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 2, 2017

Last night, on October 1, in Las Vegas, Nevada, a gunman killed at least 58 people at an open-air concert near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The gunman fired from the window of his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, shooting into a crowd of 22,000 people attending a music festival across the street. Armed with numerous automatic weapons, the gunman poured hundreds of bullets into the crowd until police reached his hotel room. The gunman then committed suicide. The attack—which has also resulted in over 500 injuries—is the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. The death toll from the domestic terror attack will most likely rise.

People run for cover as a gunman fires into a crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Oct. 1, 2017. Fifty-eight people died in the domestic terror attack. Credit: © David Becker, Getty Images

The attack began just after 10 p.m. local time, not long after country music star Jason Aldean had taken the stage at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, a three-day event held in an open-air venue across the Las Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay. The Las Vegas Strip, a portion of Las Vegas Boulevard, is famous for its large resort hotels and casinos. Many people in the concert crowd did not react immediately to the attack, as the popping of gunshots was confused with the sound of firecrackers and drowned out by the music being played on stage.

People soon realized the horror of what was taking place, however, and began running for cover and searching for loved ones in the chaos. The shooting paused occasionally as the gunman reloaded his automatic weapons, but the rapid fire then resumed as bullets ricocheted around the concrete concert ground and inflicted further injuries. Police responding to the attack saw gun flashes coming from the Mandalay Bay, and soon zeroed in on the gunman’s locked hotel room. As police used explosives to burst into the room, the gunman shot and killed himself.

Thus far, the shooter, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, has not been tied with any militant or terrorist groups, and his motive remains unclear. Paddock lived in Mesquite, a small city northeast of Las Vegas. His dead body was found with 23 guns, many of which are readily available in Nevada, a state with some of the least stringent gun laws in the United States. Police found another 19 guns at Paddock’s home in Mesquite.

The previous worst U.S. mass shooting occurred just last year, in June 2016, when a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. That shooter, who was killed by police, had professed his allegiance to an Islamic terrorist group.

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.

June 13, 2016

Police officers stand guard near the scene of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016. Credit: © Phelan M. Ebenhack, AP Photo

Early Sunday morning, June 12, at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a gunman entered carrying an assault rifle and a handgun and started shooting. The gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, shot several people before retreating deeper into the club and taking hostages. Orlando police, paramedics, and firefighters were quickly on the scene, but, unsure of what they were dealing with, they awaited the arrival of heavily armed Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers. About 5:00 a.m., SWAT officers broke through a wall of the nightclub. In a brief gunfight, Mateen was killed and one officer was wounded. Thirty hostages were freed, wounded bar patrons were treated and evacuated, and a suspected explosive device was destroyed. Forty-nine people died in the attack—plus the shooter—and 53 others were injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. Some 350 patrons were in Pulse for a Latin music event at the time of the attack.

Mateen, a U.S. Muslim born to Afghan parents in New York City, apparently targeted the nightclub because it caters predominantly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. While hiding in a restroom with hostages, Mateen called 9-1-1 and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, but there is no evidence that he had ties to the terrorist group. Mateen had, however, been questioned previously for suspected terrorism links. Mateen’s ex-wife described him as “emotionally and mentally disturbed,” and others noted a history of anger and violent behavior.

Numerous sympathies and tributes poured in to Orlando from around the world as people absorbed the shocking reality of the attack. President Barack Obama described the attack as an “act of terror and an act of hate.” Pope Francis condemned the “senseless hatred” of the massacre. This most recent mass shooting reignited calls for stricter gun control in the United States.

March 28, 2016

On Easter Sunday, in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore, an Islamic terrorist bombing killed 70 people and injured hundreds of others. Most of the victims were women and children. Lahore, near the border between India and Pakistan, is the capital of the province of Punjab.

Pakistan
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The bomb detonated in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park (Garden of Iqbal—named for Pakistani poet Muhammad Iqbal), a large public space featuring walking paths, playgrounds, and carnival rides for children. The park was filled with families celebrating the Easter holiday. The bomb exploded near the park’s playground swings.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. The attack specifically targeted Christians, but most of the victims were Muslims. The terror group’s spokesman claimed they wanted to “send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore.” Sharif is from Lahore.

On the same day in Punjab, thousands turned out in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, to protest the execution of a police officer convicted of assassinating the governor of the province, Salman Taseer, in 2011. Taseer had spoken against Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, which sometimes lead to vigilante violence and extremism in the nation.

March 23, 2016

Belgian police and emergency personnel secure the area near the Maelbeek subway station following an explosion on March 22, 2016. Credit: © Vincent Kessler, Reuters

Three explosions in the Belgian capital of Brussels yesterday, March 22, killed more than 30 people and injured more than 200 others. Two explosions occurred at the check-in area of the city’s Zaventem airport, killing 11 people. About 30 minutes later, an explosion hit the Maelbeek metro (subway) station, killing 20 people. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the ghastly attacks.

A huge manhunt was on yesterday, and by last evening, police had identified some of the attackers. Two brothers, Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui, both Belgian nationals, are thought to have been the bombers in the airport. The men were caught on closed-circuit television footage. Each brother wore a glove on only one hand, causing experts to believe the gloves hid detonating devices for bombs hidden in the suitcases they were seen with. A third man shown with the el-Bakraouis in the footage is thought to have left a bomb at the airport that did not detonate. A taxi driver who saw the airport footage remembered transporting the three men to the airport and gave police the address where he had picked them up. When police raided the address, they found a nail bomb, chemicals, and an Islamic State flag there. In the subway attack, less is known about the bomber, but it is known that a bomb was detonated in the middle car of a three-car long train.

An attack such as this would have required planning, but experts still wondered if it was linked to the arrest of the terrorist Salah Abdesalam in Brussels last Friday (March 18). Abdesalam is a French national who was born in Belgium but is of Moroccan descent. He is one of the few surviving participants from the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015. He was in Paris at the time of the attacks, but he also helped organize the attacks. Belgian police had been hunting Abdesalam since last November. It has only been 5 days since Abdesalam’s capture, so today’s attack was likely planned before then and unrelated. Some experts wondered, however, if today’s attack had been scheduled for a later date but moved up in response to the arrest.

Zavantem Airport is closed until Friday, March 25. Eurostar, high-speed trains between such major European cities and Paris and London, reopened in Brussels this morning. Some subway stations have reopened, but public transportation in Belgium’s capital was still limited today.

Brussels is the unofficial capital of the European Union (EU), and so a strike at Brussels is, in some ways, a strike at the heart of Europe. In addition, Belgium has a large immigrant population that has not been well-integrated into the fabric of the small nation, so religious extremism has been a problem in certain areas.

Belgium declared three official days of mourning for the Brussels victims and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel stated “To those who have chosen to be barbarous enemies of freedom, democracy and fundamental values … we remain united as one.”

Other World Book articles

• Terror Returns to Paris (November 16, 2015) 
• Terror Attack Mastermind Dies in Paris Police Raid (November 19, 2015)