The Arabic term for kamikaze-style acts is not "suicide attacks" but "martyr operations," underscoring that they fall under the Muslims' sacred duty to wage jihad, or holy war, when they come under attack.

A martyr, or "shaheed" in Arabic, describes both those who die while fighting and civilians killed by the enemy.

There is a consensus that "martyr operations" can be resorted to when the defenders have no other options or when the invader has an overwhelming force -- such as the US-led coalition invading Iraq, the Israeli army against the Palestinians, or Russian troops against the Chechens.

In 1983, suicide bombings of US and French army positions in Beirut killed hundreds and forced the two nations to withdraw from Lebanon.

Muslim scholars, from both the Sunni and Shiite branches, reject martyr operations when their forces have the advantage.

They also stress that self-sacrifice should be motivated by the fight, not to escape personal problems.

However, eve a leading moderate Islamic scholar, Syria's Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro, has called for "martyr operations" against the US and British invaders in Iraq.

Kaftaro rose to fame in May 2001, when he walked with Pope John Paul II into Damascus's historic Omeyyads Mosque, marking the first visit by a head of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship.

"I call on Muslims everywhere to use all means possible to thwart the aggression, including martyr operations against the belligerent American, British and Zionist invaders," Kaftaro said last Thursday.

"Resistance to the belligerent invaders is an obligation for all Muslims, starting with (those in) Iraq," the mufti said.

Two days later, an Iraqi officer driving a taxi carried out a suicide bombing at a US checkpoint near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Baghdad.

Besides himself, the US-led coalition says he killed four US troops, while Baghdad says he killed 11.

Iraq warned the coalition Saturday that more than 4,000 volunteers had come from every Arab nation "without exception", ready to follow in the footsteps of the Iraqi officer who carried out the suicide attack, Ali Jaafar Musa Hammadi al-Numani, whom President Saddam Hussein awarded two top posthumous medals of honor.

The Palestinian radical movement Islamic Jihad also said Sunday it had sent a first batch of its suicide bombers to Baghdad.

And the militant movement Ansar al-Islam, which Washington links to Al-Qaeda and has attacked repeatedly in Iraqi Kurdistan during the war, has redeployed and is preparing suicide attacks against coalition forces, a statement on an Islamist website said Monday.

Saturday's attack near Najaf prompted the US forces to curtail the movements of Iraqi civilians and impose stricter security measure that could harm their proclaimed effort to win over the "hearts and minds" of Iraqi civilians.

But showing that the incident has made troops nervous, US officials admitted that seven Iraqi women and children had been accidentally shot dead at a checkpoint near Najaf on Monday afternoon.

Still, General Vincent Brooks at the US Central Command's forward base in Qatar discounted suicide attacks as "a terror tactic" that "won't be effective" in checking coalition plans to remove Saddam.

SPACE.WIRE