in case the carrier gets cold feet. The mechanism is similar to that for a radio or telephone detonation of an IED so the handler needs to keep his eyes on the carrier – presumably from a safe distance.

Poison: There is a suggestion that some bombers may be given a slow acting poison, along with other drugs to increase their compliance, before a mission. Perhaps on the pretext that they may be captured. In reality it means they have no hope of survival and might as well use the bomb efficiently.

Vehicle bomb design

There is little to say about vehicle bombs other than that their size can be enormous. They may be carrying a charge varying from several hundred pounds to several tons of explosives. No special vehicle is required except that it be sturdy enough to carry the weight of the bomb with one exception: if the target is guarded by barricades a vehicle may be selected which has the ability to crash through the obstacles for instance a heavy truck or even mobile plant.

To make an effective attack with a vehicle bomb, due to the sheer power of the blast, it is often enough to park it in the street outside a target building. I am not going to teach terrorists about the effect of shock waves from bomb blasts so ask your friendly demolitions sergeant.

DEFENDING AGAINST THE SUICIDE BOMBER

As a soldier, no matter if you are infantry of the line, SAS, Ranger or SEAL, you are very likely to find yourself guarding some person or place from terrorist attack by a suicide bomb. As a Special Forces soldier the assignments are just to trickier places and more valuable targets. Someone has to do it and you had better know how to do it right as the people who die when it is done wrong are generally the guys doing the guarding, i.e. you.