Instant Retribution in the Middle East

Sometimes the forces of evil get punished quickly, cleanly, and without outside agency. Schadenfreude permitted. Also known as the Darwin Award. A selection of winners:

"Arab attacker killed by his own rock": An unnamed Palestinian teenager hurled heavy stones at Israeli-owned vehicles along a highway in the West Bank on the evening of January 13, managing to hit one car, driven by a resident of a nearby town, Emmanuel. Israeli paramedics then received a report of an unconscious Arab teen badly wounded by the highway and found he had suffered a serious head injury; their efforts could not save his life and he died soon after. A forensic report showed that the cause of his injury was the stone thrown at the Emmanuel man's car, which hit the tire and bounced back at high speed, hitting the teenager in the head, fatally injuring him. (January 17, 2009)

"Al Qaeda bungles arms experiment": U.S. intelligence found that Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) closed a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, perhaps killing forty or more operatives. It appears the cause of the problem was that a sealed area with biological or chemical substances had been breached. London's Sun reported bubonic plague as the cause but a senior U.S. intelligence officer dismissed that possibility without offering an alternative hypothesis. (January 20, 2009)

مصور صحفي تشتعل فيه النار ويصاب بجروح متوسطة خلال تغطيته لمسيرته في غزة: A report in Filastin al-Yawm tells of a Palestinian cameraman, Abd ar-Rahman al-Khatib, covering a public burning in Gaza of the U.S. and Israeli flags, himself got burned on his face, hands, and feet. (January 30, 2009)

Palestinian cameraman Abd ar-Rahman al-Khatib got burned along witih the U.S. and Israeli flags.

"Terror suspect killed as bomb he was making accidentally explodes": "A suspected member of al-Qaeda was killed Sunday," reports Deutsche Presse Agentur, "when an explosive device he was making went off accidentally in southern Yemen, the defence ministry said. The suspect, identified as Anwar Muhammed al-Taghshi, died instantly as the bomb exploded in his hideout in the al-Wadhea district of the southern province of Abyan, the ministry said in a statement. It said al-Taghshi was on the list of most wanted al-Qaeda members sought by police in Yemen. The suspect 'was preparing the bomb to use it in a terrorist operation when it exploded and killed him instantly'." (May 3, 2009)

"[Crashed] Iran plane was carrying arms for Hezbollah": According to Corriere della Sera, an Iranian Tupolev plane that crashed two weeks ago on its way to Armenia, killing 168, resulted from an explosion of fuses being delivered to Hezbollah. (August 2, 2009)

"Explosion at Islamic school in Indonesia kills 1": Outside the Middle East, yes, but an Islamist tale from Sumbawa Island in central Indonesia, where an instructor showing students how to construct a bomb was apparently killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school. The police found the body of the suspected bomb maker, a 30-year-old man named Firdaus, on a bus it left the school compound. The police also confiscated arrows and machetes; they have taken eleven people for questioning. (July 12, 2011)

"Terrorists Fire in 'Wrong' Direction, Injure Egyptian Woman": A rocket from the Hamas ruled Gaza landed not in southern Israel, as intended, but in a residential neighborhood of Rafah, a city that straddles the border with Egypt. A woman suffered shrapnel wounds and was taken to the local hospital. (August 24, 2011)

"Gaza Terrorist Killed by Own Bomb": Ahmad al-Azameh, 22, a Gaza-based terrorist, was killed by his own bomb while trying to plant the device along the Israel-Gaza security fence separating Israel's southern communities from northern Gaza. (October 10, 2011)

"Rocket Fired From Lebanon at Israel Falls Short, Lebanese Woman Wounded": A rocket sent from Majdal Silim, Lebanon, against Israel, presumably fired by Hizbullah, fell short, hit a home in Houla, Lebanon, a border village, seriously wounding a Lebanese woman and damaging her home. (December 12, 2011)

"Caught in his own blast: an Iranian targeting Israel": Not in the Middle East but carried out by Saeid Moradi, an Iranian in Thailand who was present when a cache of explosives in a safe house detonated. He fled, tried to hail a taxi, but being covered in blood, the taxi driver avoided him. At that point, "he reportedly threw a small explosive device at the car and another at advancing police. While the car was damaged, the second device apparently bounced off a tree and hit the man. His legs were said to have been torn off by the subsequent blast." (Feb. 14, 2012)

"PA Arab throws firebomb at Israeli security forces Tuesday": An unnamed West Bank Arab set himself on fire while attacking Israeli security forces with a firebomb outside Ofer Prison as part of the Palestinian Authority "Prisoners' Day." (April 18, 2012)

"Darwin Award Candidate of The Day": The Associated Press and Agence France Press have each distributed a photograph of a Pakistani Shi'ite today setting the U.S. & Israeli flags on fire, then himself. (May 13, 2012)

A Pakistani Shiite Muslim protestor falls over a fire, while pouring gasoline on representations of US and Israeli flags, during an anti-Israel rally and in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, May 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

A Pakistani Shiite Muslim demonstrator (foreground) reacts after losing his balance while setting fire to Israel and US flags during a demonstration marking "Nakba" Day (Catastrophe) in Karachi on May 13, 2012. Palestinians traditionally mark on May 15 the "Nakba" when hundreds of thousands of them fled or were expelled from their lands in the war that accompanied Israel's declaration of independence. RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/GettyImages

"America basher's backfire: Killed by flag smoke": Abdullah Ismail, a Pakistani, died on Sep. 17 at Mayo Hospital in Lahore from inhaling the smoke of a burning American flag during an anti-U.S. rally that included an estimated 10,000 protestors. (September 18, 2012)

More dangerous than it appears: protesters burn a U.S. flag in Lahore on Sep. 17.

"20 injured in Gaza City during Fatah rally": Ma'an News Agency reports that

Twenty people were injured in Gaza City on Friday as hundreds of thousands gathered to celebrate Fatah's 48th anniversary, a medical official said. Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma'an that 20 people were taken to hospital for treatment after getting crushed among the crowds in al-Saraya square. Several other people suffered electric shocks while trying to attach Fatah flags to electricity poles.

(January 4, 2013)

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