Huge Terror Attacks In 2017 You Didn’t Even Realize Happened
By
Sughra Hafeez in
Heartbreaking
On 4th September 2017
Statistics show that in 2017, as of July 17, there have been 699 recorded terror attacks worldwide and 4,445 fatalities. Many of these tragedies have occurred in places like the United States, the UK, and France. However, there is no arguing that the majority of these horrific instances took place in countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Egypt. While the western media reports these horrific incidents, it’s also true that we’re so obsessed with Donald Trump’s latest controversial tweet, that attacks elsewhere generally receive little-detailed coverage. There’s certainly no trending hashtags or Snapchat filters.
It’s completely reasonable that the western media reports heavily on attacks in their countries, yet, by barely mentioning the other onslaughts across the world, they’re in danger of dispatching trivializing terror overseas. This attitude implies message that these barbaric acts of cruelty don’t matter. These 14 huge 2017 terror attacks, which many people may not be aware of, remind us that although the threat lingers around the west, in other countries terrorism is not a daily danger, it’s a daily promise.
#1 Sadr City, Baghdad – 2 January
A suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck packed with explosives in northern Baghdad.The explosion targeted a crowded street full of garages and used car dealers.
The attack came a day after a car bomb explosion in southern Baghdad killed at least four people.
The Iraqi capital was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since.
On January 2, ISIL, which often targets crowded areas to maximise casualties, claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed 39 people in a busy market in Sadr City.
ISIL is defending Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq, against a massive, four-month-old operation by an alliance of forces.
#2 Gao, Mali – 18 January
GAO, Mali (Reuters) - Al Qaeda’s North African affiliate said a suicide bomb attack on a military camp in northern Mali that killed up to 60 people and wounded more than 100 others was punishment for groups there cooperating with France.
The bombers forced their way into the camp shortly before 9 a.m. (0900 GMT), running over several people before blowing up their vehicle just as 600 soldiers were assembling, said Radhia Achouri, a spokeswoman for Mali’s U.N. peacekeeping force MINUSMA.
“We will fight you. We will defeat you. You will not have the last word,”
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a televised address.
France intervened in Mali in 2013 to drive back Islamist groups that seized the desert north a year earlier and maintains a regional operation aimed at stamping out insurgents.
State media put the death toll at 60 and said another 115 were wounded. It was not clear if the figure for the dead included the five suicide bombers that were earlier reported to have carried out the attack.
#3 Mosul, Iraq – 8 February
Over 300 police, army personnel and civil activists were executed by an ISIS firing squad for unknown crimes.
Up to 15 residents of Sheikh Mohamed village were executed in northern Mosul, the source added.
The battle for Mosul is the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion. A victory by the 100,000-strong US-backed pro-government force would probably spell the end for ISIS self-styled caliphate that has ruled over millions of people in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
#4 Sehwan, Pakistan – 16 February
At least 72 people have been killed by a bombing at a shrine in Pakistan in the latest terror attack launched in a week of bloodshed sweeping the country.
More than 250 others were injured when a suicide bomber launched a grenade before blowing himself up at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan on Thursday evening.
Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre via its Amaq news agency, saying a "martyr of the Islamic State" detonated his vest at what the group described as a "Shia gathering".
#5 Kabul, Afghanistan – 8 March, Kabul
More than 30 people have been killed after attackers dressed as doctors stormed the largest military hospital in Kabul, Afghan officials say.
Militants armed with guns and grenades gained entry after one detonated explosives at a hospital gate and then opened fire on staff and patients.
Commandos who landed on the Sardar Daud hospital roof killed all four attackers after several hours of fighting.
The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has claimed the attack.
The Taliban has denied any involvement.
More than 50 people were also wounded, the defense ministry said.
#6 Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt – 9 April
At least 27 people have been killed in an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile Delta city of Tanta, state media reported, as another blast killed 16 in front of a church in the coastal city of Alexandria.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group on Sunday claimed responsibility for both attacks, in a statement via its Amaq website. It said they were carried out by two of its fighters wearing suicide vests.
