2014 Santiago subway bombing | |
---|---|
Location | Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile |
Coordinates | 33°24′51.36″S70°35′4.74″W / 33.4142667°S 70.5846500°W |
Date | 8 September 2014 |
Target | Escuela Militar metro station |
Weapons | Fire Extinguisher Bombs |
Deaths | 0 |
Injured | 14 |
Perpetrator | Conspiracy of Cells of Fire [1] [2] |
Motive | Insurrectionary anarchism |
On 8 September 2014, a fire extinguisher bomb exploded in the Escuela Militar metro station in Santiago, Chile, injuring 14 people, several seriously. Though no group or individual has claimed responsibility, the attacks have been attributed to the Chilean Anarchist group, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. [3]
Since 2005, more than 200 explosive related incidents have been reported to have occurred. In 2009, an improvised explosive device exploded in the bag of a 27-year-old man, killing him instantly. [3]
Since the beginning of 2014, there have been 29 bombs uncovered in Chile. Most of the bombs were filled with gunpowder but did not explode and the few that did, did not cause any injuries. In August, President Michelle Bachelet appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the threat of future bombings. [4]
Santiago has experienced 10 bombings in 2014, and over 200 between 2004 and 2014, with few casualties. Many of the incidents, which mostly occur at night in empty streets, are claimed by groups giving themselves names associated with anarchism, others may be carried out by anti-American groups, indigenous rights groups, or anti-capitalism groups. Most of the explosive devices are small, designed to make noise, although capable of injuring or killing. [5]
The explosion occurred during the lunch hour rush in the subway station. [6] The bomb was a fire extinguisher filled with gunpowder on a timer left inside of a trash can. [7] 14 people were injured including a 61-year-old woman who had to have her finger amputated due to shrapnel damage along with others who were hospitalized due to serious injuries. [8]
After the attack subway service was temporarily stopped but then continued on although the station were the explosion occurred, was closed. [9] The Carabiniers of Chile responded with their bomb squad and special investigators in order to gather evidence and the national government also requested the assistance of foreign security agencies in identifying the bombers. [10] [11] In response to the new attacks, the national government announced that they would be invoking Chile's controversial Anti-terror law which allows for longer detention without charge, the use of wiretaps, and confidential witnesses. [12] [13] The bombing also raised concerns about whether more explosions would occur in the days nearing the anniversary of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. [14] On September 9, the police announced that they had one suspect that had been captured on security footage placing the bomb. [15]
On 22 September 2014, two men and one woman were arrested in a police raid related to the incident. The suspects identified as Juan Alexis Flores Riquelme, Guillermo Cristóbal Durán Méndez and Nataly Antonieta Casanova Muñoz. According to the authorities gunpowder and other bomb making materials were found in the suspects' homes, with Juan Flores being the mastermind behind the organization. The Public Ministry, through the regional prosecutor of the South Zone, Raúl Guzmán and the prosecutor with exclusive dedication, Christian Toledo, found a bip! card (a plastic card used as a means of payment to use public transport in Santiago) among the belongings of the accused. Its recorded usage history, along with security camera footage, was used as evidence against the accused. [16]
The suspects were officially charged with the crime on September 23. Despite the evidence presented by the authorities, the suspects denied any involvement in the incident. [2]
On March 15, 2018, the Sixth Oral Criminal Trial Court of Santiago sentenced Juan Flores Riquelme to a total of 23 years in prison as the perpetrator of the terrorist crimes of planting and detonating an explosive device, possession of a bomb, six crimes of less serious injuries and crime of damages. The other two defendants were released due to lack of records that would allow proving the existence of terrorist crimes. [17]
Between 9 and 10 September 2014, two improvised bombs exploded in the Chilean resort town of Vina del Mar. On the night of September 9, a bomb detonated inside a supermarket, injuring one woman. The bomb consisted of a plastic bottle filled with aluminum and hydrochloric acid, was placed inside a trash can. The bomb exploded after the local janitor attempted to empty the trash can. The second device detonated inside the Open Plaza mall's bathroom. [18]
On 25 September 2014, a home made explosive device detonated inside a man's bag while he was carrying it. The victim was later identified as 29-year-old Sergio Landskron Silva. In the aftermath of the explosion Silva remained engulfed in flames while laying on the sidewalk. Bystanders and policemen failed to assist the victim, fearing that a second explosive device remained in his bag. Silva was pronounced dead several minutes after being transferred to a hospital. According to Silva's brother, he has been living on the streets for a prolonged period of time, while struggling with drug addiction. Silva was allegedly planning to plant the bomb in the Yungay neighborhood of Santiago. [3] [19] [20]
A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
Animal-borne bomb attacks are the use of animals as delivery systems for explosives. The explosives are strapped to a pack animal such as a horse, mule or donkey. The pack animal may be set off in a crowd.
