Acts of Terrorism megathread

[Liep]

Explosions near Dortmunds player bus, one player injured according to Twitter

[Liep]

Explosions near Dortmunds player bus, one player injured according to Twitter

Game cancelled, might as well as everyone was going to see juve-barca anyway.

[Zanza]

Federal prosecutors are now considering this to be an islamist terror attack as there was a letter found that claims responsibility.

[Josquius]

Federal prosecutors are now considering this to be an islamist terror attack as there was a letter found that claims responsibility.

Where did you read this?
I've heard of a letter claiming responsibility but not for who.

I was suspecting anti Islamic gits tbh

[Malicious Intent]

Spiegel reports one islamist suspect arrested, a second one is still at large.

[Admiral Yi]

I was suspecting anti Islamic gits tbh

Aren't they all soccer hooligans?

[Duque de Bragança]

Since there is no counter-terrorism thread:

French police arrest two 'for planning terrorist attack during presidential election'

Two men were arrested on Tuesday in Marseille, southern France, on suspicion of planning an attack during the presidential election which is set to begin Sunday, the French interior minister said.

The two men "intended to commit an attack on French soil in the very short term, which is to say in the coming days", Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said at a brief news conference.

France votes Sunday in the first round of its two-stage election, with security ramped up for the ballot after a series of attacks in recent years that have made security one of the major issues of the campaign.

FRENCH POLICE FOIL PLANNED ATTACK DURING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION


The men, both French, one born in 1987 and the other in 1993, are "suspected of wanting to commit, in an imminent way, a violent action on the eve of the French presidential election", the minister said.

He gave no details about potential targets or motives.

Agents from the French internal security agency, backed by elite police units, conducted the arrests.

France has been under a state of emergency, which has been extended several times, in the face of Islamist militant attacks in Paris and other parts of the country in which more than 230 people have been killed.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

http://www.france24.com/en/20170418-france-police-arrest-two-suspects-over-imminent-attack-elections

One is a convert, the other is of North African origin.

[Valmy]

What was their goal? To make sure the FN got elected?

[Duque de Bragança]

To be fair, Fillon has mentioned repeatedly he would fight islamic totalitarism so he would make a good target for islamists.

[Josquius]

So it seems the football bus bombing wasn't muslims after all

[The Larch]

So it seems the football bus bombing wasn't muslims after all

The guy they've arrested is a stock trader that wanted to make money from Borussia's shares falling due to the attack, apparently. The mind boggles...

Borussia Dortmund bombs: 'Speculator' charged with bus attack

Police in Germany have charged a man suspected of being behind an attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus.

Rather than having links to radical Islamism, he was a market trader hoping to make money if the price of shares in the team fell, prosecutors say.

The 28-year-old, identified only as Sergej W, was staying in the team's hotel in a room overlooking the street where the explosion took place.
(...)
In a statement on Friday (in German), the German federal prosecutor's office said the 28-year-old, who has German and Russian nationality, had been charged with attempted murder. He was arrested early on Friday near Tübingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg in south-west Germany.

The suspect had allegedly bought options to short-sell 15,000 shares of stock - reportedly priced at €78,000 (£65,000; $83,600) - in Borussia Dortmund. He would have profited from falling share prices after the attack.

He was staying at the team's L'Arrivée hotel in Dortmund on the day of the attack and had moved to a room on the top floor, overlooking the street where it took place, prosecutors say.

The suspect placed the bet on 11 April using an IP address traced to the hotel, after taking out a loan for the money.
Investigators believe three explosive devices packed with metal pins were hidden in a hedge and set off as the bus passed.
(...)
Borussia Dortmund's stock did drop from €5.738 to a low of €5.421 after the attack. Having recovered slightly it slid again after the team was eliminated from the Champions League.

[Duque de Bragança]

Religion of peace strikes again; I'm sure  you all missed it!

I was in the area around the time, but far away enough. Got a couple of calls and sms from relatives.

If there were any doubts about Marine making it to the second round, they are gone. Might enable Fillon to make it though.

Conflicting reports about the perpetrator, S sheet or not? Convicted already in 2005, 15 years to serve. I guess some judge screwed up, again.

Fun fact: the perpetrator was born the same year as Macron.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/21/paris-shooting-police-search-property-as-isis-claims-responsibility

Paris shooting: home linked to suspect searched as Isis claims responsibility
Police sources say suspect was arrested in February on suspicion of plotting to kill police officers but released



Police in France have searched a property believed to be the family home of a known terror suspect who shot dead one policeman and seriously wounded two others in an attack two days before voting opens in an already tense presidential election.

The gunman stepped from a car and opened fire on a police van with an automatic rifle outside a Marks & Spencer store on the Champs Élysées at about 9pm on Thursday.

The attacker, a 39-year-old man widely named named as Karim Cheurfi, was known to French security services. He was shot dead by police while trying to flee on foot. A statement from the Isis propaganda agency, Amaq, said the attack was carried out by an "Islamic State fighter".

After a series of atrocities that have killed more than 230 people in France over the past two years, authorities had long feared bloodshed in the run-up to polling day. The attack could bring security to the forefront of voters' concerns in Sunday's first round.

Police were searching a house in the eastern Paris suburb of Chelles early on Friday, believed to be Cheurfi's family home. Police sources told local media the man had been arrested in February on suspicion of plotting to kill police officers but released because of lack of evidence.

Isis named the shooter as Abu Yusuf al-Beljiki, or "the Belgian". A police arrest warrant issued earlier on Thursday and seen by Reuters news agency mentioned a dangerous individual who had entered France by train from Belgium on Thursday.

But the nationality of the attacker was uncertain on Friday morning. The Belgian federal prosector's office said it had no information on the suspect nor evidence that Cheurfi was from Belgium.


