Events of Modern Terrorism

 On 1972, in Munich, Germany, during the summer Olympics, 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and killed along with a German police officer. The terrorist Palestinian organization Black September, the responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli athletes and the German police officer, apparently were receiving information, logistic assistance and instructions form German neo-Nazis.  During a failed attempt to recue the hostages, the German authorities killed five of the eight members of the terrorist organization.  The other three members were captured but later released since the same organization, Black September, hijacked a commercial German plane a couple of days later.

 On 19 August, 1978, a cinema located in Abadan, Iran was set on fire by an unknown organization. The ruling government back then stated that Islamic militants set the fire, whereas the anti-Shah protesters stated that the government was the only one to blame. At least 470 individuals were killed.  According to the experts, the main motive was to initiate the Iranian Revolution, which began during the same year.

 On 20 November, 1979, the Islamic world was shocked by the armed attack and takeover of the Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Makah, Saudi Arabia. This is the holiest place for the followers of this religion.  Hundreds of hostages, militants and security forces were killed during and after the violent takeover of the site. Practically, the whole attack lasted for two weeks.

 The terrorist group known as “Islamic Jihad” claimed responsibility for the bombing of the North American and French military bases located in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23,  The attack killed more than 300 servicemen. Among the victims were: sailors, civilians, marines and soldiers.  After the attack, every peacemaking process with Lebanon was suspended immediately.

 On 23 June, 1895, members of a Sikh separatist group called the Babbar Khalsa, blew up an aircraft operating the Montreal- London- Delhi route.  268 Canadians, 27 British citizens and 24 Indians were killed, making that a total of 329 people killed.  In Canadian history, the investigation of this case has been one of the most expensive and one of the longest, lasting almost 20 years.

 On March 12, 1993, multiple bombs rocked Mumbai. The blasts killed 257 people and left more than 300 individuals injured.  The blasts became a constant series of attacks. More than 800 innocent Indians have been killed and over 1000 injuries. The local authorities haven’t been able to make this series of attacks stop.

 On march 20, 1995, a terrorist organization knows as Aum Shinrikyo, released sarin on several lines of the Tokyo Subway System. The attack killed 13 citizens, injured nearly a hundred and caused vision problems to more than a thousand others. This is one of the attacks with greatest impact on the Japanese society since WWII.

 On September 11, 2001 the Islamic Group Al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and committed suicide attacks against important and symbolic targets in the United States.  The attacks resulted in expensive death and destruction. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Another plane impacted the pentagon in Washington D.C and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. More than 4000 innocent people were killed during the attacks in the three different cities.

 “On the morning of March 11, 2004”, in Madrid, Spain, simultaneous explosions killed 191 people and wounded over a thousand. According to the Spanish authorities, and the ‘PSOE’ political party, the attacks were executed by the terrorist Islamic group known as Al-Qaeda. According to the ‘PP’ political party, the responsible for the attack was ETA, a Basque separatist organization.

 It was an attack that lasted 3 days. During the first day, the Islamic militant separatist group know as Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion, occupied ‘School Number One’, located in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia. The group utilized tanks, rockets and heavy weapons and killed at least 335 hostages, including 186 children and not including those individual that are still missing.  The whole attack turned into a crisis since, according to the authorities, members of the government and the army were involved and therefore responsible for the attacks.

 On July 29, 2009, Nigerian troops carried out a house-to-house search for members of the Islamic sect known as Boko Haram. Consequently, the soldiers shoot their way into the mosque located in Maiduguri. Meanwhile, the Islamic militants attacked policy stations, churches and prisons. By the end of that day, after extensive violent attacks, 43 members of the sect were killed and more than 200 resulted injured.