From simple to complex, the world, particularly the U.S has been on the receiving end of many acts of terror. It has been faced with threats from both Al-Qaeda, the most deadly terrorist group in the world, and Osama Bin Laden, the perhaps most notorious terrorist in the world before his death. But with growing global concerns about the acts of terrors that happen almost every day, it remains a thing that cannot be conveniently ignored anymore both by the government of nations and the masses. This is because those agents of destruction are continually seeking and using weapons of mass destruction and the threats they pose means anyone anywhere could be affected. Although the 9/11 incidence stole the largest show and headline in terror act history because of a lot of factors, we seek to remind you of the 10 deadliest act of terror perpetrated in the past.
The Anthrax letter attack
Letter bombing is one of the most used tricks by terrorists around the world to exterminate specific targets, and with the U.S already on the verge following the September 2001 attack, they have to cope with another attack just days later (September 18, 2001). Several media outlets and two U.S senators were mailed letters that contained anthrax chemical in powdery forms. The notes attached to the letters pointed to extremist religious groups. However, many people including 5 fatalities and 17 injuries were victims of the attack and that further increased the anxiety level in the nation.
USS Cole Bombing
Terrorist usually doesn’t mess with security operatives except they are being pursued by them but such is a difference with October 12, 2000, bombing. Suicide bombers attacked the American warship USS Cole at Aden in Yemen on its way to take fuel. It happened at the same port the Al-Qaeda had attempted suicide attack earlier that year. The terror was a calculated one as a small motorboat laden with explosives sped to the anchored ship and was made to explode at the port side. Lives of many sailors at the gulley was taken by the small boat that contained 400-700 pounds of explosives which caused a huge rupture in the Cole’s hull. Al-Qaeda later claimed responsibility for an attack that took 17 lives and caused 39 injuries.
Pan Am Flight 103 Mid-Air Bombing
From Heathrow to JFK in the mid-air over the town of Lockerbie in Scotland, Pan Am flight 103 was targeted and made to explode, stemming the fact that terrorist now finds new adventures in plane targets. This happened on 21st of December, 1988, causing a total destruction of the plane and claiming all passengers and aircrew. Homes were also struck with after-explosion remains to cause injuries to residents. The investigation revealed that the attack was a bomb and that it was a response to the shooting down of Iran flight 655 around July the same year. Many extremist organizations claimed responsibility for the attack that claimed 270 lives and caused 12 injuries.
Salmonella Attack
This was a biological attack that garnered a great deal of attention in recent years. September is maybe notorious for attacks in the world of terrorists as the attack met out between September 9 and 19, 1984 where several hundred were poisoned with salmonella spores in Oregon. The attack was instigated by a cult-like Rajneeshee group in a bid to gain control of one of the open seats on the local circuit court. A conspiracy was then cooked up to disenfranchise voters by incapacitating them, such that the largest block of voters were sent out of the game. Restaurants and bars were then contaminated with salmonella spores. This ended up being the first biological attack on the US, and maybe the largest of it. None of the perpetrators were prosecuted but they were ferried to India in the name of deportation. The incidence cause at least 750 injuries.
Bombing of U.S embassies
Before the 9/11 incidence, the U.S has been largely attacked on foreign soils. This could be said of the bombing of U.S embassies in African countries like Kenya and Tanzania. This happened in 1988 and international peace was hugely threatened. Truck with explosives of up to 17 tons was detonated in the U.S embassies of these countries within minutes, targeting properties and personnel of the institution although the majority of the victims ended up being indigenous civilians including 12 Americans. The embassies were also hugely damaged. The attack was said to have been done by an Egyptian extremist group EIJ (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) as a retaliation for American’s torture and extradition of four members of the group. Fatalities amounted to 303 and injuries around 4954.
Marine Barracks Bombing
One of the cases of political unrest in the Middle-East prompted the United Nations to establish a peacekeeping force in Lebanon but they were replied with two suicide truck bombs on October 23, 1983. The trucks carried up to 12000 pounds of TNT and breached the security perimeter of UN compound where the U.S Marines and French Paratroopers were resident. This ended the lives of 241 U.S servicemen including 220 marines but left the whole situation with 301 death in total including 161 injuries. Another Islamic Jihad organization claimed responsibility for the attack that positioned itself as the largest and deadliest one-day death toll for marines since the two Jima battle in World War II.
Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City
No extremist group was linked to the Oklahoma truck bomb explosion that caused damages worth more than $652 million. However, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both linked charged and conviction of the terrorist attack. They espoused the hatred of U.S government as their motivation. McVeigh was given a death sentence via lethal injection while Nichols was given life without parole for his activities in the attack. Before the September 2001 attack, it lived to be the greatest attack on U.S soil with a total death toll of 169 and 675 injuries.
Beslan Massacre
One of the greatest terrorist threat in the world, armed Ingush and Chechen insurgents took control of School Number One in Beslan, Russia. They held 1100 people including 777 children hostage to demand an end to the ongoing Chechen military dispute between Russia and Chechnya at the time. After three days of the detention, the Russian government decided to assault the school with tanks, weapons, and troops, which ended up in an intense gun battle that ended the lives of at least 30 insurgents. Hostages of up to 334 in numbers were killed as well, including 186 children but the attack consequently caused the Russian forces assaults, international criticism and hence a lot of policy change. 366 victims were recorded and 747 injuries added to the long list.
First Bombing attack on World Trade Centre
Of course, the 9/11 attack was not the first on the World Trade Centre. The first was experienced on February 26, 1993, when a yellow Ryder van was driven in its public parking garage of the North Tower. This was followed by an explosion of 1500 pounds of nitrate-hydrogen gas, digging as deep as 98 feet below the concrete level. Six deaths and 1040 injuries were recorded.
A group called the Liberation Army 5th Battalion claimed responsibility of an attack reportedly financed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was said to have planned the 9/11 attack too. Six men were charged with and convicted of bombing following the incidence.
The Tragically Popular 9/11 Attack
Any discussion of terror and its act must surely be started with September 11, 2001, attack. It by any measure remains the most brazen and deadliest terrorist attack in history and was said to have been initiated by al-Qaeda, and its notorious leader Osama bin Laden. The attack intensified American’s war on terror as it was seen as a too much-coordinated attack in a land like America.
It featured nineteen member of the deadly group hijacking four airliners and crashing two of them in the New York City’s World Trade Center while the third and fourth headed to Pentagon and another target in Washington DC before the passengers reportedly attempted to regain control of the plane from its hijackers, making it crash in the Summerset County, Pennsylvania. A horrific damage featuring a total collapse of the two World Trade Centre towers to the ground with fatalities of 2993 and 8900 injuries makes it the deadliest of terrorist attacks by any length in the world.
