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69-515: Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a person—especially if prominent or important . It may be prompted by grievances , notoriety , financial, military, political or other motives . Assassinations are ordered by both individuals and organizations, and are carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times . A person who carries out an assassination

138-548: A 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise mentions tactics of Assassination and its merits. In the Old Testament , King Joash of Judah was assassinated by his own servants; Joab assassinated Absalom , King David 's son; King Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his own sons; and Jael assassinated Sisera . Chanakya ( c.  350 –283 BC) wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra . His student Chandragupta Maurya ,

207-556: A blanket. Sisera asked Jael for a drink of water; she gave him milk instead. He commanded Jael to watch over the tent and tell any inquirers that no one was there. Quietly, Jael took a mallet and drove a tent peg through Sisera's temple into the ground while he was sleeping, killing him instantly. Jael was then the woman with the honor of defeating Jabin's army, as prophesied by Deborah, and she showed Barak Sisera's dead body in her tent. The "Song of Deborah" ( Judges 5:24–26 ) recounts: Extolled above women be Jael, Extolled above women in

276-720: A defender of Israel and a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary . This can be seen in the Stavelot Bible , the Speculus Darmstadt, as well as several other texts. When not shown in the act of killing Sisera, she carries her hammer and sometimes the spike, making her easy to identify. In Renaissance works the subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women topos , with other biblical women who triumphed over men, such as Judith or Delilah . Here she

345-628: A dissident from Bulgaria , was assassinated by ricin poisoning. A tiny pellet containing the poison was injected into his leg through a specially designed umbrella . Widespread allegations involving the Bulgarian government and the KGB have not led to any legal results. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was learned that the KGB had developed an umbrella that could inject ricin pellets into

414-449: A history of serious depression, and 39% had a history of substance abuse. With the advent of effective ranged weaponry and later firearms , the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to deter determined killers, who no longer needed to engage directly or even to subvert the guard to kill the leader in question. Moreover, the engagement of targets at greater distances dramatically increased

483-568: A larger touch. Explosives, especially the car bomb , become far more common in modern history, with grenades and remote-triggered land mines also used, especially in the Middle East and the Balkans; the initial attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand 's life was with a grenade. With heavy weapons, the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) has become a useful tool given the popularity of armored cars (discussed below), and Israeli forces have pioneered

552-411: A more or less competent successor, whether the assassination provokes ire in the state in question, whether the assassination leads to souring domestic public opinion, and whether the assassination provokes condemnation from third-parties. One study found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in that area, and decisions to go forward with assassinations often reflect

621-658: A nimble, sure-footed mountain goat native to that region. As of 2018, Yael was one of the most common female first names in contemporary Israel . Jael has often been understood to be the wife of Heber the Kenite . However, the Hebrew phrase translated this way could also mean "a woman of the group of the Kenites". The Kenites were a nomadic tribe—possibly a subset of the Midianites —some of whom lived in close proximity to

690-524: A stake in her left hand and approached him, saying, "If God will work this sign with me, I know that Sisera will fall into my hands. Behold I will throw him down on the ground from the bed on which he sleeps; and if he does not feel it, I know that he has been handed over." And Jael took Sisera and pushed him onto the ground from the bed. But he did not feel it, because he was very groggy. And Jael said, "Strengthen in me today, Lord, my arm on account of you and your people and those who hope in you." And Jael took

759-433: A threat. An army and even a nation might be based upon and around a particularly strong, canny, or charismatic leader , whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war. For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of foreign policy . The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute. It may not be clear whether the assassinated leader gets replaced with

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828-544: A victim, and two former KGB agents who defected stated that the agency assisted in the murder. The CIA made several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro ; many of the schemes involving poisoning his cigars. In the late 1950s, the KGB assassin Bohdan Stashynsky killed Ukrainian nationalist leaders Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera with a spray gun that fired a jet of poison gas from a crushed cyanide ampule, making their deaths look like heart attacks. A 2006 case in

897-594: Is also a reference to the story of Jael in Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales . During the Wife of Bath's Prologue , and whilst discussing her fifth husband's "book of wikked wives", Chaucer mentions some wives who "han drive nailes in hir brain, / Whil that they slepte, and thus they had hem slain." Judges 4:17 states that there was peace between the Canaanites and Heber's clan. They were familiar to

