(21)Stockholm suicide bomber aspired to jihad
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| Swedish suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab, after his death. |
In the hours since the suicide and car bomb attacks in downtown Stockholm yesterday, more information has emerged about the car used in the attack and identity of the suicide bomber, who killed only himself in the explosions. The vehicle, which had been loaded with canisters of gas, belonged to the bomber, and a well-trafficked jihadist forum has announced his identity.
The Shumukh al-Islam jihadist forum confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber as Taimour Abdulwahab in a statement released today on their website.
"It is our brother, mujahid Taimour Abdulwahab, who carried out the martyrdom operation in Stockholm," said the website Shumukh al-Islam.
Swedish police confirmed that the owner of the car used in the bombing has been identified as Taimour Abdulwahab, born Dec. 12, 1981; today would be his 29th birthday, according to Swedish journalist Per Gudmundson. The car was purchased as late as November of this year.
There was an R.I.P. page on Facebook for Abdulwahab, created earlier today, noting he "died an heros dead in Stockholm" on Dec. 11. Abdulwahab's own Facebook page, which appeared under the nom de guerre "Taimour Al-Abdaly," is replete with references to militant Islam and videos from Iraq and Chechnya, and listed "favorites" include "Islamic Caliphate State" and Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, the radical Jordanian cleric and mentor of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Within the past few hours, both Facebook pages have been taken down.
One of the links on Abdulwahab's Facebook page shows photos of him in what appears to be Jordan.
The warning emailed to Swedish authorities shortly before the bombing yesterday contained a request for forgiveness from the plotter's family for deluding them about a recent trip to the Middle East; the trip was made for terrorist training purposes.
"I never went to the Middle East to work or earn money. I went there for Jihad," he stated.
More information about Abdulwahab pops up on a Muslim dating website, which contains statements in both Arabic and English. An excerpt reads as follows: "I was born in Baghdad, Iraq. We moved to Sweden in 1992. I moved to UK 2001 to study. I have Bacholar degree in physical therapy. I am married sence 2004 and have 2 girls. One is 3.6 and the second is 1.6 years old. I want to get married again, and would like to have a BIG family. My wife agreed to...."
Abuldwahab studied at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, England, from 2001-2004, obtaining a degree in Sports Therapy. It is possible that while in Luton he was in contact with the infamous "Luton cell" that was active at the time. According to The Local, a Swedish newspaper in English, there may be some connection between the Stockholm bomber and the Islamic extremist community in Luton, which has been linked to al Qaeda and the London Tube bombings of 2005.
Swedish authorities have condemned yesterday's bombings as an incidence of terrorism and are conducting an investigation as to the origins, extent, and perpetrators of the plot.
READER COMMENTS: "Stockholm suicide bomber aspired to jihad"
Posted by Charu at December 12, 2010 4:46 PM ET:
Well, he killed himself and no one else, so he is a "heros dead". And no BIG family legacy... Darwin rules!
Posted by 4lulz at December 12, 2010 5:00 PM ET:
the RIP group is a hoax; its a troll group by trolls. their use of "an hero" and "over 9000" proves it (just google those two terms)
Posted by mike at December 12, 2010 6:57 PM ET:
the only good muslim fanatic is a dead muslim fanatic
Posted by Stephen Real at December 12, 2010 9:18 PM ET:
Where in the world is US Military intelligence?
Tune in, turn on, and stop messing around.
This man came from Iraq fellas.
What is your major malfunction?
You'd all be horsewhipped if I was in charge.
I would be demanding every little scrap of intel on one,
Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, 28, born in Iraq,
no matter how small.
I want to know where this cat lived,
how he picked his nose
and what finger he used.
Nothing is ever to small when your buiding a profile.
Posted by Bill Roggio at December 12, 2010 10:04 PM ET:
If you want your comment published,. I strongly suggest you follow the clearly stated policy, which is in this entry. Otherwise your comment will be deleted, without warning.
Posted by KW64 at December 12, 2010 10:39 PM ET:
This really does not advance the Jihadi cause. It seems we have seen a string of failed attempts where much of the attack plan goes wrong. It smacks of disorganization. Lacking a large reliable core group is Al Queda relying on ill-trained would be adventurers out of necessity?
Posted by Roger Smith at December 12, 2010 10:45 PM ET:
What a selfish person, impacting negatively two young daughters and a wife and family by this deluded act. On the other hand, perhaps their lives will be refreshed by his demise. I, for one, will never lament his passing and am pleased to find that there were no victims.
