Does it martyr?

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph today, US forces in Afghanistan came so close to capturing Osama bin Laden in 2004 that he instructed his men that "they should all die and martyr him as well" should it look like he would be captured. The questiion is: if someone else is responsible for killing you, can you die a martyr? According to the SlovoEd dictionary a martyr is someone who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion, or a person who sacrifices something of great value and esp. life itself for the sake of a principle. Certainly since the War on Terror was announced, martyr has certainly brought to mind the image of someone who voluntarily takes their own life (and that of others) in their cause. Of course, the suggestion that Osama bin Laden may have asked his followers to kill him may just be part of Western propanganda. In the Newsweek story The Daily Telegraph was reporting on, it seems the US has not had a serious lead on the Al Qaeda chief since 2002. The 2004 near-miss seems to have been random.