The first attack occurred in the Coptic church of Mar Girgis, also known as St George, which was packed with worshippers marking Palm Sunday, a Christian feast commemorating the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.
Egypt's state television reported that at least 71 people were wounded in the attack.
Several hours after the bombing in Tanta, another explosion hit in front of Saint Mark's church in Alexandria, where Coptic Pope Tawadros II was leading a service.
Egypt's state media said at least 16 people, including seven police officers, were killed in the suicide bomb attack.
Some on social media praised at least two police officers who they say stopped the bomber from entering the church. They were killed in the blast.
#7 Aleppo, Syria – April 15
A suicide car bomber has killed and injured at least 100 people and fractured a complex deal to evacuate four besieged towns in Syria, leaving thousands of people trapped in limbo.
The bomber targeted buses full of evacuees from government-held towns as they waited in a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Aleppo. He drove his explosives up to their vehicles in a van meant to carry aid supplies.
The Syrian Civil Defence in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, said their volunteers pulled at least 100 bodies from the site of the explosion. White Helmets member Ibrahim Alhaj said the dead included many children and women.
#8 Camp Shaheen, Afghanistan – 21 April 2017
In April 2017, Taliban fighters, wearing army uniforms and driving two military vehicles, drove into the Afghan National Army base, claiming to have wounded soldiers in need of urgent medical care. In the single deadliest attack on an Afghan military base in the course of the war, two of ten attackers detonated suicide vests, while the other eight were killed in the ensuing gun battle. Reportedly, as many as 256 people died and 160 were injured in what was described as “revenge” for the death of two Taliban officials.
#9 Hama, Syria – 18 May
More than 50 people are reported to have been killed in heavy fighting in Syria after so-called Islamic State launched an attack in Hama province.
The militants targeted villages under government control and clashed with the army and its militia allies.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 15 of the dead were civilians.
The fighting is near a strategically important highway linking Hama city with the Aleppo area further north.
The SOHR said at least 27 government troops or militia were killed in the attack, on the villages of Aqareb and al-Mabujeh. Another 10 bodies had yet to be identified.
Some of the civilians killed were put to death after being captured by IS, the Observatory added.
State news agency Sana also reported the attack in Aqareb, saying 20 civilians were killed there but made no mention of al-Mabujeh.
#10 Brak El-Shati, Libya – 20 May
An attack on an airbase in southern Libya has killed at least 141 people, mostly soldiers loyal to renegade General's Khalifa Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), a spokesman for his forces said.
The victims also included civilians who worked at the Brak al-Shati air base or were in the nearby area, Mismari said.
"The soldiers were returning from a military parade. They weren't armed. Most of them were executed," he said.
#11 London terror attack - 7 June
Islamophobic hate crimes jumped fivefold in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack.The data, collated by the Metropolitan Police, reveals there was a 40 per cent increase in racist incidents on 6 June compared with an average day this year.
The number of reported Islamophobic hate crimes was also higher than in the days following the Paris attacks in November 2015 and the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013.
Eight people were killed and 48 were injured, including four unarmed police officers who attempted to stop the assailants. The three attackers, who wore fake explosive vests, were later shot dead by police.
The incident came less than three months after five people were killed in a similar vehicle-ramming attack in Westminster and less than two weeks after a bombing in Manchester killed 22.
#12 Jakarta bombings - 24 May
On 24 May 2017, two explosions occurred at a bus terminal in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta. Police confirmed that the explosions were caused by multiple explosive devices found in the toilet and in another part of the terminal.
The bombings killed 5 people, 3 policemen and 2 attackers. The 11 injured people were taken to multiple hospitals across the Eastern Jakarta area.
The attack occurred just two days after an ISIS-linked suicide bombing targeting young girls occurred in Manchester, United Kingdom, which killed 22 people and occurred on the day after government clashes with ISIS-linked militants began in Marawi, Philippines.
According to the Indonesian Police Watch, the attack was the deadliest attack on the Indonesian National Police.