Posted by gwestdallas at December 13, 2010 5:17 AM ET:
This attack points to the fact that ISAF counter terrorism efforts are starting to bear fruit. Night raids and drone attacks have dwindled the ranks of the skilled bomb makers and attack planners,leaving behind a half trained cadre that have at times been unable to produce working devices.Added to the fact that so many Taliban fighters chose surrender over martyrdom indicates that the hard core jihadis have for the most part found the Paradise they so eagerly sought.
Posted by Mike at December 13, 2010 8:53 AM ET:
Since, according to Wahhabist and other Jihadist-supporting Islamic scholars, suicide is only justifiable in Islam when you are committing jihad, because you are killing Islam's enemies, this guy essentially committed suicide for nothing, and completely failed in his mission. He doesn't get the 72 vigrins or the paradise in the end, because he was a complete failure.
hahahahahahaha awesome
Posted by Pundita at December 13, 2010 10:19 AM ET:
Could LWJ editor provide the date for his entry at the Muslim dating site that Lisa's report mentions? Thank you. I'm asking because if the entry was recent it would seem his suicide run was a sudden decision completely at odds with his intention to have a second wife and big family. This also leads me to wonder how many suicide bombers are more focused on ending their lives than carrying out jihad; i.e., using jihad as an acceptable means to kill themselves for personal reasons having nothing to do with religion. Wonder if any studies have been done on this angle.
Posted by kp at December 13, 2010 12:26 PM ET:
@Stephen
Quote: "I was born in Baghdad, Iraq. We moved to Sweden in 1992."
How much intel do you think the US would have on a guy who moved out of Iraq in 1992 at about 10 years old?
As others point out these not very competent attackers do not reflect well on the whole jihadi movement. He was more "successful" than the Times Sq bomber -- his bomb went bang and he killed himself and injured two people. Not a big success unless you're grasping at straws ("Look we can still attack the West!!!").
This sort of outcome makes them look organized; their recruiting is clearly poor (these are in general not competent people perhaps a problem with disaffected jihadi's in general); their training is clearly poor; their local logistics/support is poor or non-existent (they really need a bomb maker in place); the picking of targets is erratic.
And Sweden? Why Sweden? Not Denmark for the cartoons? He could have driven to Denmark from Sweden. Not the UK (where he had lived)? Very odd target choice considering the potential impact. Was it just convenient for him?
The goal of this approach seems to be to defeat the intelligence/security services by reducing the profile of the attacker and not requiring support/logistics cells (which I presume they don't have). One would think a better approach for them would be the same as works in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Indonesia, etc. Have a skilled bomb maker prepare the device then hand it over to a "mule" to deliver it. Clearly AQ and similar orgs are having a problem building this sort of support in place.
Posted by David at December 13, 2010 1:18 PM ET:
Amateur hour, you could make a comedy show out of all the blunders these cavemen have made. I know the overall threat needs to be taken seriously as witnessed on 9/11 but I find humor in their failure to implement plans
Posted by Charu at December 13, 2010 3:50 PM ET:
Well, it appears that he came out of Londonistan (Luttonistan?), and so the Swedes could be excused for not knowing the extent of his radicalization - assuming that the Brits dropped the ball on this one and didn't warn them.
In retrospect, he dropped ample clues on the state of his mind, which, if the Brits had been properly monitoring, would have raised alarm bells. The UK, like Pakistan, has long labored under the impression that they could work with Islamists who could be properly directed away from targets in the West. Thus they allowed the snake to grow unchecked within their midst, and now the rest of the world is dealing with the consequences of their failure.
Posted by Magnus Helin at December 13, 2010 4:59 PM ET:
I am a Swede and have followed the developments in Stockholm in detail.
I just want to express my support for the USA in the fight against the muslim radicals wherever that fight might take you.
My sincere thanks.
Posted by omar at December 13, 2010 8:07 PM ET:
Another moron bites the dust. Unfortunately there are a more where that came from. One day some idiot is actually going to kill some people. Thank God this one failed. May they all fail.
Posted by TLA at December 13, 2010 8:26 PM ET:
That's what thirteen years of a socialist government will give you, Charu.
Everybody gets a free ride: including would be jihadi terrorists.
