Top 15 Most Horrifying Terrorist Attacks
It’s most unfortunate, but as humans, we are always involved with some kind
of conflict. Today we see terrorist attacks occur regularly all over the world,
but for some reason, we stay fixed on just the few that have been covered time
and time again in the media. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of terrorist
attacks that have occurred in modern times that many people are simply not aware
of, and we have created a list of the 15 most significant and terrifying
terrorists attacks that have occurred in the 20th and 21st century.
World Trade Center After Second Plane's Impact
By TheMachineStops
via Wikimedia Commons
15) Grand Brighton Hotel Bombing
The Grand Brighton Hotel Bombing was the terrorist attack designed to kill the
first female prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, Margaret Thatcher. The attack took place on the 12th October in 1984
when a conservative Party conference was being held at the venue. The IRA, the
Irish Republican Army, which was involved in conflict with the British over a
matter of independence, planted the bomb in the hotel.
Grand Brighton Hotel During Restoration in 1988
By Stuart.Jamieson
via Wikimedia Commons
Thatcher and her husband managed to avoid any injury from the time bomb,
however five people were killed. Two high profile Conservative Party politicians
were killed in the bombing and a further 31 people were injured. The next day,
the IRA took full responsibility for the bombing and that they would try again.
They released a statement explaining that Mrs Thatcher and Britain would ‘have
to be lucky always’, suggesting that there will be regular attacks like this in
the future. Thatcher and her cabinet, however, ignored such threats and
continued serving the British people.
Following Attack
By D4444n
via Wikimedia Commons
14) Beirut Barracks Bombing
In 1983, during the Lebanese Civil War, the Beirut Barracks Bombings occurred
in a US Marine Corps barracks at Beirut Airport. The bombing occurred when two
truck bombs struck two different buildings in the airport. Nearly 300 people,
French and American, were killed by the terrorist attack.
Beirut Barracks
By James Case
via Wikimedia Commons
The attack was planned and performed by a group that called itself Islamic
Jihad, and each of the trucks were detonated by suicide bombers. With 220
marines dead, along with three soldiers and 18 sailors, this incident was the
worst day for deaths since the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
Today, the attack is commemorated annually by news networks and war veterans,
and striking images and videos are still available showing a smoke cloud
appearing over the rubble created by the blast.
Vice-President George H.W. Bush Two Days After Attack
The bombing resulted in the international peacekeeping force withdrawing away
from Lebanon, an area that they ad been stationed in ever since the PLO
(Palestine Liberation Organization) had withdrawn. The attack paved way for a
series of other conflicts and controversies involving Israel, Palestine and the
United States.
13) Dubrovka Theater Siege
The Dubrovka Theater Siege took place in Moscow, Russia in 2002. The siege was
performed by between 40 and 50 armed attackers who were working for the Islamist
Militant Separatist Movement. These armed terrorists took more than 850 people
hostage and demanded that the Russian forces were removed from Chechnya, and
that the Second Chechen War was brought to an end.
The whole siege was led by well known terrorist Movsar Barayev, and despite
being so many hostages, the Russian forces managed to kill every single one of
the attackers. A chemical agent, which today remains unknown, was pumped into
the ventilation systems of the building. Unfortunately 130 hostages died as a
result of unexpected reactions to the gas, but everybody else taken hostage
survived.
Hostages Evacuated By Bus
The pumping of gas through the ventilation system was criticized, but Russian
forces and government officials insisted that there was no other choice if they
were not to meet the demands of the armed revels that were more than prepared to
kill everybody within the building.
12) Piazza Fontana Bombing
The Piazza Fontana Bombing was a 1969 terrorist attack that occurred at the
National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana. The attack was roughly 200 meters away
from Duomo, and it results in the deaths of 17 people. A further 88 people were
wounded and in the same day, three more bombs were set off in Milan and Rome. A
final bomb was found that had not detonated and was disposed of by the
authorities.
Initially, the attack was blamed on anarchists. More than 80 arrests were
made, consisting mostly of anarchists like Giuseppe Pinelli. Pinelli was an
anarchist born in the late 1920s who soon killed himself by falling from a
window on the fourth floor of the building in which he was being held by
authorities.
