Well this is just ridiculous. I was curious to see how many terror attacks there would be early on in the new year, and there were 4 of them on New Year’s Day alone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_January%E2%80%93June_2016
Tel Aviv, Israel- you may have heard about this one. Man opens fire in a crowded area and escapes, there is a likely suspect still at large. 2 dead, 7 injured. Seems to be a lone wolf situation so far.
One you may not have heard about- suicide bombing in Afghanistan, at Le Jardin, a French restaurant situated near embassies and popular with anyone there on international business. Killed 2 including a 12 year old boy, wounded 15. Taliban claimed responsibility.
In Somalia, also on January 1, al-Shabaab is suspected to be responsible for gunmen opening fire on humanitarian aid workers around noon. 1 dead, 4 injured.
And in Valence, France, a lone wolf attack by a man from Tunisia. He rammed his car into a French civilian and a guard in front of a mosque while saying “Allahu akbar.” There were warning shots and then disabling shots, the attacker said he wanted to kill soldiers because they kill people (where? Tunisia?) and he wanted to be killed by soldiers.
He was not killed, however. Nobody died, thankfully, 2 were injured plus injuries to 1 perpetrator. If that man had done this in Israel, he would be dead.
That was all on day 1 of the new year. And there’s already 2 recorded terror incidents for the 2nd, and the day is half over in this hemisphere.
Last year there was only one terror attack on January 1. It was a deadly one though, crowded bus Boko Haram and Cameroon. No attacks on Jan 2 of last year. But then there was a 5-day stretch last year from Jan 3-7 of 2015 when Boko Haram killed over 2000 people. It’s called the Baga Massacre of 2015. And let’s not forget that it was Jan 7 of last year that the Charlie Hebdo shooting happened in France, and then 2 days later there was a hostage crisis at Port de Vincennes.
At the beginning of 2014, it was a bit more similar to this year. 3 attacks on New Year’s Day, and then 8 separate attacks on Jan 2.
In January of 2013, there were 2 attacks in Afghanistan on the 1st of the month. 2 attacks happened on the 3rd in Iraq and Syria. Then nothing else until the 10th.
In 2012, there was one attack on New Year’s Day. Al-Shabaab struck in Kenya (I suppose they’re not always strictly at work in Somalia). One attack on the 2nd and 4 on the 3rd.
In 2011, there was one suicide bombing outside a Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt. 21 were killed and 97 injured. Blame seems to go to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. This is a fairly interesting link to the story.
bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12101748
President Mubarak condemned the attack and he’s quoted extensively, the Muslim Brotherhood also condemned the attack and said no religion in the world could condone it. I have to say though, that sounds just a bit like the beginning of a “No true Scotsman” type of fallacy.
As I’m looking back at January attacks over the past 5 years, I’m noticing that al-Shabaab comes up quite a bit. They get hardly any attention compared to most of the other sites of attacks despite happening at a comparable scale. Apparently, after the US ended its involvement in Somalia about 20 years ago, stability never did materialize and there continues to be an ongoing war in Somalia with no end in sight, as far as I can tell. I’m also noticing how I see nothing but Islam-motivated terror attacks in the first week or so of each year going back 5 years. I know the non-Islamic terror attacks are listed here when they happen, because I looked hard enough to find some of them. But the more you look through this list, the more you see that Islam-motivated non-state terror attacks account for very nearly everything on this list.
This is a page on al-Shabaab.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group
And this is a page on the Somali civil war, where there has been no real peace since the 80’s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Civil_War
Kenya is working with Somalia to finish off al-Shabaab, which aligns itself with al-Qaeda. From 2014 to now the group has been pushed out of major metropolitan areas and a key leader was recently killed, there was also a 45-day period during which moderate members of the group had the opportunity to leave and stop fighting without further penalty. There is hope and positive comments on how it may be about to fragment and really end, but then on the other hand, the group is responsible for 2 acts of terror on the first 2 days of 2016. So let’s keep an eye on that.
Edit- it now occurs to me that although my username is inspired by a pro wrestling gimmick, this thread is a very good example of me delivering a whole lot of bad news.