Posted by Worried for the West at December 14, 2010 7:15 AM ET:
I am VERY concerned about the Western world, but specifically Europe. Low birthrates amongst indigenous Europeans and high birthrates amongst immigrants who mostly do not want to be integrated.
Now this (Stockholm). Europe needs to WAKE UP!
Posted by Neonmeat at December 14, 2010 10:33 AM ET:
@ Pundita
I think you make an excellent point regarding the state of mind of suicide bombers.
As we know most suicide bombers are recruuited when they are young and vulnerable, probably without direction in life and little prospects and then they are offered paradise. In my opinion they are committing selfish acts not acts of Jihad and as you say are more interested in ending their life in this miserable world(for them anyway) and starting again in "paradise".
I would be very interested to see more about this I think you are on to something that can possibly help us understand and prevent suicide attacks.
@ Charu @TLA
I don't think we can blame the UK for the rampant rise of Islamic Extremism that has been growing for a lot longer than the 12 years labour were in power. Most ISAF allies have had some nefarious dealings with Islamic Groups in the past withing their home countries and without.
I agree though that UK did not and still does not take the problem of homegrown Islamist Radicals seriously though I just don't think you can lump us in with Pakistan in the blame game, Finsbury Park Mosque et al does not equal the 1000s of madrassas across Pak teaching hate.
Posted by Andy@Israel at December 14, 2010 2:34 PM ET:
It seems that their "jihad" is never going to stop. It began on september 11th and is still going.And actually none of these "martyrs" can explain what namely is wrong with other people and why they want to kill and destroy them!! For example, this one. Did he have a bad time living in Sweden that he was ready to kill innocent people? Probably these people have some "destroying genes" in them. That seems to be the only explanation.
Posted by David at December 14, 2010 8:56 PM ET:
@Andy
At the latest it began with the first world trade center attack in 1993, and maybe you should date it from the Iranian revolution, who began the whole suicide bombing thing. (The first one I know of being in Beirut, the marine barracks bombing, 1983). But you could go back to the attack on Sadat, or even all the Muslim Brotherhood stuff back into the 50s.
Posted by Bob HERRMANN at December 15, 2010 2:47 AM ET:
September 11, 2001
Muslim Terrorists’- hijacked 4 Commercial Passenger Airplanes
Two Crashed into the Twin World Trade Towers,
1 into the Pentagon and 1 in a field in Pennsylvania’
The heroic passengers’ revolted against the terrorist’
Tried resisting and attempts to overthrow,
Their voices were heard on a few cell phones.
We all watched on live TV
We must never forget the danger is all around us.
We all have dreams and nightmares.
We all have to live with. History -
it shall repeat again and again.
If you dislike Police Officers Firefighters or Soldiers
You are a fool or a Terrorist.
If not for them, you would not be here.
I was a Valley Stream Volunteer Fireman at the age of 16
daytime fireman was scarce
volunteer for the Army at 21 became a medic soldier officer
became a Lynbrook Traffic Cop in 1962 at 25
I have seen enough death and destruction
for anyone.
Some people don't care about Honor
if they can steal and get away with it
they will do it.
‘You do what you are’.
Never turn your’ back on danger or traffic.
Your’ Luck will decide your Fate.’
In the end all you have are memories,
What do you want to be remembered for being
Honest a Good Guy or a Nasty Bastard
Friendship a moment in time.
When money is involved - there is no friends.
Depending on the man's his
Honor’ is a Shield - gives him Courage.
If you love your country, you serve your country. Like it or not.
I am 74 and lived with wars greed and corruption all my life
remember this
there will always be terrorists
everywhere
We all have to live with, history - shall repeat again and again.
The second night’ in Basic Training someone was injured
I rushed to help and patched him up.
Monday morning call in front of the Company and became the Medic for 200 men and officers.
Given sergeant strips as a squad leader, too.
Then radio school for 12 weeks of listening to Morse code.
Then advance basic training as a squad leader again.
Shipped to the Seneca Army Airfield
as the Senior Escort Guard. We escorted Atomic Missiles
To the Nike bases on the East Coast and Germany.
While the Russians were boating theirs to Cuba.
Discharge 1962, became a Lynbrook Police Officer
In 1964 my inactive reserve was reactivated.
I was on my way to Vietnam as a Second Lieutenant.
The Vietcong’ would lie in ambush,
let the solders walk past and shoot the officers.