Selfless Iraqi Muslim Hugs Suicide-Bomb Wearing ISIS Jihadist, Saves Hundreds of People
A Muslim man in the Iraqi city of Balad sacrificed his own life by hugging an Islamic State terror group militant who was wearing a suicide vest, saving hundreds of lives in the process.
India Times reported that the man, Najih Shaker Al-Baldawi, was at Balad's Sayyed Mohammad Shrine when he witnessed the IS jihadist making his way toward the crowd of people. Al-Baldawi stopped the jihadist from entering the shrine, and when he saw that the attacker was wearing an explosive-laden vest, he hugged him, and took the direct brunt of the explosion.
The suicide attack was still very deadly, leading to 37 deaths according to a Joint Operations spokesman in Iraq, but the man's actions potentially saved hundreds of others.
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IS has captured several cities in Iraq, and has carried out heavy bombings and mass shootings, killing thousand of civilans. Over 300 people were killed just recently in a separate strike by the terror group on Iraq's Karrada area.
Reports noted that the Sayyed Mohammad Shrine was specifically targeted because it is considered one of Iraq's most important Shiite shrines. Al-Baldawi's actions saved it from damage.
"It is clear the cowardly attack on the shrine aims to spark sectarian tensions and drag Iraq back to the dark days of sectarian conflict," said Jan Kubis, the U.N.'s top Iraq envoy.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist militant group based in Lebanon that is opposed to IS, said the targeting of the shrine "confirms that the terrorists' murder crimes target in an undistinguishing way the Muslims and the Christians as well as the Sunnites and the Shiites without minding the sanctity of blood, time and place."
Al-Manar reported that Hezbollah's leaders also condemned IS' targeting of several other mosques and Islamic holy places, as well as Christian churches.
In a separate incident in December 2015, a number of Muslim men in Kenya risked their lives and stood up against Islamic radicals on a bus to protect Christian passengers from slaughter.
The radicals had attempted to separate Christian from Muslim passengers on the bus so they could kill the Christians, as they had done in previous attacks. But this time the Muslims refused to allow them to do so.
"The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other by insisting that the Al-Shabaab should kill them together or leave them alone," Mandera Governor Ali Roba said at the time.
Factions of Al-Shabaab, which is active in Somalia and Kenya, have also pledged allegiance to IS, expanding the terror group's jihadist network.
