HELMAND PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN – Terrorists always say that they target legitimate individuals but often kill those who have nothing to do with their so-called grievances.
Imagine for one second – please! No more than a second! – that you are a terrorist. You are either a so-called ‘lone actor’ (NB PLEASE do not use the term ‘lone wolf’!) or you belong to a larger group like Al Qaeda (AQ) or Islamic State (ISIS) or any other of the hundreds of such agencies out there. You are angry about something or at somebody for what they did or are doing to you or your country. And you justify the use of violence to right those wrongs.
It would stand to reason, then, that you would do everything in your power to target those you see as your enemy. This is what happens when a bunch of guys with guns or knives or whatever launches an action directly against those it hates. In this sense it is more like traditional warfare.
IEDs – improvised explosive devices – are a whole other matter, however. While they may be planted at the side of a road, say, to take out military vehicles, they are also just lying there waiting to go boom regardless of what passes by.
On this day in 2014
One such IED went off in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, killing a carload of civilians, including two women and two children. The device’s detonation happened to coincide with the departure of Canada’s last forces from the country.
Your sacrifices have brought us freedom. The beacons of your blood have lit the way to independence. Celebrate the victory and freedom from the Canadians.
Taliban’s ‘information arm’
Whatever we think of Canada’s decade plus in Afghanistan it is nevertheless true that far too many civilians died. Most were at the hands – and bombs – of terrorists.
Read More Today in Terrorism
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On May 31, 1906 a Spanish anarchist threw a bomb hoping to hit King Alfonso XIII, killing 24 and wounding more than 100.
May 30, 2009: Anti-government group bombs TV station in Ecuador
On May 30, 2009 two pamphlet-bombs exploded outside an Ecuadorian TV station and ministry: no victims or significant damage ensued.
May 29, 2016: ISIS uses chlorine gas in terrorist attack
On May 29, 2016 35 civilians were wounded in an ISIS attack using rockets containing chlorine gas in Iraq’s Nineveh Province.