966-596: Is called an assassin . Assassin comes from the Italian and French Assissini, believed to derive from the word hashshashin ( Arabic : حشّاشين , romanized :  ḥaššāšīyīn ), and shares its etymological roots with hashish ( / h æ ˈ ʃ iː ʃ / or / ˈ h æ ʃ iː ʃ / ; from حشيش ḥašīš ). It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets. Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah ,

1035-506: Is one of the oldest tools of power politics . It dates back at least as far as recorded history. The Egyptian pharaoh Teti , of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty (23rd century BCE), is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of

1104-761: The Middle Ages , regicide was rare in Western Europe, but it was a recurring theme in the Eastern Roman Empire . Strangling in the bathtub was the most commonly used method. With the Renaissance , tyrannicide —or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe. During the 16th and 17th centuries, international lawyers began to voice condemnation of assassinations of leaders. Balthazar Ayala has been described as "the first prominent jurist to condemn

1173-620: The Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty (20th century BCE) is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guards for reasons unknown (as related in the Instructions of Amenemhat ); meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt . Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were murdered. The Art of War ,

1242-688: The Plain of Esdraelon , where Sisera's iron-bound chariots became hampered by the mud caused by a downpour during the night that caused the Wadi Kishon to overflow its banks. The Canaanites were defeated, and Sisera fled the scene. Sisera arrived on foot at the tent of Heber on the plain of Zaanaim . Heber and his household were at peace with Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor ( Judges 4:17 ). Jael (whose tent would have been separate from Heber's) welcomed Sisera into her tent and covered him with

1311-665: The assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira during the Rwandan Civil War sparked the Rwandan genocide . In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir , who opposed the Oslo Accords . In Lebanon , the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, prompted an investigation by the United Nations. The suggestion in

1380-452: The 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, 15% used knives, and 8% explosives (the use of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases). In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning can be more easily denied. Georgi Markov ,

1449-760: The Assassins were active in the Near East from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The group killed members of the Abbasid , Seljuk , Fatimid , and Christian Crusader elite for political and religious reasons. Although it is commonly believed that members of the Order of Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking

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1518-558: The Bible, and perhaps even the earliest example of Hebrew poetry . Although some scholars claim a date as early as the 12th century BC, others claim it to be as late as the 3rd century BC (i.e., the Second Temple period ). Based on its language and content, the current consensus is that the song was written no earlier than the 7th century BC. Pseudo-Philo refers to Jael in the book, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum : Now Jael took

1587-619: The Conservative Party Conference in a Brighton hotel. Loyalist paramilitaries retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating Irish nationalist politicians. Basque separatists ETA in Spain assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably the president of the Francoist government of Spain, Luis Carrero Blanco , 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, in 1973. In

1656-740: The Czechoslovak government in exile in Operation Anthropoid , and knowledge from decoded transmissions allowed the United States to carry out a targeted attack , killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while he was travelling by plane. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph Stalin 's NKVD carried out numerous assassinations outside of the Soviet Union, such as the killings of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yevhen Konovalets , Ignace Poretsky , Fourth International secretary Rudolf Klement, Leon Trotsky , and

1725-495: The Israeli policy of targeted killing is not the same as assassination." Syracuse Law William Banks and GW Law Peter Raven-Hansen wrote, "Targeted killing of terrorists is... not unlawful and would not constitute assassination." Rory Miller writes: "Targeted killing... is not 'assassination. ' " Eric Patterson and Teresa Casale wrote, "Perhaps most important is the legal distinction between targeted killing and assassination." On

1794-477: The Israelites through the connection of Jethro to Moses, and their skill as metalworkers was welcomed wherever they camped. Both sides in the conflict would have considered the Kenites a neutral party. C. E. Schenk notes that Sisera was Jael's guest, "was in the sanctuary of her home, and protected by the laws of hospitality ." According to Herbert Lockyer she may have acted out of practical necessity. Sisera

