Happy New Year text prematurely blows up suicide bomber

SMS of death

A suicide bomber's plan to detonate explosives in Central Moscow on New Year's Eve was foiled when she received an unexpected text message that caused her deadly payload to blow up too early, according to news reports.

The message wishing her a happy new year came hours before the unnamed woman was to set off her suicide belt near Red Square, an act of terrorism that could have killed hundreds of people, The Leader-Post reported. She ended up dying at a safe house instead.

Terrorists often use cell phones to detonate explosives. A handler uses the handset to set off the bomb when it can inflict maximum casualties. Russian security sources said the unidentified woman was part of the same radical Islamist terror group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday. ®