Global Terrorism
2006
Below is a chronicle of major acts of terrorism that occurred during 2006.
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January
January 2 Afghanistan: A suicide bomber detonates explosives in a car near a U.S. military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing himself and wounding a U.S. soldier and two passersby
January 5 Afghanistan: A suicide bomber attacks a crowded market in an Afghan town just a few hundred meters from where the U.S. ambassador was meeting with local leaders. Ten Afghans were killed and 50 wounded
January 5 Spain: Two small bombs exploded at a hotel in the village of Sos del Rey Católico causing only minor damage and no injuries. Authorities received a warning call from the Basque separatist group ETA prior to the explosions
January 7 Spain: A small bomb planted by ETA goes off in a electricity substation in the town of Borau, Huesca
January 14 Afghanistan: A suicide car bombing targets a U.S.-Afghan military convoy traveling along a main road in the southern Helmand Province, wounding a U.S. soldier
January 15 Afghanistan: A suicide car bomb strikes a Canadian military convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing two civilians and a Canadian diplomat and wounding 13 other people
January 16 Afghanistan: Two suicide bombers kill 26 people in two separate attacks in the Kandahar Province, First, a suicide bomber hurls himself in front of an Afghan Army vehicle in the heart of the provincial capital, Kandahar, killing three Afghan soldiers and two civilians and wounding four soldiers and 10 civilians. Later the same day, at least 20 people are killed and 20 others injured when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle explodes at a playground where hundreds of people were gathered for a festival in Spin Boldak, bordering Pakistan
January 22 Spain: A bomb explodes in a party office owned by PSE-EE in the town of Nanclares de la Oca, causing damage only to the building
January 26 Spain: ETA detonated a 10 kg bomb beside the court of justice of Balmaseda and another 5 kg one in the premises of Correos postal service in Etxebarri, both in Biscay, causing material damages and no personal injuries
January 29 Spain: A rucksack packed with explosives next to a job centre INEM in Santutxu, Bilbao went off. One policeman was injured
2006 Israel: Qassam rockets fired by Hamas into Israel, especially the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot, injuring many citizens
February
February 1 Spain: After a warning call from ETA, another bomb goes off in a postal office in the town of Etxebarri
February 2 Philippines: In a deliberate anti-Christian massacre Muslim extremists killed at least five people on a farm in Patikul, a small town on Sulu Island near Jolo (Mindanao). After asking the residents if they were Christian, Abu Sayyaf gunmen opened fire on 9-month old Melanie Patinga who was killed and a three-year old boy who was seriously wounded. Also killed were Emma (16) and Pedro Casipong, Itting Pontilla (45) and Selma Patinga
February 4 Denmark: The Danish Embassy was torched, because of the publication of the Muhammed-cartoons
February 4 Denmark: The Danish, and as a consequence of sharing the same building, the Chilean and Swedish embassies in Damascus, are firebombed by protestors denouncing the publication of what they consider sacrilegious cartoons depicting the Muhammad. The Norwegian embassy is also burned. (BBC)
February 6 Spain: GRAPO (First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Group) shot dead the owner of a temporary work agency and injured another person in Zaragoza. This was the last attack of this organization
February 14 Spain: A car bomb exploded at a discothèque in northern Spain causing damage but no injuries because police had cleared the area after a traditional warning call in the name of ETA
February 16 Spain: A bomb exploded in an industrial area in the Basque town of Trapagaran, near the northern city of Bilbao after a warning call from ETA. No one was injured in the attack
February 22 Iraq: Al Askari Mosque bombing ignites sectarian strife in Iraq
February 22 Spain: A bomb placed by ETA explodes in a industrial park near Bilbao. The bomb caused damage to many buildings
February 26 Spain: Two people are injured when a bomb exploded in a bank cash machine in Vitoria in the city of Vitoria. The attack was blamed on ETA by police
February 27 Kosovo: Some former members of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) detonated triple bomb at a Serbian church. 7 people were killed including 2 Danish
