Suicide mission

A suicide mission is a task which is so dangerous for the people involved that they are not expected to survive. The term is sometimes extended to include suicide attacks such as kamikaze and suicide bombings, whose perpetrators actively die by suicide during the execution of the mission.^[1][2]

In a military context, soldiers can be ordered to perform very dangerous tasks or can undertake them on their initiative. For example, in the First World War, French soldiers mutinied en masse in 1917, after appalling losses convinced them that their participation at the front would inevitably lead to their deaths, and in October 2004, during the Iraq War, 19 soldiers in the US Army refused orders to drive unarmored fuel trucks near Baghdad, calling the task a "suicide mission". Those soldiers faced investigations for breakdown of discipline.^[3]

Suicide missions can also be an act of desperation, such as a last stand, or to save lives. The latter end of the Battle of Stalingrad could be seen as a suicide mission from the German perspective, as they were ordered to fight to the death with no option of surrendering nor the chance of escape.

Special forces units are often sent on missions that are exceedingly dangerous with the hope that their superior training and abilities will allow them to complete them successfully and survive. An example is a desperate attempt by two U.S. Delta Force snipers to protect a downed helicopter pilot (Michael Durant) from being killed or captured by masses of Somali militia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. While the sniper team held off overwhelming numbers of Somalis long enough for the pilot to survive, both snipers were killed, and the pilot was eventually captured but then later released.

However, even special forces groups refuse to participate in some missions. Operation Mikado, a plan for a Special Air Service raid on Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, during the 1982 Falklands War, was ultimately not executed due in part to significant hostility from members of the SAS, who saw the mission as exceedingly risky.

Sometimes suicide is unplanned. During the 2006 Lebanon War, Major Roi Klein and his unit took part in the Battle of Bint Jbeil. During a Hezbollah ambush, a hand grenade was thrown over the wall that was between Hezbollah militants and Klein and his unit. Klein jumped on the live grenade and muffled the explosion with his body. The soldiers reported that Klein recited the Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael, as he jumped on the grenade. After the grenade exploded and critically wounded him, he reported his own death, yelling "Klein's dead, Klein's dead" over the radio. In the following minutes, as he lay dying, he ordered soldiers who came to administer first aid and evacuate him to focus on Lieutenant Amichai Merhavia, another soldier who had been hit (and later died also) instead. He then handed over his encoded radio to another officer, who took command of the force, and died.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} According to The Telegraph he yelled "Long live Israel",^[9] although this was probably a misinterpretation of "Shema Yisrael" (שמע ישראל).^[10]

Other than as a way to cause enemy casualties, another situation in which some militaries and related bodies (such as intelligence agencies) encourage their own members to commit suicide is too avoid being captured by the enemy. The concept also often includes the use of intentional friendly fire.^[11] Either to avoid disclose of military secrets, avoid the need for a prisoner exchange, or for more intangible ideological motives.^[12] Individuals are encouraged by a perception that capture is a fate worse than death, and the likelihood of torture is strongly emphasised in internal propaganda. Sometimes, to the point that even civilians embrace the concept of dying (or killing people on their own side) to avoid capture.^[13]

The militaries of nation states often avoid equipping their troops with any means specifically designed to facilitate suicide, but sometimes imply that soldiers are obliged to resort to extreme measures to avoid capture including taking their own lives, or killing their comrades, with whatever means are available.^[14] Hand grenades have been repeatedly used or suggested.^[15][14]

In 1952, three Chinese soldiers reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid capture.^[15]

The Sicarii Jewish sect are sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies. Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD Jewish Sicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill" Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators.^[12] However, they are more known for having committed mass suicide, and family murders, to avoid capture during the Siege of Masada.^[16] The story of Masada is prominent in Israeli culture.^[16]

Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar,^[17][18] was a Rajput kshatriya women practice of mass self-immolation by women and girls^[19] in the Indian subcontinent to avoid capture, sex slavery, enslavement,^[20] and rape when facing certain defeat during a war.^[21][22][23] Some reports of jauhar mention women committing self-immolation along with their children.^[24][25] This practice was historically observed in the northwest regions of India, with the most famous jauhars in recorded history occurring during wars between Hindu Rajput kingdoms in Rajasthan and the opposing Muslim armies.^{[26][27][28][22]} Jauhar was only performed during war, usually when there was no chance of victory. Jauhar involved Hindu Rajput women committing suicide with their children and valuables in a massive fire, in order to avoid capture and abuse in the face of inescapable military defeat.^[22][29] At the same time or shortly thereafter, the men would ritualistically march to the battlefield expecting certain death, which in the regional tradition is called saka.^[17] This practice was intended to show that those committing it valued their honour more highly than their lives.

Jauhar by Hindu kingdoms has been documented by Muslim historians of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.^[29][30][31] Among the most often cited examples of jauhar is the mass suicide committed in 1303 CE by the women of Chittorgarh fort in Rajasthan, when faced with the invading army of the Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.^[32][33] The jauhar phenomenon was also observed in other parts of India, such as in the Kampili kingdom of northern Karnataka when it fell in 1327 to Delhi Sultanate armies.^[31]

There is an annual celebration of heroism called the Jauhar Mela in Chittorgarh where the local people commemorate their ancestors.^[34]

In the late 17th century, Qing official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner.^[35] However, Yu may have confused such suicidal tactics with the standard Dutch military practice of undermining and blowing up overrun positions, which almost cost Koxinga his life during the Siege of Fort Zeelandia.^[36]

Jack Nissenthall survived his mission against the Nazis in WWII, but the plan was for him to kill himself or be killed if he was at risk of capture. Nissenthall was a British special forces operative, his mission was to investigate or destroy Germany's Freya radar station during the Dieppe Raid, accompanied by 11 Canadian soldiers from the South Saskatchewan Regiment.^[37][38][39] He was provided with a cyanide pill to use for suicide if he was captured.^[37][40] His 11 Canadian "body guards" were also told to kill him if necessary to avoid his capture.^[37][40] Nissenthall survived, but 10 of his 11 "bodyguards" were killed or captured.^[37][40]

Armed hostage takings, particularly those planned (e.g., by a terrorist group) for political purposes, could be considered suicide missions. As most governments have a policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists, such incidents usually end with a bloody confrontation between the hostage-takers and an armed force (e.g., police or military) attempting to free the hostages. Also, such hostage-takings often occur in a country foreign to the perpetrators, thereby limiting their chances of escape. Notable examples include the 1972 Munich massacre (after which the hostage takers and collaborators were systematically exterminated in an operation called "Wrath of God" Hebrew: מבצע זעם האל), the 1977 Landshut hijacking, the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, the 1996 Japanese embassy hostage crisis, and the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis. All of these high-profile hostage-takings ended with the hostage-takers being engaged by the military forces of the country in which the incident occurred, with the vast majority of the hostage-takers being killed in the aftermath..

Romas Kalanta was a 19-year-old Lithuanian student who self-immolated in 1972 to protest against the Soviet regime in Lithuania, sparking the 1972 unrest in Lithuania; another 13 people self-immolated in that same year.^[41]

Hunger strikes are another use of self harm, and actual or potential suicide, that is used by some militant groups.

• Dirk H. A. Kolff (2002). Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52305-9.
• Rinon, Yoav (16 March 2024). "The destructive wish for revenge followed by suicide is rooted in the Israeli ethos". Haaretz. Retrieved 8 June 2025.

• Dataset: The CPOST Database on Suicide Attacks (DSAT)