The real plot behind the bombing was never uncovered, but documents that were
officially released in the year 2000 suggested that the Pinelli suicide was a
result of his being a part of the plot. The Red Brigades had come to this
conclusion by performing their own inquiries into the terrorist attack.
There are numerous theories behind the attack, but there is still no
conclusive evidence to prove exactly why it happened and who it was performed
by.
11) Menarsha Synagogue Attack
The Menarsha Synagogue Attack is a pretty old attack, but still not one to be
ignored. This attack took place in 1949 in the Jewish quarter of Damascus. The
attack was performed using grenades and resulted in 12 Syrian Jews being killed.
The terrorist attack occurred as a result of unrest in Palestine and
increasing hostility to Jewish nationalism and Zionism. The tension within Syria
created real anti-Semitism, which combined with political instability, became a
perfect storm for a terrorist attack to occur.
Ruins of the Central Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria
The Syrian government even began treating Jews poorly when the State of
Israel was established, which means this attack was terrible, but certainly came
as no surprise. It occurred on a Friday night, and a number of regular hand
grenades were simply thrown into the Synagogue. As well as the aforementioned
deaths, a further 30 people were killed. The attack was synchronized with
another attack at the Great Synagogue in Aleppo.
Four days later, a 17 year old confessed that he, along with two accomplices,
was behind the attack, but two years later the three were acquitted due to a
lack of evidence.
10) Ma’alot Massacre
The Ma’a lot Massacre was an incident that took place in Israel in May 1974.
The attack lasted two days, whereby 115 people were taken hostages, and 25 of
those died by the end of the attack. The siege started when three members of the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all armed, traveled from
Lebanon to Israel.
Victims at Zefat Cemetery
By Yossi Zur
via Wikimedia Commons
Upon their entry to Israel, the three terrorists killed two Israeli Arabs,
attacked a van and entered into an apartment block in Ma’alot. It was here that
the three armed men killed a couple and their young son. Afterwards, they moved
on to the Netic Meir school, where their final hostages were taken. 105 of the
115 they took hostage were children.
The demands of the three men were that 23 Palestinian militants being held in
Israeli prisons were released, and if they were not, they would kill all of the
students in the school. It was during the second day of the siege that the
building was stormed by a unit from the Golani Brigade. The terrorists killed 22
children using automatic weapons, as well as three adults. On top of this, 68
children and adults were injured before the Israeli forces were able to
stabilize the situation.
9) Manhattan Attacks of the FALN Group
Often forgotten about, the Manhattan attacks of January 24th, 1975 resulted
in a number of deaths and terror in Lower Manhattan. Frances Tavern, which was a
historic restaurant found on Pearl Street, was targeted by a number of Puerto
Rican terrorists. The building was well known for being where George Washington
said his final farewell to all of his officers in the year 1783.
At roughly 1:30 in the afternoon, an explosion occurred in the building that
sent shockwaves right up to the 60th floor of the building. The bomb resulted in
total hysteria and havoc, and 15 minutes later, the press received a phone call
from the mastermind behind the plot. It was claimed that the attack was
performed by a group known as FALN, which was the Armed Forces for the Puerto
Rican National Liberation. These were a bunch of militant political activists
that were attempting to liberate Puerto Rican from American control.
Police found a note in a phone booth nearby, from FALN, that explained they
took total responsibility for the bomb. The note also explained that the bomb
was detonated as retaliation to the bomb that killed three people in a
restaurant in Puerto Rico, which was allegedly ordered by the American CIA.
8) Oklahoma Truck Bombing
In 1995, the city of Oklahoma was traumatized by a large truck bombing. This
domestic attack was made against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building found in
the downtown city. Until the events of the September 11th, 2001, this would be
the most destructive and large scale terrorist attack in the United States.
Murrah Federal Building Before Attack
By Tom
via Wikimedia Commons
The detonation results in nearly 170 people being killed, and 680 being
severely inured. There were more than 320 buildings that were damaged and
destroyed within a radius of 16 blocks, due to immense shock waves sent straight
across the city. 86 cars were either burned or destroyed as a result, and 258
buildings in the surrounding area experienced shattering windows due to the
explosion.
