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Terrorism and cultural destruction

We all remember when the Taliban blew up two huge Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan back in March 2001.  These religious objects, almost 1500 years old, were reduced to rubble when the extremists gleefully dynamited them and bragged about their act of demolition.  At the time, their crime made headlines around the world and was, […]

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Lessons from an earlier war

I have just finished reading an incredible book on Sri Lanka – This Divided Island by Samanth Subramanian (St Martin’s Press 2014).  The author spent months talking to people on the island as well as in the Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada and the UK about the various conflicts that have taken place over the […]

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May 26, 2016: ISIS kills its own terrorists for disobeying orders

On May 26, 2016 ISIS executed eight of its members in Iraq’s Nineveh Province for not joining the fight against Kurdish militias.

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May 13, 2011: Bombing at military training centre in Pakistan

On May 13, 2011 98 people were killed by two TTP suicide bombs at a military training centre northwest Pakistan in revenge for the killing of AQ leader bin Laden.

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May 9 2004: Stadium bombing in Chechnya kills President

On May 9, 2004 a bomb exploded in the Dynamo Stadium in the Chechen capital city, Grozny, killing 10 people including President Akhmad Kadyrov.

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May 6, 2009: Cellphone tower bombings in Spain

On May 6, 2009 two ETA bombs exploded at two cellphone towers in the Basque region of resulting in damage to both towers but no injuries or deaths.

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Does ‘terrorism’ mean too much to too many?

We must get better at when to use the word terrorism to describe acts of violence: in a world rife with too much terrorism, why would we want to make more?

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April 14, 2001: Bombing at New Year’s parade in Bangladesh

On April 14, 2001 nine people were killed and 17 critically wounded by a jihadi suicide squad during Bangladeshi new year festivities.

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April 8, 2011: Terrorists bomb Nigerian elections office

On April 8, 2011 a possible Boko Haram bomb blast killed at least six people at the office of Nigeria’s election commission in the central town of Suleja.

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April 5, 2013: Attack on patrol boat in Nigeria

On April 5, 2013 Niger Delta terrorists ambushed a police boat in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, killing 12 police officers.