Baghdad, Iraq ? Like a groom at a wedding, Abu al-Harith Abdul-Rahman al-Dousri is surrounded by singing well-wishers. He smiles as masked men holding rifles and rocket launchers line up for a final farewell. One by one, they shake his hand, embrace and pat him on the back.

In a propaganda tape posted on the Internet that appears aimed at recruiting “martyrs” for a holy war against the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, al-Dousri waves a last goodbye, then climbs into a truck said to be loaded with 3 1/2 tons of explosives.

“That’s all there is to it. Just a button,” he says from behind the steering wheel, next to a button and some wires.

“Then, you leave this world after you’ve paid your dues to God,” he adds before he drives away and the truck bursts into flames near a bridge that spans the Euphrates River in Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad.

Al-Dousri appears on a tape that shows a variety of attacks in Iraq, featuring footage of powerful explosions and casualties and fiery songs. The authenticity of the tape, available for some time on Web sites devoted to militant Islamic ideas, couldn’t be verified.

The tape is just one example of how extremists are striving to create a suicide culture of sorts, teaching that the martyrdom of suicide bombing is a coveted honor and a ticket to heaven.

On the tape, al-Dousri explains his decision to sacrifice himself.

“How can I enjoy life when God’s holy places are being violated and the lands are being usurped and the infidels … are insulting our religion?” he says.

“How can I and others live when our brothers in the prisons of the Americans in Iraq are yelling: ‘Oh muhajedeen … just kill us and relieve us from this,”‘ he adds in an accent that doesn’t sound Iraqi.

A black cloth with the words “There is no God but Allah” is wrapped around his forehead.

Like al-Dousri, many suicide bombers seem to be driven by religious zeal and anger at the presence of foreign troops in a Muslim country.