Suicide attacks

The September 11 attacks, colloquially known as 9/11, were a coordinated series of suicide attacks perpetrated by the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four airliners, then flew one into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. In response to the attacks, the United States launched the global war on terror, seeking to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, and the governments purported to support them. This foreign policy agenda was conducted over the next two decades.

Samson (; ) was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" the twelve tribes of Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes regarded as an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero archetype also embodied by the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Enkidu, as well as the Greek Heracles. Samson was given superhuman powers by God in the form of extreme strength.

thumb|254x254px|A kamikaze attack aircraft crashes into a US naval warship, May 1945. , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to destroy warships more effectively than with conventional air attacks. About 3,800 kamikaze pilots died during the war in attacks that killed more than 7,000 Allied naval personnel, sank several dozen warships, and damaged scores more. The term is used generically in modern w

attack in which the attacker knows they will die

attack on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

ship filled with combustibles, deliberately set on fire, and then steered or allowed to drift into an enemy fleet

ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles

2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad

soldiers with leading role in military operations, with high risk of casualties

mission that is so dangerous that the people involved are not expected to survive

September 2001 shooting in Zug, Switzerland

Suicide attack by Palestinian Islamic Jihad

special attack units used by the Japanese military near the end of World War II

Istishhad () is the Arabic word for "martyrdom", "death of a martyr", or (in some contexts) "heroic death". Martyrs are given the honorific shaheed. The word derives from the Semitic root shahida (), meaning "to witness". Traditionally martyrdom has an exalted place in Islam. It is widely believed among Muslims that the sins of believers who "die in the way of God" will be forgiven by Allah. Shia views on martyrdom have been profoundly influenced by internal Muslim conflicts, notably Husayn ibn Ali's martyrdom at Karbala in 680, shaping it as a central belief and practice.

Juramentado, in Philippine history, refers to a male Moro swordsman (from the Tausug people of the Sulu Archipelago) who attacked and killed occupying and invading police and soldiers, expecting to be killed himself. This was undertaken as a form of jihad or martyrdom. Unlike an amok, who commits acts of random violence against Muslims and non-Muslims alike, a juramentado was a dedicated, premeditated, and sometimes highly skilled warrior who prepared himself through a ritual of binding, shaving, and prayer in order to accomplish brazen attacks armed only with edged weapons.

2001 suicide bombing by Tamil separatists in Negombo, Sri Lanka

suicide by pilot at Alice Springs Airport, Australia