Mutant Teenage Suicide Bomber

The Jerusalem Post carries this blurb on the successful apprehension of a suicide bombing:

A 17-year-old Arab female from Jerusalem is under arrest for allegedly offering to carry out a suicide bombing in the city, police said Thursday.

The would-be bomber, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur who was apprehended three weeks ago in a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)-police operation, suggested to Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank that they use her to carry out a terror attack due to her hatred of Jews and "personal family problems," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

As part of her enlistment, the teen traveled to Mecca to "purify" herself after undergoing a series of tests by the Palestinian terror group to ensure that she was not an Israeli mole, police said.

The two Islamic Jihad operatives have also been arrested. The attack was still in the early planning stages when the suspects were nabbed by Israeli security officials.

The teen, who has confessed to the allegations against her, said that her family had no knowledge of her plans to become a suicide bomber, police said.

While successful suicide bombings have declined since the 2002-2004 levels, it has not meant that the tactic of using suicide bombers has loss any of its appeal to Palestinian terror groups but rather it has just become that much harder to launch a successful attack against Israeli civilians.