1863-572: The Israelites. The Hebrew Bible records a number of cases of intermarriage between the Kenites and the Israelites. Hever the Kenite ( חבר הקיני ‎) was, according to the Book of Judges , a descendant of Jethro the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses . He had separated himself and his wife Jael from the other Kenites and pitched their tent in the plain of Zaanaim , which is near Kedesh in

1932-592: The Obama administration maintained a "kill list" containing terrorism suspects. The list is sometimes referred to as a "disposition matrix," and President Obama made a final decision on whether anyone listed would be killed, without court oversight and without trial. In September 2011, American citizens Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were assassinated in Yemen by the United States government via drone strikes. Two weeks later, Awlaki's 16-year-old son, also an American citizen,

2001-724: The Tokugawa shogunate, during the Boshin War . Most of the assassinations in Japan were committed with bladed weaponry, a trait that was carried on into modern history. A video-record exists of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma , using a sword. In 1895, a group of Japanese assassins killed the Korean queen (and posthumously empress) Myeongseong. In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents— Abraham Lincoln , James A. Garfield , William McKinley and John F. Kennedy —died at

2070-531: The UK concerned the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was given a lethal dose of radioactive polonium -210, possibly passed to him in aerosol form sprayed directly onto his food. Targeted killing is the intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or " unlawful combatant " who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, by bearing arms or otherwise, who has thereby lost

2139-894: The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) leadership in Catalonia . India's "Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi , was shot to death on January 30, 1948, by Nathuram Godse . The African-American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. , was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum ) in Memphis, Tennessee . Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X ,

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2208-455: The actual attackers were found to be delusional , a figure that rose to 60% with "near-lethal approachers" (people apprehended before reaching their targets). That shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempts. The report also found that around two-thirds of attackers had previously been arrested, not necessarily for related offenses; 44% had

2277-585: The attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War . A number of additional examples from World War II show how assassination was used as a tool: Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts: Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups: the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus

2346-514: The attention of media and politics on their cause. The Irish Republican Army guerrillas in 1919 to 1921 killed many Royal Irish Constabulary Police intelligence officers during the Irish War of Independence . Michael Collins set up a special unit, the Squad , for that purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with

2415-585: The chances for assassins to survive since they could quickly flee the scene. The first heads of government to be assassinated with a firearm were James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray , the regent of Scotland, in 1570, and William the Silent , the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands, in 1584. Gunpowder and other explosives also allowed the use of bombs or even greater concentrations of explosives for deeds requiring

2484-571: The commander of Jabin's army. This episode is depicted in chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Judges . According to that account, after Sisera's defeat by the Israelite king Barak in the Battle of Mount Tabor , he seeks refuge in the tent of Jael, who kills him by driving a tent peg through his skull ( Judges 4:17–21 ) near the great tree in Zaanaim near Kedesh . The Hebrew ya'el means ibex ,

2553-453: The details of Jael's actions and Ehud's assassination of Eglon have led van Wijk-Bos to propose Jael as killing Sisera in a manner similar to his conquering army's use of rape. Jael, along with Ehud, is an example in Judges of the contrast between marginal heroes and well-armed enemies conquered by wit and stealth. Albert Barnes conjectures that Jael sympathized with the Israelites because of

2622-661: The early 1990s, it also began to target academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with it. The Red Brigades in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures and, to a lesser extent, so did the Red Army Faction in Germany in the 1970s and the 1980s. In the Vietnam War , communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival

2691-691: The federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition. Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan argued that "there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing... targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination... constitutes an illegal killing." Similarly, Amos Guiora , a professor of law at the University of Utah , wrote, "Targeted killing is... not an assassination." Steve David , professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University , wrote, "There are strong reasons to believe that

2760-720: The founder of the Maurya Empire , later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies. Some famous assassination victims are Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), the father of Alexander the Great , and Roman dictator Julius Caesar (44 BC). Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later. Three successive Rashidun caliphs ( Umar , Uthman Ibn Affan , and Ali ibn Abi Talib ) were assassinated in early civil conflicts between Muslims. The practice

