Jake Bilardi

Abu Abdullah al-Australi

Abu Abdullah al-Australi (1 December 1996 – 11 March 2015), born Jake Bilardi, dubbed by the media as Jihadi Jake, was an 18-year-old Australian suicide bomber considered among the youngest recruited from a Western nation.

Bilardi’s background has been described as radically different from other Western recruits and symbolises youth issues more than ideological ones.

Life, Radicalisation and Death

Born in Craigieburn, Victoria, Bilardi was a shy and lonely school student who was reportedly bullied by peers. Bilardi kept a blog describing his disdain for United States forces committing crimes against Muslims in the Middle East. He became radical after his mother died of cancer. By 2014, he expressed sympathy for Osama Bin Laden on Facebook. Concerned that the Australian government was monitoring him, Bilardi turned to building explosives in the event he would not be able to leave the country. A recruiter for Jabhat al-Nusra made contact with him in August 2014, and he left for Iraq.

Bilardi died in a suicide attack in Ramadi, Iraq on 11 March 2015. The Iraqi Army stated Bilardi’s attack was unsuccessful, killing only himself. ISIL used his death as propaganda, in order to recruit more people to become suicide bombers. According to a friend, Bilardi was concerned his family would “spend eternity in hell” for being non-believers.

Reaction

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Life of Islamic State Suicide Bomber Behind the scenes

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott, commented on Bilardi’s death as an “absolutely horrific situation” stating, “it’s very, very important that we do everything we can to try to safeguard our young people against the lure of this shocking, alien and extreme ideology. Professor Greg Barton, director of the Centre for Islam and the Modern World, considers Bilardi a self-radical motivated by underlying mental health issues instead of religious zealotry.

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Captured Islamic State suicide bomber: ‘I’m so sorry’

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Failed suicide bomber interview

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Wafa al Bass

Wafa al Bass (Wafa al-Biss, b. 1984) is a Palestinian Arab resident of Gaza who was permitted to enter Israel for the purpose of being treated at an Israeli hospital in 2005. She wore a suicide bomb vest which she attempted to explode as she crossed into Israel via the Erez Crossing.

Al Bass had been given permission to enter Israel to receive hospital treatment for severe burns. Guards at the crossing became suspicious and discovered that under her traditional black robes she had strapped a 22-pound bomb to her leg.

She was imprisoned for several years and released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

Upon release from prison she immediately attained further notoriety by urging Gazans to “take another Shalit” every year until all convicted Arab terrorists held in Israeli prisons were freed. As schoolchildren gathered at her home in northern Gaza to welcome her home, she told them, “I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs