Deadly attacks in Europe since 2004
Date
3/22/2016 10:13:16 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A picture shows damage to the facade of Brussels Airport in Zaventem on March 2016 after two explosions in the airport.AFP / DIRK WAEM
Paris:At least 26 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of attacks in Brussels on Tuesday described as a strike on the very heart of Europe.
The bombings at Brussels airport and a metro station in the city that is home to the European Union and NATO are the latest in a string of attacks on the continent since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Europe has been on high alert for Islamist violence since a jihadist rampage in Paris in January 2015 that targeted a satirical weekly and a Jewish supermarket.
Here is a recap:
- March 22 2016: BELGIUM: At least 11 people are killed in two blasts at Zavantam airport in Brussels with the federal prosecutor saying that one was probably caused by a suicide bomber. Another 15 people lose their lives in a third explosion at the Maalbeek metro station close to EU headquarters.
- November 13 2015 FRANCE:
Islamic State (IS) group jihadists armed with assault rifles and explosives strike a France-Germany football match Paris cafes and the Bataclan concert hall in a coordinated assault that leaves 130 people dead and more than 350 wounded the deadliest attack of its kind in French history. The main fugitive suspect Belgian-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam is arrested in Belgium just days before Tuesday's Brussels attacks.
- February 14 2015 DENMARK: Omar El-Hussein 22 a Dane of Palestinian origin opens fire at a Copenhagen cultural centre that was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech. A Danish filmmaker is killed and three policemen wounded. The gunman later kills a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue and wounds two more police officers. El-Hussein is shot dead by police a few hours later.
- January 7-9 2015 FRANCE: Two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles storm the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo a satirical weekly known for caricatures of Islam and other religions. They kill 12 people including eight cartoonists and journalists as well as two police officers before fleeing. The following day a policewoman is killed just outside Paris. Another four people are killed when a gunman takes hostages at a Jewish supermarket. The attackers who claim allegiance to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are killed in separate gun battles with police.
- May 24 2014 BELGIUM: A gunman opens fire at the Jewish museum in Brussels killing four people including two Israeli tourists. Franco-Algerian suspect Mehdi Nemmouche is later arrested in France and extradited to Belgium.
- March 11-19 2012 FRANCE: Mohamed Merah 23 kills three soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban southern France and then kills three Jewish children and a teacher at a school in Toulouse. Merah a self-described Al-Qaeda sympathiser is shot dead by police on March 22 after a 32-hour siege of his apartment.