February 27 Spain: A bomb exploded at a courthouse in town of Mungia. A passer-by spotted a suspicious package and called police. The bomb exploded before they were able to clear off the area and injured one policeman. ETA was blamed
February 28 Spain: A bomb exploded outside a labour ministry building in the town of town of Mutriku, near San Sebastian. No one was killed or injured after a warning call from ETA
March
March 2 Pakistan: Bombing in Karachi kills four, including a U.S. diplomat
March 2 Lebanon: The battle escalated between Lebanese security guard and several gunmen when the attackers attempt to attack the Egyptian embassy in Beirut. One Lebanese guard, one bystanders, and four attackers were killed. According to the captives, they were Christians that angry on the Muslim protesters tourched a church in the retaliation to the Danish cartoon controversy
March 3 United States: Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, an Iranian-born graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, drives an SUV onto a crowded part of campus, injuring nine
March 7 India: Bombings in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi kill 28 and injure more than 100
March 7 Spain: ETA detones a bomb outside the offices of the fascist Spanish Falange organisation in the town of Santoña, Cantabria. One man was injured. That same day two bombs exploded in two banks in the town of Plentzia
March 9 Spain: Following the February 2006 deaths of two ETA members, Batasuna call a day of general strike on March 9. On the morning of the strike, ETA detonates several bombs near highways, causing no injuries. This was ETA's last attack before declaring a ceasefire on March 22
March 30 Israel: Palestinian suicide bomber kills himself and four others at Kedumim Junction in the West Bank
April
April 11 Pakistan: A suicide bomber explodes himself in Karachi, killing 57 Sunni worshippers
April 17 Israel: Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing eleven people and injuring 70
April 24 Egypt: Bombings at three locations in Dahab kill 20 Egyptians and three foreigners, and injure 62 others
May
May 11 Pakistan: Six policemen die and twelve are injured when five bombs go off in a police academy in Quetta
June
June 2-3 Canada: Police carry out an investigation and arrests 17 alleged terrorists plotting to attack areas in Downtown Toronto, Mississauga, Fort Erie, the Township of Ramara, among others
June 15 Sri Lanka: The LTTE detonate two claymore mines targeting a bus carrying 140 civilians. 68 civilians, including ten children, three pregnant women and their unborns, are killed. Approximately 60 civilians are injured
June 25 Israel: Eliyahu Asheri, an Israeli citizen, was kidnapped and murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC)
July
July 9 Iraq: 40 Sunni civilians are massacred by Shia militants in Baghdad
July 11 India: A series of explosions rock commuter trains in Mumbai, India, killing 209 and wounding another 714 civilians
July 14 Pakistan: Suicide bomber in Karachi kills a Shiite Islamic cleric Allama Hasan Turabi and his nephew
July 15 Libya: Suicide bomber in Tripoli kills a dozen Christian inside a church. According to the police, the target was the priest
July 17 Iraq: Explosions and gunmen kill 48 people in a market in Mahmoudiya
July 18 Iraq: Car bombing near a Shiite shrine in Kufa kills 53 and injures 103
July 31 Germany: Two suitcase bombs are discovered in trains near the German towns of Dortmund and Koblenz, undetonated due to an assembly error. Video footage from Cologne train station, where the bombs were put on the trains, led to the arrest of two Lebanese students in Germany, Youssef al-Hajdib and Jihad Hamad, and subsequently of three suspected co-conspirators in Lebanon.[16] On 1 September 2006, Jörg Ziercke, head of the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Police), reports that the suspects saw the Muhammad cartoons as an "assault by the West on Islam" and the "initial spark" for the attack, originally planned to coincide with the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany
July 31 Colombia: 16 soldiers die in an ambush in Tibu and a car bomb kills one and injures 22 in Bogotá. Both attacks are blamed on FARC
August
August 4 Afghanistan: A suicide car bomber struck a market in Kandahar, killing 21 people
August 4 Colombia: A car bomb kills five outside a police station in Cali. The local government blames FARC
