May 13, 2019

The island nations of New Zealand and Sri Lanka are separated by nearly 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) of ocean. But in just over a month’s time, the distant neighbors were connected by ghastly mass killings. On March 15, 2019, a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Islamic people worshipping at a mosque in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island. A few weeks later, on Easter Sunday, April 21, an Islamic terrorist group orchestrated coordinated attacks that killed 257 people, mostly Christians, in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city, and other areas. The Islamic State terror group claimed to have organized these attacks with local Sri Lankan terrorists. They also claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for the mass shooting in New Zealand. Law enforcement agencies questioned the direct connection, however, as such a coordinated attack probably required more than a few weeks to plan.

On March 18, 2019, students display the New Zealand flag during a vigil for the people killed in a mass shooting at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch. Credit: © Anthony Wallace, AFP/Getty Images

New Zealand is not generally known for extremism or violence, but that changed—at least for one day—on the afternoon of March 15. A gunman, inspired by hateful and racist rhetoric (influential speech), entered the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch and began firing. Minutes later, he returned to his car, retrieved a second weapon, and re-entered the mosque to continue his rampage. The shooter then fled in his car, arriving a short time later at the Linwood Islamic Centre. Unable to find a door quickly, the attacker began shooting at the windows. A worshipper chased the gunman back to his car, and he again fled. Police then captured the shooter, a 28-year-old Australian man carrying various weapons and explosives.

The gunman planned his attack for wide exposure over social media. Shortly before starting his attack, the shooter posted a lengthy manifesto (a public declaration of his motives) on several websites. The gunman, who had decorated his weapons with white supremacist slogans, live-streamed the attack over the internet using a head-mounted camera. Both the manifesto and the video of the attack quickly circulated widely across the internet, particularly on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The postings raised questions about whether or not such sites were doing enough to stop the spread of white supremacist material and other extreme content.

The government of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern worked quickly to draft a gun control bill. The bill overwhelmingly passed through Parliament and became law on April 12. In addition to banning the ownership of most automatic and semiautomatic weapons, the law established a buyback program under which owners of now-outlawed weapons could turn them in for fair compensation.

Ardern was widely hailed for the compassion and leadership she displayed in the aftermath of the attacks. She visited the survivors and publicly repudiated the gunman and his ideology. Ardern also vowed never to speak the gunman’s name in order to deny him the attention he sought.

Sri Lankan officials inspect the ruins of St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Colombo suburb, in the days after terrorist bombs struck the church and other targets on April 21, 2019. Credit: © Stringer/Getty Images

In Sri Lanka, a civil war ended in 2009, and since then the country has experienced little violence. Religious extremism is not prevalent in Sri Lanka, where Christians and Muslims together account for less than 20 percent of the mostly Buddhist population.

On April 21, 2019, however, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), a Sri Lankan Islamist group linked to the Islamic State, carried out coordinated attacks on Easter, the most important Christian festival of the year. The attacks occurred in the morning as people were attending church services or enjoying breakfast with family members. NTJ suicide bombers hit several targets within minutes of each other: Saint Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Colombo suburb; the Shrine of Saint Anthony in Colombo; the Zion Chuch in Batticaloa, a city on Sri Lanka’s east coast; and the Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury, and Shangi-La hotels in Colombo. Later in the day, two more attacks occurred in the Colombo suburbs of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia (at the Tropical Inn) and Dematagoda (at a housing complex).

Initial reports listed the dead at 359, but that number was later revised to 257. The discrepancy was caused by the difficulty in identifying body parts separated by the violent explosions. Another 496 people were injured in the attacks. Sri Lanka’s government declared a state of emergency as it began investigating the attacks. Police quickly identified a number of the attackers, and in the following days, they captured or killed a number of people suspected of aiding in the attacks. Numerous weapons and bomb-making materials were confiscated.

Sri Lanka’s government looked inward for blame, finding serious lapses in domestic and international security. Several government officials resigned, and the inspector general of police was placed on compulsory leave. Social media was blacked out for several days after the attack, some government offices and university campuses were closed, and previously slack restrictions on extreme Islamic rhetoric were greatly tightened. Religious services—both Christian and Muslim—were temporarily cancelled for fear of further attacks or reprisals, and the numbers of foreign tourists in Sri Lanka dropped sharply.

