Teenage suicide bomber hopes for second chance
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Usaid Barho, a teenaged suicide bomber dispatched by the Islamic State, tells of his odyssey from an Aleppo mosque to the gates of a Shiite house of worship in Baghdad wearing an explosive vest.
BAGHDAD — Not every suicide bomber gets a second chance at life. Either he detonates himself, killing others along with himself, or he gets arrested and is executed. Usaid Barho, a 14-year-old Syrian and would-be suicide bomber for the Islamic State (IS), appears to have gotten this rare second change after sparing the lives of the Shiite worshippers he had been sent to kill at the al-Bayah Mosque in Baghdad.
“I was supposed to detonate myself inside the mosque. That's what they wanted me to do,” Usaid told Al-Monitor. “Three men from the Islamic State drove me to the main street near the mosque. Two left while one guy accompanied me to a place close to the entrance. He told me not to detonate until he was far enough away.”
