An instructor for a group of militant Iraqis just north of Baghdad unwitting detonated a belt full of live explosives while demonstrating for a group of pupils on Monday. The resulting blast killed 22, including the instructor himself.
According to The NY Times, the dead were members of the terrorist cell the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Ordinary Iraqi citizens apparently viewed the violent mishap with a sense of dark satisfaction, especially given a recent spike in suicide bombings in their public markets and squares.
“This is so funny,” said Raad Hashim, a liquor store worker, laughing after hearing the news. “It shows how stupid they are, those dogs and sons of dogs.”
The NY Daily News reports that the students were in learning to make car bombs and explosive belts when the instructor, who had not been identified by name, somehow set off one of the live belts.
Iraqi security forces hurried to the scene following the blast, managing to arrest 23 survivors, 15 of them wounded, as they tried to flee to the nearest shelter for aspiring suicide bombers.
The survivors are believed to be associated with ISIS, the Sunni militant group behind much of the violence in Iraq, a group disowned by al Qaeda for its indiscriminate killing of Muslims. Most Iraqi citizes, it seems, will not mourn their loss.
“I hope that their graves burn and all the rest of them burn as well," an unnamed resident told the NY Times. "I was not happy with the number killed, though: I wanted more of them to die, as I remember my friend who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2007.”