October 24, 2017

Yesterday, October 23, the Philippine military announced the end of a bloody five-month campaign to oust Abu Sayyaf and Maute Islamic rebels from Marawi City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Filipino soldiers had been clearing the last rebels from the battered city since President Rodrigo Duterte declared Marawi “liberated from terrorist influence” on October 17. Duterte’s declaration came the day after the killing of the rebels’ main leaders, Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute. The Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups both have close ties to the Islamic State terror organization.

Filipino soldiers walk through the ruins of Marawi City on Oct. 17, 2017, the day President Rodrigo Duterte declared the city liberated from Islamic militant rebels. Credit: © Ted Aljibe, AFP/Getty Images

Marawi is the capital and only city in the province of Lanao del Sur on Mindanao. The city, officially known as the Islamic City of Marawi, and surrounding province have long been home to a significant Muslim community (most Filipinos are Roman Catholic). Marawi’s religious roots go back some 500 years, when the area was part of a sultanate linked to Islamic areas in nearby Indonesia and Malaysia.

Marawi, a city of 200,000 people, and Lanao del Sur are part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the nation’s only self-governing region. However, Abu Sayyaf, meaning father of the swordsman in Arabic, has been in conflict with the national government since 1991 when it was part of an armed movement vying for complete independence. Abu Sayyaf has fought pitched battles against Philippine soldiers, and the group is notorious for bombings, kidnappings, and high-profile executions.

In late May 2017, Philippine security forces tried to capture Hapilon, the Abu Sayyaf leader, in Marawi, and a protracted gun battle erupted with Hapilon’s followers. Allying with the Maute group, a newer Islamic armed faction fed by extremists from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, Abu Sayyaf seized control of government buildings and other key points in Marawi. President Duterte responded by ordering a full-scale military campaign to reclaim Marawi from the Islamic rebels. He later declared martial law in all Mindanao.

Fighting began immediately as Philippine troops arrived to retake the city, which was emptied of its civilian population by mass evacuations. Street fighting slowly went the government’s way as air strikes pulverized rebel positions—along with much of the city. Block by block, rebels were rooted out and killed or captured. As rebel control shrank to a few isolated buildings, government troops finally cornered Hapilon, along with Maute, and killed them both in a gunfight on October 16. A week later, the military announced the end of 154 days of fighting that killed more than 900 rebels and some 300 troops and civilians.

The rebel hold on Marawi has ended, but much of the city is in ruins, and both the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups maintain a strong following in much of Lanao del Sur. The long fight against Islamic rebels in Mindanao may be long from over.

October 19, 2017

As Islamic State terrorist forces lost ground in Iraq in 2017, the terror group was also losing ground in neighboring Syria, a country torn apart by civil war since 2011. At times, the Islamic State has controlled large parts of Syria, but its grip has recently shrunk to areas along the Euphrates River in the nation’s sparsely populated east. In 2014, the terror group took control of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa (also spelled Ar Raqqah), proclaiming it a regional capital within its so-called caliphate. The group’s main capital was Mosul, Iraq, which fell in July. Other names for the Islamic State have included the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Raqqa, Syria, lies in ruins on Aug. 1, 2017. Fighting to oust Islamic State militants destroyed much of the city in 2017. Credit: Mahmoud Bali, Voice of America

The Islamic State staged euphoric parades—as well as numerous atrocities—in Raqqa, a city that once numbered 300,000 people. Most of Raqqa’s residents fled, but those who could not were forced to watch as Islamic State executioners murdered dozens of people daily. Mass executions took place regularly at the city’s main Clock Tower Square, grisly killings of people who stepped out of line with the terror group’s extreme interpretation of Islam.

