| Ghriba synagogue bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Maghreb insurgency | |
 Synagogue entrance through which the fuel tanker drove during attack | |
| Location | Djerba, Tunisia |
| Date | April 11, 2002 |
| Target | El Ghriba synagogue |
Attack type | Suicide bombing |
| Weapons | Natural gas truck bomb |
| Deaths | 20 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 30+ |
| Perpetrators | al-Qaeda |
| Motive | Antisemitism |
The Ghriba synagogue bombing was carried out by Niser bin Muhammad Nasr Nawar on the El Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia in 2002.
On April 11, 2002, a natural gas truck fitted with explosives drove past security barriers at the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba. [1] The truck detonated at the front of the synagogue, killing 14 German tourists, three Tunisians, and two French nationals. [2] More than 30 others were wounded. [3] [4] [5]
| Country | Number |
|---|---|
 Germany | 14 |
 Tunisia | 3 |
 France | 2 |
| Total | 19 |
Although the explosion was initially called an accident, [6] as Tunisia, France, and Germany investigated, it became clear that it was a deliberate attack. A 24-year-old man named Niser bin Muhammad Nasr Nawar was the suicide bomber, who carried out the attack with the aid of a relative.[ who? ] Al-Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attack, [7] which was reportedly organized by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Saad bin Laden. [8] [9] However, Saad's family denied he was involved in the attack. [10] [11]
In March 2003, five people were arrested in Spain in connection with the attack. [12] On May 10, 2006, two of them, Spanish businessman Enrique Cerda and Pakistani national Ahmed Rukhsar, were sentenced to five years in prison for collaborating with a terrorist group. [13] In June 2003, a German man named Christian Ganczarski was arrested at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in connection with the bombing. [14] [15] He was arrested by a joint intelligence operation, in the frame of Alliance Base, which is located in Paris, and transferred to Fresnes Prison in Paris. [16] [17] In February 2009, Ganczarski was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the bombing. [18]
On April 11, 2012, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, Tunisian Grand Rabbi Haim Bitan, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Tunisia, and Boris Boillon, Ambassador of the French Republic to Tunisia, visited Djerba to pay their respects to the victims on the attack's 10th anniversary. Marzouki met with victims' families and delivered a speech where he strongly condemned this attack and reassured Tunisian Jews of their place in Tunisian society. [19]
Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic state known as the Caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs, but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the US and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks. The organization is designated as a terrorist group by NATO, UN Security Council, the European Union, and various countries around the world.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Bin Laden is most widely known as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often known by his initials KSM, is a Pakistani terrorist and the former Head of Propaganda for al-Qaeda. He is currently held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 2004 9/11 Commission Report.
Djerba, also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at 514 square kilometers (198 sq mi), in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. Administratively, it is part of Medenine Governorate of this North African country. The island had a population of 139,544 at the 2004 census, which rose to 163,726 at the 2014 census. Citing its long and unique history, Tunisia has sought UNESCO World Heritage status protections for the island, and, in 2023, Djerba was officially designated a World Heritage Site.
Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan commonly known by his nom de guerreSaif al-Adel is a former Egyptian Army officer and explosives expert who is widely understood to be the de facto leader of al-Qaeda. Al-Adel fought the Soviets as an Afghan Arab before becoming a founding member of the al-Qaeda organization. He is a member of Al-Qaeda's Majlis al-Shura and has headed the organization's military committee since the death of Muhammad Atef in 2001. He is currently known to live in Iran along with several other senior members of the group.
In December 2000, an al-Qaeda-linked plot to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market, at the feet of the Strasbourg Cathedral, on New Year's Eve was discovered. The plot was foiled by French and German police after a terrorist network based in Frankfurt, Germany, the "Frankfurt group", was unravelled. A total of fourteen people were convicted as part of the plot; four in Germany and ten in France, including the operational leader, Mohammed Bensakhria, thought to be a European deputy to Osama bin Laden. The alleged mastermind of the plot was thought to have been Abu Doha, who was detained in the United Kingdom.
