Iraqis Using Kidnap Victims As Bombers

An armored vehicle of U.S. soldiers drives past the site of a parked car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday Sept. 21, 2006, which killed two people and injuring nine, police said. Elsewhere in the city six policemen were killed when their western Baghdad police station was hit with mortar and gunfire Thursday, while the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the capital.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (Hadi Mizban - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents are now using unwitting kidnap victims as suicide bombers _ seizing them, booby-trapping their cars without their knowledge, then releasing them only to blow up the vehicles by remote control, the Defense Ministry warned Thursday.

The Iraqi announcement _ the latest development in the deadly war waged by the insurgency _ came as widespread lawlessness swept the capital Thursday with kidnappings, deadly attacks on police, the discovery of more mutilated death squad victims and a brazen daylight bank heist by men dressed as Iraqi soldiers.

It was unclear from the Defense Ministry's statement whether the insurgents are using kidnap victims because they are having trouble finding recruits for suicide missions. Suicide car bombs are responsible for 7 percent of the total Iraqi deaths this year _ down considerably from 25 percent of the overall deaths in the last eight months of 2005, according to an Associated Press count.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was aware of such incidents but was unable to provide further details. American officials have said in the past that insurgents often tape or handcuff a suicide driver's hands to a car, or bind his foot to the accelerator pedal, to ensure that he did not back out at the last minute. The remains of such hands and feet have been found at blast sites.

Although roadside bombs are the main weapon used by insurgents, suicide car bombers are often their most effective one _ designed to maximize casualties and sow fear among the population. According to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, since the fall of Saddam Hussein to Sept. 17 there have been 343 suicide car bombings involved in attacks causing multiple deaths around Iraq.

"According to our intelligence information, recent car bomb explosions targeting checkpoints and public places have nothing to do with (traditional) terrorist operations," the Defense Ministry said in its statement.

It said that first "a motorist is kidnapped with his car. They then booby-trap the car without the driver knowing. Then the kidnapped driver is released and threatened to take a certain road."

The kidnappers then follow the car and when the unwitting victim "reaches a checkpoint, a public place, or an army or police patrol, the criminal terrorists following the driver detonate the car from a distance."

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights office warned that the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit 6,599, a record high number that is far greater than initial estimates had suggested and points to the grave sectarian crisis gripping the country.

It offered a grim assessment across a range of indicators, reporting worrying evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, the growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honor killings" of women.

The United Nations' chief anti-torture expert warned Thursday that torture may now be more widespread than it was under Saddam's regime, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners.

"What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," Manfred Nowak said in Geneva.