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Raqqa (here spelled Ar Raqqah) lies on the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Al Mayadin is down river in eastern Syria. Both cities were liberated from Islamic State control in October 2017. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 2017, however, the suffering people of Raqqa witnessed a turnaround. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish and Arab militia group,
chased Islamic State fighters away from areas surrounding Raqqa, leaving the city an isolated Islamic State stronghold. On June 6, SDF troops—supplied and supported by the United States-led coalition also fighting the Islamic State—entered Raqqa. Heavy fighting erupted as Islamic State militants battled invading SDF troops. Throughout June, July, and August, the SDF advanced street-by-street against stiff Islamic State resistance.

By September 1, Islamic State control was reduced to several neighborhoods in the city’s north and in the central area around the killing ground of Clock Tower Square. By early October, the battered ruins of Raqqa were firmly in SDF hands, and only scattered pockets of the most fanatic Islamic State fighters remained (thousands of fighters had fled or surrendered). At last, on October 17, the SDF declared Raqqa secured: the last Islamic State fighters in the city had fled or been killed or captured.

Like the fall of Mosul in July, the fall of Raqqa was a significant moment in the fight against the Islamic State, but the fight continues. Also in October, Syrian government forces—who are at war with rebels as well as the Islamic State (but not the SDF)—took control of the eastern town of al Mayadin in Deir al-Zor province, the Islamic State’s last Syrian stronghold.

July 19, 2017

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory for government forces in their bloody battle with Islamic State militants for possession of the northern city of Mosul. One of Iraq’s largest cities, Mosul had been under Islamic State control since the terrorist group took it by force in June 2014. The government campaign to retake the city began in October 2016.

An Iraqi federal policeman tries to draw fire from an Islamic State sniper in Mosul, Iraq, in April 2017. If the sniper fires, he may reveal his position. Credit: © Carl Court, Getty Images

Islamic State is the name used by a radical militant Sunni Islamist group based in Iraq and Syria. The group is known for its ruthless violence and severe interpretation of the Sharī`ah, the legal and moral code of Islam. In June 2014, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate from the steps of the Grand Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul. A caliphate is a government ruled by a caliph, a leader with political and religious authority recognized by Muslims as a successor of the Prophet Muhammad. No one outside the Islamic State—which is merely a well-organized terrorist group—recognized the so-called caliphate, however, and it is often referred to as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or by the acronym DAESH, based on the group’s full Arabic name (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham). For the past several years, the group has been fighting for control of parts of Iraq and Syria and has killed thousands of people in high-profile terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East.

Northeastern Iraq is largely Kurdish, and peshmerga (Kurdish for those who confront death) fighters led a first attempt to liberate Mosul in early 2015. Coinciding Islamic State assaults on the city of Ramadi—much closer to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital—prevented the Iraqi Army from supporting the Kurds in Mosul, however. The peshmerga pried several suburban villages from Islamic State control, but they lacked the numbers and firepower to free the city itself.

Iraqi soldiers and heavy vehicles head for the fighting in Mosul, Iraq, in November 2016. Credit: Mstyslav Chernov (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Hard fighting around Mosul resumed in the spring of 2016 as the government worked to cut off Islamic State supply routes out of the city. Government-led forces slowly tightened the net around Mosul through the summer and into autumn. Civilians in the city, already suffering under Islamic State rule (there were numerous random killings and mass executions), fled Mosul in increasing numbers—as did many Islamic State fighters. By early October, the estimated number of Islamic State militants in Mosul had shrunk to between 3,000 and 5,000, down from roughly 20,000 earlier in 2016.

On October 16, some 100,000 troops—mostly from the Iraqi army but many from peshmerga, Shī`ite, and other local militias—gathered on the outskirts of Mosul. With close air and artillery support from a United States-led coalition, Iraqi forces entered eastern Mosul the next day. They advanced against fierce pockets of Islamic State resistance, rigged explosives, and other improvised defenses. Civilians were often caught in the crossfire, particularly as Islamic State fighters used them as human shields and deterrents against coalition air and artillery strikes. Still, eastern Mosul steadily fell to government troops through November and December as assaults from the north and west put further pressure on the city’s Islamic State defenders. On Jan. 24, 2017, Prime Minister al-Abadi announced the “full liberation” of eastern Mosul.