The ancient El Ghriba Synagogue, also known as the Djerba Synagogue, is located on the Tunisian island of Djerba. It is situated in the Jewish village of Hara Seghira, several kilometres southwest of Houmt El Souk, the main town of Djerba.
Christian Ganczarski is a German terrorist who was alleged to be a top Al-Qaeda leader.
Saʻd bin ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin, better known as Saad bin Laden, was one of Osama bin Laden's sons. He continued in his father's footsteps by being active in Al Qaeda, and was being groomed to be his heir apparent. He was killed in an American drone strike in 2009.
The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Al-Qaeda.
An Islamist insurgency is taking place in the Maghreb region of North Africa, followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.
The international activities of Al-Qaeda includes involvements in Europe, where members of the group have been involved in militant and terrorist activities in several countries. Al-Qaeda has been responsible for or involved in attacks in Western Europe and Russia, including the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 2010 Moscow Metro bombings, 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing, and the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks.
It is believed that members of Al-Qaeda are hiding along the border of Afghanistan and northwest sections of Pakistan. In Iraq, elements loosely associated with al-Qaeda, in the Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad organization commanded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have played a key role in the War in Iraq.
Nizar bin Muhammad Nasar Nawar (1978-2002), an alleged member of the Tunisian Combat Group, was accused of carrying out the 2002 Ghriba synagogue bombing, after planning its execution while living in Montreal, Canada.
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror is a widely discussed topic among policy-makers of various countries, political analysts and international delegates around the world. Pakistan has simultaneously received allegations of harbouring and aiding terrorists and commendation for its anti-terror efforts. Since 2001, the country has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees who fled the war in Afghanistan.
The 2011 Marrakesh bombing was a domestic terrorist bombing of the Argana Cafe in Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakesh, Morocco, on April 28, 2011. A lone terrorist, Adil El-Atmani, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs hidden inside of a backpack at the cafe and detonated them at 11:50 a.m., killing 17 and injuring 25. Many of the dead were tourists, including a group of French students.
On 23 December 2006 and 3 January 2007, Tunisian security forces engaged in clashes with members of a group with connections to the Islamist terror group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the towns of Soliman and Hammam-Lif south of the capital Tunis, killing more than a dozen people.
Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi is a Moroccan-born terrorist and senior member of Al-Qaeda (AQ) who leads the organization's External Communications Office, including As-Sahab Media. He is the son-in-law of the group's late emir Ayman al-Zawahiri, and is seen as a potential successor to Saif al-Adel as leader of the terror group. Though primarily known by a nom de guerre which references his Moroccan birthplace in the Maghreb, his given name is Mohamed Abattay. After his radicalization in the late 1990s, al-Maghrebi abandoned his schooling in Germany and departed for the infamous Al Farouq training camp outside Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was hand-picked by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for work in the groups propaganda arm. Following the September 11 attacks, al-Maghrebi is believed to have quickly fled to Iran. He subsequently rose through the ranks of Al-Qaeda, gaining trust, and winning the hand of Zawahiri's daughter in marriage. By 2012, al-Maghrebi had become al-Qaeda's general manager for all of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The US moved to designate al-Maghrebi a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in early 2021. After the Taliban's return to power in August of that year, al-Maghrebi was believed to have been living together with Zawahiri in the same house in downtown Kabul where Zawahiri would later be killed in a U.S. drone strike. As of 2023 his whereabouts are unknown.
On May 9, 2023, Wissam Khazri, a 30-year-old national guardsman, killed five people in a mass shooting at the El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. Khazri initially killed a colleague and seized his ammunition before targeting the synagogue, where a large gathering of Jewish pilgrims were celebrating Lag BaOmer. Two visitors and two Tunisian police officers were killed, while eight others sustained injuries before the perpetrator was killed by the police.
The History of the Jews in Djerba stems back to at least the Middle Ages, although many speculate that it extends back to the Classical Era. The community is one of the last remaining Jewish communities in the Arab world.