The people behind the attack, Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, performed
the attack as retaliation to the way in which the Waco Siege was dealt with by
the US government. Initially, McVeigh had intended to destroy just a federal
building, but he later changed his mind, deciding that it would be best to kill
as many as people as possible with the bomb.
7) Amerithrax Attacks
These attacks, also known as the 2001 Anthrax Attacks, occurred soon after
the events of 9/11 in the United States. These attacks occurred over a number of
weeks starting in late September, 2001. A number of letters that contained
spores from anthrax were posted to US senators, news media offices and other
government officials, and results in the deaths of five people. The letters
infected a further 17 people.
Letter to Tom Brokaw
It was later explained by the FBI that the investigation into who sent the
letters soon become one of the most complex investigations in the history of law
enforcement in the United States.
Second Note
What made the letters particularly interesting was that in some of them, both
the letters ‘a’ and ‘t’ were highlighted, which suggested that there was some
kind of hidden code behind the letter. An FBI report from 2010 explained that
they had two possible explanations for the hidden message, but that they could
not provide a conclusive statement regarding it.
6) 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
When you mention the attacks on the World Trade Center, people will usually
assume that you are referring to the attacks of 9/11. In fact, the attacks in
2001 were not the only time that the World Trade Center was targeted, as the
first attack was performed in 1993.
A bomb exploded underneath the North Tower of the center, and was designed to
known the North Tower into the South Tower, which would have brought both of the
towers down and killed everybody inside. However, the bomb did not create these
conditions and instead killed six people. More than a thousand people were
injured, but the towers remained, for the most part, intact.
The attack was, like the 9/11 attacks, performed by radical Islamists.
Funding was obtained from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and the attack was performed by
Mahmud Abouhalima, Ramzi Yousef, Nidal Ayyad, Mohammed Salameh, Ahmad Ajaj and
Abdul Yasin.
The seven victims of the attack included Wilfredo Mercado, John DIGIovanni,
Stephen Knapp, Bill Macko, Robert Kirkpatrick, Monica Smith and the unborn child
of Monica Smith.
5) Wall Street Bombing
The Wall Street Bombing was an attack on Wall Street, New York City, in 1920.
A historic attack that injured 143 people and killed 38, it was never solved but
there are numerous theories behind the attack. It is thought by investigators
that it was carried out by a group of Italian anarchists called the Galleanists.
This same group were responsible for a number of bombings the year before,
and the attack was almost certainly a result of the anti-capitalist feelings
that were arising in the United States during this era.
The bomb was detonated from a horse-drawn wagon that was passing through the
crowds in the street. After passing J.P. Morgan bank, a bomb made of 100 pounds
of dynamist and 500 pounds of iron weights exploded on a timer. Both the horse
and the wagon were torn apart into tiny fragments, but it is thought that the
driver had left the vehicle and made an escape.
Investigations were stalled when not a single one of the victims appeared to
be the river of the vehicle, and investigators ere unable to find the stable
from which the horse had come from. The only person that was traced was the
blacksmith that had made the horseshoes, but he was unable to offer any
information about the people who had used the horse.
The investigation went on for three years, with cooperation between police
and the Bureau of Investigation, to no avail. There were a number of arrests
made, but nobody was convicted of the attack due to the real lack of evidence.
The investigation was primarily focused on communists as well as anarchists, and
the primary theory behind the attack is that it was revenge for the arrest of
Vanzetti and Sacco, two well-known anarchists.
4) Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai Attacks
In 2008, some of the most terrifying attacks took place in Mumbai. The event
is commonly known as 26/11, and it involved twelve separate bombing and shooting
attacks that were coordinated across Mumbai. There was only one attacker that
was captured alive, Ajmal Kasab. Kasab confessed that the bombings, shootings and
sieges were performed with a view of supporting the Inter-Services Intelligence
of Pakistan. The country has regularly used terrorist groups to achieve some of
its foreign policy agendas, meaning that this was terrifying but not surprising
for officials in India.
Eight of the 12 attacks took place in South Mumbai, in hospitals, cafes and
towers. The rest took place in community centers, cinemas and colleges. The only
known attacker, Ajmal Kasab, explained that the attackers were a part of a
terrorist organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba. This group is known as a
terrorist organization by the United States, Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom
and the United Nations.