Burned out cars and rubble flank a deserted road in Mosul, Iraq, in November 2016. Fighting in Mosul left much of the city in ruins. Credit: Mstyslav Chernov (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The offensive to liberate Mosul’s western half (the city is divided by the Tigris River) began on February 19. Government forces advanced from neighborhood to neighborhood, fighting from building to building both on the streets and below them in tunnels. Islamic State forces dwindled but maintained fierce and often suicidal resistance. By April, their remaining numbers had gathered in western Mosul’s old city or retreated in small groups to the city’s outskirts. By June, resistance had shrunk to a few blocks surrounding the old city’s Grand Mosque of al-Nuri. As a last act of defiance before dying in battle, Islamic State fighters destroyed the 844-year-old Grand Mosque. Shocked, saddened, and exhausted government troops at last annihilated Islamic State resistance in early July, ending the battle.

The fight for Mosul destroyed large parts of the ancient and historic city. More than 2,000 Islamic State militants died in the battle. Reports that their leader, al-Baghdadi, was among the dead remain as-yet unproven. Roughly 1,000 soldiers of the Iraqi government coalition were killed. Civilian deaths are estimated at more than 8,000, and more than 1 million people had to flee their homes. The shell-shocked citizens that remain in Mosul are now in need of food and water, medicine, sanitation, and shelter. The families of slain or escaped Islamic State fighters face a similar crisis as they are gathered in temporary camps outside the city.

For the Islamic State, the loss of Mosul—the birthplace of its “caliphate” and its capital in Iraq—is a costly defeat. However, the war against the terrorist group is far from over. Islamic State militants who fled Mosul now hold nearby towns, and many thousands of other Islamic State fighters remain in Syria and other parts of Iraq.

May 24, 2017

On Monday night, May 22, a terrorist detonated a bomb near Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, killing himself and 22 other people. The bombing, which also injured 64 people, occurred at the close of an Ariana Grande concert as many young people and families were exiting the arena. Ariana Grande is a United States pop singer currently on a concert tour of Europe. The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mother-and-daughter survivors of a terrorist bombing comfort each other outside Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, early on May 23, 2017. Credit: © Lindsey Parnaby, Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The terrorist detonated the bomb at about 10:30 p.m. local time in a connecting area between Manchester Arena and Victoria Station, one of the city’s main transportation hubs. Aside from the attack’s immediate casualties—which included many children—the bombing caused chaos and panic among the thousands of people leaving the arena, resulting in additional injuries.

British Prime Minister Theresa May commented on the terrorist act from her Downing Street office in London: “All acts of terrorism are cowardly. But this attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives.”

Manchester police identified the suicide bomber as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a Manchester native born of Libyan parents. Police also announced several arrests in connection with the attack. British politicians, preparing for June parliamentary elections, suspended campaigning after the attack. The Manchester attack was the deadliest in the United Kingdom since 52 people died in suicide attacks on London’s transport system in July 2005.

July 5, 2016

Shocked Iraqi citizens gather among the scorched and smoldering debris at the site of a suicide bomb blast in Baghdad’s busy Karrada shopping district on July 3, 2016.
Credit: © Khalid al Mousily, Reuters

Early Sunday morning, July 3, an Islamic State terrorist bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the crowded Karrada commercial district of Baghdad, Iraq. People filled the streets of the Shī`ite majority neighborhood as they shopped for the upcoming Id al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Just after midnight, the truck exploded in a massive blast that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds of others. With some people still missing amidst the rubble and destruction, the death toll is certain to rise. A second terrorist bomber also struck that night in the city’s Shī`ite market district of al-Shaab, killing two more people. Sunday’s bombings marked the fourth major terrorist attack in Baghdad since the beginning of May.

The second, smaller bombing is typical of the daily existence for many Iraqis as they deal with the constant threat of terrorist violence. The larger bombing, while atypical because of its size and impact, illustrates the ruthlessness of the Islamic State and the most frequent targets of its attacks—other Muslims. The Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL, or DAESH) is a radical Sunni group, and the vast majority of its victims belong to the Shī`ite division of Islam. The Islamic State is slowly losing Iraqi territory it captured in the past two years, but its reach is obviously still deadly and extensive. The Karrada bombing was the worst in Iraq this year.

