Thursday, May 29, 2014

Mentally handicapped exploited as human bombs in Iraq

(ANSA) - Baghdad, May 29 - An Islamic militant group linked to al-Qaeda is using mentally handicapped people as unwitting "human bombs" to carry out attacks in Iraq, an Iraqi government source said Thursday.

The interior ministry source said there have been seven such attacks carried out in recent months by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). "They kidnap mentally ill people in the streets, make them wear explosive vests, then they make them detonate with remote control devices," said General Saad Maan, spokesman for the interior minister.