Week after Attack
By Stuti Sakhalkar
via Wikimedia Commons
It was later confirmed in 2009 that a part of the attack had been planned in
Pakistan, and Kasab was sentenced to death in 2010.
3) London Stock Exchange Bomb
The London Stock Exchange is found in the City of London and was founded in
1801. The historic building is an essential part of the UK economy, and in 1990,
the IRA (Irish Republican Army) targeted the building with a view to pushing
their political agenda.
The event took place on the 20th July, when a bomb planted in the men’s
bathroom near the visitors’ gallery was detonated. Nobody was injured during the
attack as people had already been evacuated, but the bomb still caused
significant damage to the building.
London Stock Exchange
By Kaihsu Tai
via Wikimedia Commons
Strangely enough, the reason that nobody had been killed was because of a
secret phone call from somebody claiming to be a member of the IRA. During the
phone call, the man explained to Reuters that there was a bomb planted in the
toilets and that it would soon explode. It has been explained by police
investigators that if this phone call had not been placed then the death toll
would have been large.
The explosion from the bomb created a hold in the building, right through its
23 floors. Glass was shattered along the street, with other buildings also
suffering damage.
2) 7/7 London
The 7/7 bombings in London took place in 2005, and were a large-scale
terrorist attack that took the lives of 52 people. These bombings included a
series of suicide attacks across the city that targeted the public transport
systems during the rush hour in the morning. Home-grown terrorists from the
United Kingdom began by detonating three bombs on the underground train network,
known as the Tube. These three bombs were detonated at roughly the same time,
and soon after, a fourth bomb was detonated on a double decker bus.
As well as the aforementioned deaths, more than 700 people were injured in
the first Islamic suicide attacks in the UK.
The bombs were made of organic peroxide and were hidden in rucksacks. Today,
security checks and police presence has been increased significantly on the
underground tube networks, and further camera and security systems have been
implemented to ensure that something like this cannot happen again.
Two of the bombers who were responsible for the attacks in London had made
their own videotape confessions, and they were broadcast by Al Jazeera on the
1st September. In the first video statement made by Mohammed Khan, it was
explained that the detonations were made to aid the brothers and sisters of ‘the
cause’, referring of course to the Islamist course.
The second videotape was broadcast again by Al Jazeera, but this time in
2006. This videotape was the confession of Al Qaeda member Shehzad Tanweer.
1) 9/11
Finally, 9/11, the attacks that occurred on September 11th 2001, are among
the most well known and large terrorist attacks to occur in the whole world.
This attack included four separate terrorist attacks that were designed and
implemented by the terrorist group Al Qaeda. The attacks took place in both
Washington DC and New York City.
By UpstateNYer
via Wikimedia Commons
The suicide attacks were caused by the hijacking of four passenger airplanes.
Two planes were flown directly into the North and South towers of the World
Trade Center, destroying both towers and completing a goal that was not obtained
in 1993 by Islamist terrorists. The two towers collapsed over a two-hour period,
resulting in thousands of deaths.
The third plane was crashed into the headquarters of the US Defense
Department, known as the Pentagon. Then, there was a fourth plane crashed into a
field in Pennsylvania that didn’t hit its ultimate target, due to passengers of
the plane disrupting the plans of the hijackers.
The result of these attacks included 2,996 people dying, and a total shift in
the way the United States defended itself. The collapse of the two towers not
only killed people and damaged the physical surroundings of Lower Manhattan, but
it also had an adverse effect on the economy of the area.
Despite the devastation, the towers have been rebuilt, and opened in early 2014.
Conclusion
These 15 tales of terrorism throughout the world are just a few of the
examples of what happens when there are political disagreements in the world.
Throughout human history, attacks like this have occurred when one side of a
controversial disagreement feels that there is no other way to get a message
across to the people that are either most influential, or in control.
Attacks involving mass killings have occurred for thousands of years, but as
technology has advanced, terrorists have become more creative. It is unfortunate
that this happens, but with a modern Western world trying to bring peace to the
East, it is not unlikely that things like this will happen again. Hopefully,
however, new technologies and security checks and systems should allow us to
avoid anything too significant, or anything that involves the deaths of
thousands of people.
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