Naturally, the Islamic State does not speak for most Sunni Muslims. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, the nation’s highest Sunni religious body, called the Karrada bombing a “bloody crime, regardless of who carried it out or what their motivations were.”

The victims of the bombings are more than just numbers. Entire families are among the dead in Karrada—fathers, mothers, and children all destroyed in one moment of tragic terrorist hatred. The dead have names, too, like Adel al-Jaf, a promising young dancer and rapper also known as Adel Euro; Zulfikar Oraibi, the son of former Iraqi soccer star Ghanim Oraibi; and Adnan Abu Altman, who graduated from law school last week and died with his father and brother. Many more of the dead—badly mangled in the violence of the explosion—have yet to be identified, and many bodies have yet to be recovered.

June 29, 2016

Passengers console one another outside Turkey’s Istanbul Atatürk Airport in the hours after a terror attack killed 41 people there on June 28, 2016.
Credit: © Emrah Gurel, AP Photo

Yesterday, June 28, a terrorist attack killed 43 people and injured more than 230 others at Istanbul Atatürk Airport in Turkey. The attack, blamed on Islamic State terrorists, occurred around 10 p.m. local time at the international terminal of the airport, which is Turkey’s busiest and one of the world’s major travel hubs. The attack began as three armed terrorists fired at airport guards and passengers near the terminal entrance. Guards returned fire, and the terrorists then detonated body explosives in succession—one—two—three. The explosions killed and wounded dozens of people in the ground floor arrivals area, the first floor departures area, and the nearby parking area. Quickly, security personnel swarmed to help as survivors gaped in shock at the carnage, the scattered luggage, and the shattered glass and gutted walls and ceilings of the terminal. The entire event took about two minutes.

As survivors grappled with the reality of the situation, the airport shut down and heavily armed security prowled the terminals. Would-be travelers were evacuated to safety, and incoming flights were diverted to other airports. The injured were taken to hospitals, and the dead were slowly identified. Hours later, flights resumed at the airport.

Tuesday’s airport attack was the most recent in a flurry of terror attacks in Istanbul and the rest of Turkey. Some of the blame has fallen on Kurdish separatists who have been fighting Turkey’s government forces on-and-off for years. A more recent, random, and deadly foe has been the Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL, or DAESH), the terrorist band based in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Turkey’s participation in an international military coalition against the Islamic State has brought repercussions from the ruthless terror group. Since July 2015, Islamic State attacks have now killed some 200 people within Turkey’s borders.

February 22, 2016

Syria
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Yesterday, February 21, in war-torn Syria, Islamic State terrorist bombs killed around 150 people and injured nearly 200 others in the cities of Damascus and Homs. Islamic State attacks, as well as attacks by other groups, are commonplace in Syria, but these latest attacks came as several nations—including Russia and the United States—struggle to negotiate a cease-fire. The cease-fire talks involve only government and rebel groups, not the many terrorist groups also involved in the fighting. So, even if the talks bring a pause in some of the fighting, the campaigns against the Islamic State and other terror groups will continue. The scene is further confused by disagreement on which groups are to be defined as terrorists. Syria’s bloody civil war has raged since 2011.

Sunday’s attacks took place in Shī`ite Muslim neighborhoods of Damascus and Homs. The Islamic State is a radical Sunni Muslim group. Sunnis and Shī`ites have been at odds for centuries.

November 19, 2015

French authorities announced today that the suspected mastermind of last Friday’s deadly Paris attacks was killed in a police raid in a Paris suburb early yesterday. Authorities said a fingerprint analysis confirmed the death of Islamic State, or ISIS, terrorist suspect Abdelhamid Abaaoud. It was not immediately determined whether Abaaoud died from police gunfire or blew himself up during the raid on an apartment in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is lit up in the red, white, and blue of the French flag, in tribute to the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks. Credit: © Rex Features/AP Images

Authorities say a woman who was with Abaaoud also died in the operation, by detonating a suicide belt when elite police forces stormed the apartment. Eight people were arrested. Authorities have linked Abaaoud, a Belgian national, to several foiled attacks earlier this year that involved a church near Paris and a high-speed train bound for the French capital.