2829-484: The hands of assassins. There have been at least 20 known attempts on U.S. presidents' lives. In Austria, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was carried out in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip , a Serbian nationalist. He is blamed for igniting World War I . Reinhard Heydrich died after an attack by British-trained Czechoslovak soldiers on behalf of

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2898-570: The head of Iranian intelligence. Evidence indicates that Fallahian's personal involvement and individual responsibility for the murders were far more pervasive than his current indictment record represents. In India, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi (neither of whom was related to Mahatma Gandhi , who had himself been assassinated in 1948), were assassinated in 1984 and 1991 in what were linked to separatist movements in Punjab and northern Sri Lanka , respectively. In 1994,

2967-591: The immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention . It is a different term and concept from that of "targeted violence", as used by specialists who study violence. On the other hand, Gary D. Solis , a professor at Georgetown University Law Center , in his 2010 book The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War , wrote, "Assassinations and targeted killings are very different acts." The use of

3036-647: The killing of 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday in 1920. The tactic was used again by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969–1998). Assassination of unionist politicians and activists was one of a number of methods used in the Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997 . The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by bombing

3105-552: The merits of the action. Assassination is widely defined as murder, and is for that reason prohibited in the United States ;... U.S. officials may not kill people merely because their policies are seen as detrimental to our interests... But killings in self-defense are no more "assassinations" in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by

3174-544: The new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s. At least 162 killings in 19 countries have been linked to the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran . The campaign came to an end after the Mykonos restaurant assassinations because a German court publicly implicated senior members of the government and issued arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian ,

3243-592: The other hand, the American Civil Liberties Union also states on its website, "A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process . It also violates international law , under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns

3312-482: The perpetrator returns. In some cases, a citizen of another jurisdiction outside its own, can be extradited to a jurisdiction in which the crime is illegal even if it was not committed in that jurisdiction. Unitary state are usually single jurisdictions, but the United Kingdom is a notable exception since it has three separate jurisdictions because of its three separate legal systems . Also, China has

3381-426: The resulting Mehlis report that there was involvement by Syria prompted the Cedar Revolution , which drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon. On 2 September 2022, a 35 year old Brazilian national attempted to assassinate the then current vice-president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner . However, the attempt was unsuccessful because the assassin's gun jammed. In 2012, The New York Times revealed that

3450-479: The revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Ngo Dinh Diem regime to collapse before the US intervened. A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely "impulsive" actions. However, about 25% of

3519-413: The separate jurisdictions of Hong Kong and Macao . This article related to international law is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jael Jael ( / ˈ dʒ eɪ əl / ) or Yael ( / ˈ j eɪ əl / ' Hebrew : יָעֵל Yāʿēl ) is a heroine of the Bible who aids the Israelites in their war with King Jabin of the city of Hazor in Canaan by killing Sisera ,

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3588-406: The stake and put it on his temple and struck it with a hammer. And while he was dying, Sisera said to Jael, "Behold pain has taken hold of me, Jael, and I die like a woman." And Jael said to him, "Go, boast before your father in hell and tell him that you have fallen into the hands of a woman." According to the Talmud , Jael engaged in sexual intercourse with Sisera seven times, but because she

3657-456: The target at long range, and the ability to score a first-round lethal hit at long range, which is usually measured in hundreds of meters. A dedicated sniper rifle is also expensive, often costing thousands of dollars because of the high level of precision machining and handfinishing required to achieve extreme accuracy. Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable and so are much more commonly used than rifles. Of

3726-400: The tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; She brought him cream in a lordly dish. She stretched forth her hand to the nail, Her right hand to the workman's hammer, And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head, She crashed through and transfixed his temples. Composed in archaic biblical Hebrew , the Song of Deborah has been traditionally identified as among the oldest texts of

3795-433: The term "assassination" is opposed, as it denotes murder (unlawful killing), but the terrorists are targeted in self-defense, which is thus viewed as a killing but not a crime ( justifiable homicide ). Abraham D. Sofaer , former federal judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York , wrote on the subject: When people call a targeted killing an "assassination", they are attempting to preclude debate on

