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March 23, 2018: Suicide bomber attacks wrestling match in Afghanistan

On March 23, 2018 a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more in a car bomb attack on a sports stadium in Afghanistan.

LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN – You have to pity Afghanistan, the country where more people have died in terrorist attacks over the past few decades than anywhere else on the planet.

Have you ever heard of the World Happiness Report? It is a global survey that says it can show how people evaluate their own lives in more than 150 countries worldwide. In other words, how ‘happy‘ they are.

But, you counter, isn’t ‘happiness‘ a very subjective thing? Can we really measure it objectively? Probably not, but let’s give them an E for effort nonetheless.

The 2021 report just came out and, no surprise here, the top 20 countries are all Western: in fact, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) took five of the top eight spots: Finland was #1 for the FIFTH year in a row!

We are the world’s happiest reindeer! (Photo: Bishwo Ghimire on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

At the very bottom was…Afghanistan (at #146). This should shock no one as that nation has suffered – and is continuing to suffer – from so much war and misery for decades. And a lot of that dismalness comes from terrorists.

On this day in 2018

A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more in a car bomb attack on a sports stadium in the Afghan province of Helmand. The blast happened at a wrestling match at the Ghazi Muhammad Ayub Khan stadium in the region’s capital Lashkar Gah.

The bomber wanted to go inside the stadium but he was identified by the police and he detonated himself.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor

The Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS in Khorasan (IS-K) was likely behind the attack. So, even when Afghans try to get a little fun in by watching a wrestling match they are still beset by terrorism. I guess that is why they remain the world’s unhappiest place.

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By Phil Gurski

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. Phil is a 32-year veteran of CSE and CSIS and the author of six books on terrorism.

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