On Friday, November 13, Paris was rocked by a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that left 129 civilians and 7 terrorists dead. Hundreds of civilians were wounded, some critically. French President François Hollande called the attacks an “act of war.” The Islamic State took responsibility for the massacre. President Hollande closed the borders to France and issued a curfew for Paris and a state of emergency for the entire nation.

The attacks began when a bomb was detonated outside the Stade de France, the national sports stadium, just north of the city limits of Paris. A soccer game was in progress between Germany and France, with 80,000 people at the stadium at the time, including President Hollande. The president and other fans were safely evacuated. About 5 minutes after the first attack, gunmen opened fire on patrons at a bar and two restaurants. Soon after, the deadliest attack of the night took place at the Bataclan theater, where a sold-out concert by the American rock band the Eagles of Death Metal was being held. Terrorists entered the theater and began shooting AK-47 assault rifles into the crowd of some 1,500 people. The terrorists then gathered up some 100 people to hold as hostages. French security forces stormed the Bataclan soon after, but the terrorists blew themselves up, killing 8 hostages. Eighty-nine people died at the Bataclan.

On Saturday, November 14, police in Belgium stopped a car that had been used in the Paris attacks. The stop led to raids and arrests in Belgium as police searched for accomplices. A manhunt for more attackers was also underway in France. On Sunday, French warplanes launched air strikes in retaliation on the Syrian city of Ar Raqqah, the Islamic State’s de facto capital. The French strikes were reported to have hit the terrorist group’s command center, a training facility, and an arms depot. France has been active in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria.

The Paris attacks came after two earlier attacks by the Islamic State in as many weeks. On October 31, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt, killing all 224 people aboard. ISIS claimed responsibility. On November 16, Russia confirmed that the plane was brought down by a homemade bomb planted in the plane’s cargo hold. Russia had recently entered the fight in the Syrian civil war. On November 12, Islamic State bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, killed more than 40 people. The bombs were set off in a Hezbollah stronghold; the group has been fighting in the Syrian civil war on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and against the Islamic State.

Paris had been on high alert since January 2015, when Islamist gunmen attacked the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Eleven people in the building were killed. The attacks took place over three days and resulted in the deaths of 20 people in total.

November 17, 2015

On Friday, November 13, everyone in the world learned quickly of the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris, France, that killed 129 people. There was scant coverage, however, of the Islamic State bombings earlier that day that killed 26 people in Baghdad, Iraq; or the Islamic State bombings the day before that killed 43 people in Beirut, Lebanon. Obviously, these horrible events were overshadowed by the severity and shock of the Paris attacks. But these “other attacks” were just as important, and highlighted the animosity that has existed between the Sunni and Shī`ah divisions of Islam for many centuries. Most of the victims of the Baghdad attack were Shī`ites gathered for the funeral of a comrade killed fighting against the Islamic State, a radical Sunni Muslim group. In Beirut, the bomb victims were mainly members of Hezbollah, a Shī`ite group fighting the Islamic State in neighboring Syria. In all three attacks—Baghdad, Beirut, and Paris—the Islamic State was retaliating against its enemies and people who oppose its strict and vicious rule. But only the attack in Paris sparked global outrage and condemnation as well as support for the people of France.

Islamic State bombings in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, killed 26 people on Nov. 13, 2015.

Baghdad has seen violence rather steadily since the Iraq War, and it is almost understandable—if rather callous—that people react little to “yet another” terrorist bombing in the Iraqi capital. But it is the Iraqi people who have fought the Islamic State the hardest and longest. And more Iraqis have died at the hands of Islamic State terrorists—not to mention their paternal group, al-Qa`ida—than anyone else.

Islamic State bombings killed 43 people in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Nov. 12, 2015. Beirut lies only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Syrian border.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Lebanon has seen comparatively little violence, despite its proximity to war-plagued Syria and Iraq—and the Lebanese have taken in over 1 million refugees. Minor terrorist attacks have hit Beirut as recently as 2014, but the 43 people killed on November 12 were the most in that city since Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990. Beirut is not a war zone, just as Paris is not, and deaths in Lebanon matter just as much as deaths in Paris, or Baghdad, or anywhere else.

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