August 10 United Kingdom, United States: A major anti-terrorist operation by British Police disrupts an alleged bomb plot targeting multiple airplanes bound for the United States flying through Heathrow Airport, near London
August 13 Moldova: Two grenades explode on a trolleybus in Tiraspol, killing two people and injuring ten
August 16 India: A bomb exploded in a temple near Imphal in Manipur, killing five and injuring nearly 50 other
August 20 Iraq: Gunmen spray bullets on Shiites in Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding more than 300
August 30 United States: An Afghani Muslim hit 19 pedestrians, killing one, with his SUV in the San Francisco Bay area
September
September 8 India: At least two bomb blasts target a Muslim cemetery in the western town of Malegaon. The blasts kill 37 people and leave 125 others wounded
September 12 Syria: Four attackers armed with grenades and machine guns attempt to storm the U.S. embassy in Damascus. Three of the gunmen and one Syrian guard are killed during a battle between the attackers and Syrian security forces. One Syrian employee of the embassy and at least ten bystanders are wounded, among them, seven Syrian telephone company workers and a senior Chinese diplomat. Police recover a car laden with explosives and other IEDs. Syrian Ambassador to the United States Imad Moustapha announces that his government suspects a group called Jund al-Sham is responsible.[24] See Damascus terrorist attacks
September 15 Yemen: Four suicide bombers and a security guard are killed in early-morning attacks on the Safer refinery in Marib and the al-Dhabba terminal in Hadramout. Although no group has claimed responsibility Islamic extremists are suspected
September 16 Thailand: 2006 Hat Yai bombings: four people killed, 82 injured, by six bombs along the main commercial street of Hat Yai. The devices were placed approximately 500 meters apart, and were remotely set off every five minutes
September 18 Somalia: Eleven people, including the presidents brother and six attackers, are killed in an assassination attempt on the Somalian president
September 18 Sri Lanka: An LTTE suicide bomber rams a truck packed with explosives into convoy of buses carrying unarmed Sri Lankan Navy personal going home, on leave, killing at least 92 Navy Personnel. The Government of Sri Lanka called this a terrorist attack
September 19 Norway: A person fires with an automatic weapon on a synagoge in Oslo at night. On March 25, 2008, the trial against Arfan Bhatti (29), of Pakistani origin, and two others (one Norwegian and one of Turkish origin) will begin, accused for the responsibility for the attack and for plots to attack the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Oslo
September 28 Afghanistan: A suicide bomber detonates his explosives outside the interior ministry in Kabul. The attack kills twelve and wounds over 40. This is one of three hundred and fifty attacks mostly suicide bombings that killed six hundred and sixty nine civilians in 2006 according to Human Rights Watch
October
October 19 Colombia: A car bomb explodes in a military college in northern Bogotá, injuring five
October 28 Colombia: A car bomb kills two and injures four outside a military base in Villavicencio, Meta. FARC is blamed
November
November 1 United Kingdom: The Real IRA detonates a series of firebombs in large hardware retailers, a sports store and toy shop all in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the hardware retailers and sports store were completely destroyed. No fatalities
November 20 India: A suspected terrorist bomb explodes on a train in India. See 2006 West Bengal train disaster
November 21 Lebanon: Assassination of Pierre Amine Gemayel, an anti-Syrian politician and scion of Lebanon’s most prominent Christian family blamed on Syria, Iran and Hezbollah despite their denials
November 23 Iraq: A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City kills at least 215 people and wounds a further 257. See Sadr City bombings for details
November 24 United Kingdom: Michael Stone, prevented from murdering members of the Sinn Féin political party
November 30 Somalia: A suicide bomber kills 8 in an attack in Baidoa
December
December 22 United States: Federal Agents disrupt Derrick Shareef’s attack on an Illinois shopping mall planned for December 22. His intent was to commit “violent jihad” just before Christmas
December 30 Spain: A bomb explodes at Madrid Airport, killing two Ecuadorians and injuring 26 people. The ETA a Basque terrorist group has claimed responsibility
December 31 Thailand: Eight bomb explosions in seven areas of Bangkok, Thailand's capital city, three people died, nearly 40 injured
