The unprecedented terrorist attacks of 9/11 were only the prologue of a sad tale that has yet to end. Indeed, they set a twisted pattern that may never end. America hasn’t been the sole target of terrorists. Citing cooperation with the “Great Satan” or other such similar nonsense to justify their honourless and cowardly attacks, Islamic terrorists have struck Europe quite hard. What follows is a timeline of major terrorist events that should serve as a daily reminder of what has been lost and what might be lost if our vigilance happens to drop.

In March 2004, 10 Spanish trains were simultaneous hit by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by al-Qaida terrorists. The casualty number reached 192 dead and more than 2000 wounded.

A few months later in September, Chechen terrorists stormed a school in the Russian town of Beslan. The ensuing hostage situation ended after three days with the botched operation by Russian counter-terrorist forces. The aftermath was 385 dead and 783 wounded.  (Read the complete NEWSREP analysis here, here, and here.)

In 2005, the London subway attacks left 52 people dead and more than 700 hundred injured.

In 2010, two women strapped with suicide-vests targeted the Moscow metro. The detonations happened during the morning rush hour and left 40 people dead and more than 100 wounded.

In 2015, a series of coordinated attacks struck Paris. A nightclub, a stadium, and numerous cafes and restaurants were targeted. The aftermath left 130 people dead and more than 400 wounded.

In 2016, Germany was hit twice: the first incident happened when a terrorist drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market killing 12 people and injuring 60; the second incident occurred in the city of Ansbach, where a Jihadist denotated a bomb wounding 15 people.

In March, three simultaneous explosions in the airport and underground of Brussels, the Belgian capital, left 29 people dead and more than 300 injured.

In June, a terrorist drove a 19-ton truck over pedestrians celebrating France’s Independence Day in a seaside road in Nice killing 86 and wounding 458 people.

In 2017, Britain suffered four strikes. In March, three people were killed and 29 injured when a terrorist drove his car over pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and outside the British parliament. In May, a suicide bomber targeted a concert in Manchester. The explosion killed 22 and injured more than 139 people, most who were children leaving the concert. And in June, a van drove over pedestrians strolling the London Bridge and then the three terrorists began a stabbing spree before they were neutralised by law enforcement offices.

In April, an Uzbek refugee who was denied asylum drove a truck over a packed street in Stockholm. The result was five dead and 15 wounded.

In August, three separate attacks in Barcelona killed 16 people and wounded more than 120.

According to a research titled “Terrorism,published by an Oxford University associated research team, worldwide terrorist-related incidents peaked at an astounding 16,860 incidents in 2014. Since then, numbers have fallen but remain in the thousands.

We must never forget. We must never become complacent. We must never lose our vigilance.