In an interview with French radio, France's interior ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henry Brandet, said police were hunting a second suspect in connection with the shooting, following a tip-off from Belgian security officials.

Le Parisien reported that Cheurfi had served 15 years in prison after being convicted of three attempted murders, two against policemen, in 2001, adding that the search address matched that of the owner of the car used in the attack.

The suspect was, however, not on the Fiche-S, the national list of people suspected of being a threat to national security.

The outgoing president, François Hollande, said on Thursday night he was convinced the shooting was a "terrorist act". He paid tribute to the police and pledged "absolute vigilance, particularly with regard to the electoral process".

The second police officer, critically injured when the gunman shot him in the back, was recovering in hospital.

Three members of the suspect's family have been questioned by police.

Hollande was chairing a security cabinet meeting on Friday morning, part of government efforts to protect the vote, which is taking place under already heightened security with more than 50,000 police and soldiers mobilised and a state of emergency in place since 2015.

The interior ministry spokesman said the officers had been deliberately targeted and authorities were trying to determine whether "one or more people" might have helped the attacker. A female foreign tourist was also slightly wounded in the attack.

The interior minister, Matthias Fekl, said: "The sense of duty of our policemen tonight averted a massacre ... they prevented a bloodbath on the Champs Élysées."

It is difficult to predict the impact of the attack on the election, which polls suggest is too close to call. How the candidates judge the public mood and respond could well influence their chances.

Three of the frontrunners – the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and scandal-hit conservative François Fillon – cancelled events on Friday, the final day of campaigning.

The attack happened while the 11 first-round contestants were appearing on a live interview show on French television. Speaking before the shooting, Le Pen said security should be at the heart of the campaign. "We are suffering the consequences of a laxity that has continued for years," she said.

Speaking later, the Front National leader repeated her call for Europe's internal borders to be closed, saying she was "deeply angry" as well as sad for the police victims, "because not everything is done ... to protect our compatriots. They need more than our compassion."

Macron, who was interviewed on the show after news broke of the attack, said the first duty of France's president was to protect, adding that the terror threat "will be a part of our daily lives over the coming years". Fillon said the fight against terrorism must be the next president's "absolute priority".

Foreign leaders also responded to the attack. The US president, Donald Trump, said it "looks like another terrorist attack. What can you say? It just never ends." His vice-president, Mike Pence, said the shooting was "the latest reminder that terrorism can strike anywhere at any time".

The broad Champs Élysées avenue, which reopened on Friday, was sealed off for much of Thursday night as police ordered tourists back into hotels and blocked people from approaching the scene. Emergency vehicles blocked access and metro stations were closed.

France has been on its highest possible level of terror alert since the 2015 Charlie Hebdo and Paris attacks and the Nice truck attack of 2016. Thousands of troops and armed police have been deployed to guard tourist hotspots such as the Champs Élysées and other potential targets.

This week, two men were arrested in Marseille on suspicion of planning an attack before the election. A machine-gun, two handguns and three kilos of TATP explosive were found at a flat in the southern city, along with Isis propaganda material.

Polls have suggested Le Pen and Macron are the most likely candidates to go through to the second-round runoff on 7 May, but Fillon and the hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon are only two or three points behind, and up to 25% of voters have yet to make up their minds, meaning any two of the four could qualify.

[garbon]

Reporting on this (top billing on many news sites) reminds me to be annoyed about how it is covered vs. news of all those people murdered at church on Palm Sunday at Egypt. But then people are always most interested in themselves.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/21/overreact-paris-attack-terrorism-just-never-end

If we overreact to this attack on Paris then terrorism will 'just never end'

When politicians such as Donald Trump rush to publicise terrorist incidents they turn violent crimes into global events and bestow celebrity on fanatics

"It just never ends," says Donald Trump, referring to the shooting in Paris last night. He is right, but not as he means it. What never ends is the readiness of politicians to rush to publicise and thus enhance and promote terrorist incidents. Once again Islamic State's useful idiots are turning a violent crime on a Paris street into a global event. French ministers are plunging into their bunker. French election candidates are cancelling their campaigns. The only sane response was from an early jogger in the Champs Élysées. Asked how she could be in such a place, she replied: "Why not? We continue as normal."

Fat chance. The presumed intention of the now dead attacker was to deflect the news agenda on the eve of the first round of the French election. If he was clever, he was also hoping to boost the fortunes of the rightwinger Marine Le Pen, and thus incur a responsive militancy among the Muslim community. He will have been encouraged by the global publicity given to last month's stabbing of a policeman in London. By far the greatest risk of similar acts disrupting Britain's forthcoming election is how far we publicise and react to this one.

We must always be careful how we describe the mental state of suicide killers, but they are clearly not susceptible to deterrence or armed response. The only constructive way to contain them is prior intelligence from the communities and cells within which they operate, though their often solitary character makes even this difficult. As for the ugly, surely useless, fortress barriers now going up across London's West End, they suggest a city quivering in capitulation. They fly in the face of Theresa May's claim that "we are not afraid".

Yet again we must understand that terrorism is not an ideology, not a war, certainly not a nation. It is a weapon in an argument, a method of making a political point. As such, it is 10% crime, 10% news of that crime, and 80% wild exaggeration of its "cause" as media and politicians climb on to its bandwagon. The reward for fanaticism is a celebrity that is now beyond all sense or reason. There is no real defence against a terrorist except to deny him that 80% celebrity.

If we wish to turn Britain's forthcoming election into a security-drenched hell, we will do so by overreacting to Paris. That way we will ensure that terrorism "just never ends".

[Duque de Bragança]

Well, the left here is not really interested in christians, refugees or not, even if they are arabic regarding the Palm Sunday attack, which is not a minor terrorist attack, covered by this thread.