generalspeaking

"Black Widow" Jihadis

The female of the human species is seldom thought of as capable of committing horrendously brutal acts; that reputation falls squarely in the lap of men. Women are shy, retiring, not given to violence. And perhaps most are, but in every human being there exists the potential for behaving in ways never suspected under normal circumstances. The world is experiencing circumstances not to be confused with normalcy -- unless one is of the opinion that it is normal for whole swathes of populations to be beset by the raging hatred of others among them.

The Black Widows have become notorious for their gruesomely successful forays into mass violence. Said to be the grieving wives or sisters of male Islamists who have been killed by security forces while committing atrocities against civilian populations, these women, mostly young and in mourning have either volunteered themselves or have been inspired to volunteer themselves at the urging of Islamist factions, to become suicide bombers.

There is a wide-ranging and desperate search now within the Sochi region and beyond for the apprehension of a possible three women jihadis who fall under the rubric of Black Widows. One at least seems to be well known to the Russian security apparatus which has issued a leaflet to Sochi hotels with the visage, front and profile of a woman identified as Ruzanna Ibragimova, thought to be at large within Sochi itself, host city for the winter Olympics.

The recent history of these female suicidist-mass-murderers is a litany of success in mass blood-letting. In 2002, a Moscow theatre hostage-taking by Chechen militants was hugely successful when 118 of the 850 hostages taken by 41 attackers of whom 19 were women, were all killed when Russian forces pumped narcotic gas into the theatre before assaulting it with gunfire.

A year later two women blew themselves up at the gate of a Moscow outdoor rock concert, killing 14. A year later still, two Russian airliners were bombed on the same night resulting in 79 meeting their untimely deaths. That was followed by a female suicide bomber blowing herself up at a Moscow subway station, killing ten innocent people.

Perhaps the most infamous and dreadful of all the attacks was that of the 2004 Beslan school massacre when 1,100 hostages, mostly young children and their teachers, were taken hostage by jihadis among whom was the sister of one of the plane bombers. When Russian forces finally besieged the school 380 people were killed. And there were other successful attacks taking the lives of other unfortunate victims.

Ruzanna Ibragimova, the 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, appears to have been seen in Sochi. The steel net around the city doesn't appear to have been of sufficient vigilance to have prevented her appearance there. Alternately, it has been suggested, she entered Sochi before the full protective net was in place.

The "ring of steel" does also not guarantee despite the costs involved and the tens of thousands of security police installed, that official sport venues well outside Sochi will be safe from organized stealth attacks.

The police posters distributed also included photographs of another two women wearing veils: Zaira Aliyeva, 26, and Dzhannet Tsakhyeva, 34, both of whom were said to have been trained "to perpetrate acts of terrorism." The two women, warned the police "are probably among us", without specifying that they believe them to be present in Sochi itself.

The Olympics will no doubt be a spectacular event of multi-assorted and ongoing sports competitions and accomplishments to the acclaim of all those courageous enough to make their attendance, certainly including the sport contestants and their retinues. It will also, without doubt, go down as one of the most tense venues that the Olympics has ever been held at, despite the dreadful events of Munich in 1972 where there was no advance warning.

Labels: Islamists, Olympic Games, Russia, Security, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, January 22, 2014