3864-438: The territory of the Tribe of Naphtali . Deborah , a prophetess and judge , advised Barak to mobilize the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon on Mount Tabor to do battle against King Jabin of Canaan . Barak demurred, saying he would go, provided she would also. Deborah agreed, but prophesied that the honor of defeating Jabin's army would then go to a woman. Jabin's army was led by Sisera ( Judges 4:2 ). The armies met on

3933-522: The twenty-year period of harsh oppression inflicted on them by Jabin. Noting the maternal and erotic undertones of the text and some commentators' qualms about Jael's seductive and violent act, Bachmann points out that the Bible itself has nothing but praise for Jael, called most blessed of women in the Song of Deborah. Christian moral theorists during the Renaissance extensively referred to Jael as an example of tyrannicide . Medieval images of Jael, mostly in illuminated manuscripts , depicted her as both

4002-399: The use of aircraft-mounted missiles, as well as the innovative use of explosive devices. A sniper with a precision rifle is often used in fictional assassinations; however, certain pragmatic difficulties attend long-range shooting, including finding a hidden shooting position with a clear line of sight, detailed advance knowledge of the intended victim's travel plans, the ability to identify

4071-465: The use of assassination in foreign policy". Alberico Gentili condemned assassinations in a 1598 publication where he appealed to the self-interest of leaders: (i) assassinations had adverse short-term consequences by arousing the ire of the assassinated leader's successor, and (ii) assassinations had the adverse long-term consequences of causing disorder and chaos. Hugo Grotius 's works on the law of war strictly forbade assassinations, arguing that killing

4140-436: The vague hope that any successor might be better. In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will prompt the masses to contemn the killers and support the leader's cause more strongly. Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, that possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in

4209-491: The whole world into a battlefield." Jurisdiction (area) Each state in a federation such as Australia , Germany and the United States forms a separate jurisdiction. However, certain laws in a federal state are sometimes uniform across the constituent states and enforced by a set of federal courts; with the result that the federal state forms a single jurisdiction for that purpose. A jurisdiction may also prosecute for crimes committed outside its jurisdiction once

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4278-433: Was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Ke 's failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassinations were performed by individuals or small groups, there were also specialized units who used a collective group of people to perform more than one assassination. The earliest were the sicarii in 6 AD, who predated the Middle Eastern Assassins and Japanese shinobis by centuries. In

4347-421: Was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Most major powers repudiated Cold War assassination tactics, but many allege that was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel, the U.S., Argentina , Paraguay, Chile, and other nations accused of engaging in such operations. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979,

4416-411: Was attempting to exhaust him in order to kill him, her sin was for Heaven's sake and therefore praiseworthy. The significance of that exact number of coituses and the meaning of the multicoital nature of Jael and Sisera's encounter has been discussed in the scholarship, along with an alternate view in rabbinic literature that assert quite to the contrary that Jael never engaged in sex with Sisera. There

4485-419: Was in flight and Barak in pursuit. It would not have been wise to allow Barak to find Sisera in her tent. She also knew that Sisera would be killed if captured; therefore, she would kill him and thus cement a friendship with the victor. Biblical commentaries have viewed Jael as either a heroine or someone much less so. Newsom and Ringe consider her a survivor caught up in her husband's politics. Parallels between

4554-451: Was killed in a strike targeting Ibrahim al-Banna , a senior operative in Al-Qaeda . Al-Banna was not killed in the strike. Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused: Sun Tzu , writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book The Art of War . Over 2000 years later, in his book The Prince , Machiavelli also advises rulers to assassinate enemies whenever possible to prevent them from posing

4623-459: Was not the key feature behind the name. The term "assassinare" (assassin) was used in Medieval Latin from the mid 13th century. The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite , a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605). Assassination

4692-421: Was only permissible on the battlefield. In the modern world, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed . In Japan, a group of assassins called the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu killed a number of people, including Ii Naosuke who was the head of administration for

4761-405: Was used to show the risk for men in following women, in groupings including positive figures and scenes such as Judith beheading Holofernes , but mostly ones with females depicted as over-powerful, such as Phyllis riding Aristotle , Samson and Delilah, Salome and her mother Herodias and the Idolatry of Solomon . More positively, Jael was included in sets of the female Nine Worthies , such as

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