This is a list of terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the calendar year 2011.
Many terrorist attacks have occurred in Kenya during the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1980, the Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1998, the US embassy was bombed in Nairobi, as was the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel in 2002 in Mombasa. In 2013, the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab killed 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall. There have also been many other attacks.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2014.
The December 2013 Mansoura bombing occurred on the morning of Tuesday, 24 December 2013 in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura in Egypt. The target was the city's security directorate building that was partially collapsed after the attack. At least 16 people were killed, mostly policemen, while more than a hundred were injured, according to the Ministry of Interior. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but Prime Minister Hazem Al Beblawi, on behalf of the interim government, was quick to blame the Muslim Brotherhood of being behind the attack, labeling it a "terrorist organization" for the first time since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July earlier this year. Egyptian authorities also stated that the militants received logistical support from Hamas. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an Al-Qaeda-linked group in the Sinai Peninsula, released an online statement claiming responsibility for the blast but the government sounded determined that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind it and intensified its crackdown on the organization. The incident is now widely believed by many to be a turning point in the nation's history as the future of both the Islamists and Egypt's stability remain shadowed and unclear with several violent clashes and other bombings taking place across the country following its ban.
On 4 May 2014, two improvised explosive devices exploded on buses in Nairobi, Kenya, killing three people and injuring sixty-two. Both of the bombs exploded northeast of Nairobi on the Thika Road, an eight-lane controlled-access highway, and detonated 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) apart. Twenty of the wounded were in critical condition after the blast.
A series of bomb attacks, which continued as of 2014 with about 200 bombs up to that date, started in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in 2005.
Terrorism in Argentina has occurred since at least the 1970s, especially during the Argentine Dirty War, where a number of terror acts occurred, with support of both the democratic government of Juan Perón, Isabel Perón and the following de facto government of the National Reorganization Process. In the 1990s, two major terrorist attacks occurred in Buenos Aires, which together caused 115 deaths and left at least 555 injured.
Terrorism in Chile has occurred since the 1980s and continues until the present. A number of bombings targeted public places, such as subway stations, as well as commercial institutions and interests, such as banks and ATMs.
Terrorism in Ecuador is a rare occurrence as the country, despite recurrent periods of economic and political instability, has
On 3 April 2017, a terrorist attack using an explosive device took place on the Saint Petersburg Metro between Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations. Eleven people were initially reported to have died, and five more died later from their injuries, bringing the total to 15.
On 20 June 2017, a terrorist bomb caused a small explosion at Brussels-Central railway station in Brussels, Belgium; there were no casualties. Soldiers patrolling the station subsequently killed the suspect with three to four shots, according to eyewitnesses. The perpetrator was Oussama Zariouh, a 36-year-old Moroccan national who lived in the Molenbeek municipality and who had assembled a defective explosive device.
On December 11, 2017, a pipe bomb partially detonated in a corridor between the Times Square–42nd Street and 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal subway stations adjoining the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, injuring four people including the bomber. Mayor Bill de Blasio described the incident as "an attempted terrorist attack". The bomber was identified by police as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Salafi Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh; he was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison in 2021.
The Latema road blast was a minor terror incident that occurred on 26 January 2019 on Latema road in Nairobi's Central Business District. The attack occurred after luggage containing an improvised explosive device detonated while it was being carried on a mkokoteni cart, injuring two people.
The Leon Czolgosz Autonomous and Destructive Forces, were a Chilean anarchist cell formed in September 2006, known for its attacks against the National Intelligence Agency of Chile and the British embassy in Chile. The name of the group was in honor of the American anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who on September 6, 1901 assassinated then-United States President William McKinley with two bullets at point-blank range.