| 2020 Lugano stabbing | |
|---|---|
| Location | Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland |
| Date | 24 November 2020 |
Attack type | Stabbing |
| Weapons | Knife |
| Injured | 2 |
In the afternoon of 24 November 2020, a 28-year-old Swiss woman attacked two female customers with a knife in the Manor store in Lugano, Ticino Canton, Switzerland.
The perpetrator was stopped by intervening customers. One of the women who were attacked was injured seriously. The Federal Office of Police suspected the attack had an Islamist motive. [1] The attacker was already known to Swiss authorities in connection with jihadism and sympathizing with the Islamic State. [2] According to police she had previously tried to travel to Syria to fight for the group, but was arrested by Turkish security forces at the Syrian-Turkish border and sent back to Switzerland. [3]
In 2022, the woman was formally indicted on charges of attempted murder. The prosecutors accused her of carrying out an Islamic extremist attack on behalf of ISIL. [3]
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) is a Uyghur Islamic militant organization founded in Pakistan by Hasan Mahsum. Its stated goals are to establish an Islamic state in Xinjiang and Central Asia.
The Grey Wolves, officially known by the short name Idealist Hearths, is a Turkish far-right political movement and the youth wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Commonly described as ultranationalist, neo-fascist, Islamo-nationalist, and racist, the Grey Wolves have been described by some scholars, journalists, and governments as a death squad and a terrorist organization. Its members deny its political nature and claim it to be a cultural and educational foundation, citing its full official name: Idealist Clubs Educational and Cultural Foundation.
Terrorism in Australia deals with terrorist acts in Australia as well as steps taken by the Australian government to counter the threat of terrorism. In 2004 the Australian government has identified transnational terrorism as also a threat to Australia and to Australian citizens overseas. Australia has experienced acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to target terrorism.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law in Syria.
The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
On 26 June 2013, rioting broke out in Shanshan County, in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. 35 people died in the riots, including 22 civilians, two police officers and eleven attackers.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
Turkey's involvement in the Syrian civil war began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
Hayat Boumeddiene, also known by the nom de guerre (kunya) Umm Basir al-Muhajirah is a French-born Algerian Muslim terrorist who participated in the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks. Currently a fugitive, she is wanted as an accomplice of her partner, Amedy Coulibaly, who perpetrated the Montrouge shooting and the Porte de Vincennes siege.
There has been an increase in incidents involving alleged radical Islamism in the Balkans since the 1990s.
The Turkey–Islamic State conflict were a series of attacks and clashes between the state of Turkey and the Islamic State. Turkey joined the War against the Islamic State in 2016, after the Islamic State attacks in Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces' Operation Euphrates Shield was aimed against both the Islamic State and the SDF. Part of Turkish-occupied northern Syria, around Jarabulus and al-Bab, was taken after Turkey drove the Islamic State out of it.
On 26 July 2016, two Islamist terrorists attacked participants in a Mass at a Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, northern France. Wielding knives and wearing fake explosive belts, the men took six people captive and later killed one of them, 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, by slitting his throat, and also critically wounded an 86-year-old man. The terrorists were shot dead by BRI police as they tried to leave the church.
Islamic terrorism has been carried out in Europe by the jihadist groups Islamic State (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda as well as Islamist lone wolves since the late 20th century. Europol, which releases the annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT), used the term "Islamist terrorism" in reports for the years 2006–2010, "religiously inspired terrorism" for the years 2011–2014, and has used "jihadist terrorism" since then. Europol defines jihadism as "a violent ideology exploiting traditional Islamic concepts".
The Syrian National Army, previously the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups that participated in the Syrian Civil War. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the start of the war in July 2011, it was officially established in 2017 under the auspices of Turkey, which provides funding, training, and military support.
On 12 May 2018, a 20-year-old Chechnya-born French citizen, armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured four others near the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, France, before being fatally shot by police. The stabbings were in the area of Rue Saint-Augustin and Passage Choiseul. French President Emmanuel Macron said France had "paid once again the price of blood but will not cede an inch to the enemies of freedom." The suspect, identified as Khamzat Azimov, had been on a counter-terrorism watchlist since 2016. Amaq News Agency posted a video of a hooded person pledging allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, claimed to be the attacker. Europol classified the attack as jihadist terrorism.
On 4 October 2020, a man was killed and another injured during a knife attack in Dresden, Germany. After two weeks, the 20-years-old perpetrator was arrested, Abdullah al-H. H. - a Syrian national who had arrived in Germany in 2015 to seek asylum. He had been sentenced in November 2018 to two years and nine months imprisonment for supporting a terrorist organization and planning an attack with contacts with a militant in Yemen and working on the construction of suicide belts. He had been released from prison in September 2020. Europol classified the attack as jihadist terrorism.
A terrorist attack occurred on İstiklal Avenue in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, on 13 November 2022, killing 6 people and injuring 81 others.