Suicidal violence is not the exclusive property of the Muslim world. Suicide bombings were a tactic of nationalist struggles in 19th-century Europe and Russia the far east during the second world war and the Vietnam war and in modern Sri Lanka.

The senior officer who met with reporters in Baghdad said there had been 21 car bombings in the capital in May and 126 in the past 80 days. All last year he said there were only about 25 car bombings in Baghdad.

I have for some time urged that a nuclear abolition summit to mark the effective end of the nuclear era be convened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 70th anniversary of the bombings of those cities with the participation of national leaders and representatives of global civil society.

Iran has long sponsored terrorists who carry out homicide bombings in Israeli cities. However it is a mistake to believe the danger Iran poses is directed at Israel alone.