Terrorism in Denmark refers to terrorist attacks carried out in Denmark or by people connected to Denmark. Like other countries Denmark increased its focus on defending against terrorist attacks after the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001. The September 11 attacks led to strengthened laws in a number of areas. 31 May 2002 the parliament of Denmark (Danish: Folketing) approved anti-terror legislation with the aim of preventing terrorism in Denmark and internationally. The new legislation aligned with the definitions of terrorism which were in use by the European Union and the United Nations. [1]
1985 Copenhagen bombings - Main synagogue in Copenhagen and airline office were hit by a bomb placed by Hezbollah terrorists. While no people were injured in the attack on the synagogue, a second bomb placed by the same group destroyed the Copenhagen offices of the American Northwest Orient Airlines, killing one person and injuring 26. [2] [3] Several Arabs residing in Europe, among them Mohammed Abu Talb, were later convicted for these and other attacks.
The Vollsmose terrorists were three men convicted of attempted terrorism in Denmark in 2007–2008. Nine men were initially arrested by Danish police in the Vollsmose neighbourhood of Odense on 5 September 2006, but most were later released without charges, including a police mole who played a role in the investigation and trial. Four men were charged with attempted terrorism, three of whom were convicted. [4] According to Danish police, the group had been under investigation for quite a while. [5]
Lene Espersen, the Danish Minister of Justice, called the plot "the most severe ever in Denmark" and said the group were planning one or more terrorist attacks against targets in Denmark. It was later claimed that they had planned on using bombs to attack the Folketing (Danish Parliament), Jyllands-Posten (the newspaper involved in the 2005 cartoon controversy), Copenhagen's City Hall Square or another unspecified target. [4] [6] The group was motivated by Islamic extremism. [5]2007 Al Qaeda Plot in Copenhagen - Danish police officers and Security Intelligence Service agents arrested eight, six of which were released after questioning. The two remaining, described as Islamic militants with ties to Al Qaeda, were convicted in 2008 of planning terrorism with the use of bombs. [7] [8]
In 2007, Morocco-born Said Mansour was the first to be charged with the offence of inciting terrorism. [9] Material produced by him has been found by several convicted terrorists worldwide. In 2014, he was sentenced again by the Fredriksberg court to four years in jail for publishing extremist islamist material thereby supporting al-Qaeda. In 2015 the Østre Landsret upholds the sentenced and strips Mansour of his Danish citizenship and issues a deportation order. In June 2016, the supreme court upholds the deportation order. After the supreme court decision, Danish authorities negotiated with Morocco on a repatriation treaty. He was deported in January 2019. [10]
2010 Copenhagen terror plot - Security services in Denmark and Sweden thwarted a terrorist plot against Jyllands-Posten, the publisher of the controversial cartoons of Muhammad in 2005. In several raids they detained five men, who were described as militant islamists. Automatic weapons, together with ammunition and silencers, were seized by the police. [11]
Hotel Jørgensen explosion - An attempted letter bomb attack by a Belgian of Chechen ethnicity.
Two Somali brothers residing in Denmark were arrested in May 2012 on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack and the elder was alleged to have undergone training by Al-Shabaab. In February 2013 they were charged with financing terrorism and terrorist training. The younger brother admitted to supporting Al-Shabaab in the district court. Upon appeal, both brothers were sentenced for attempted terrorist training in the appeals court. [9]
2015 Copenhagen shootings - shooting attacks in Copenhagen beginning in the afternoon of 14 February at a public event called "Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression" at Krudttønden cultural centre, followed by another at the Great Synagogue just after midnight (i.e., 15 February), and finally the killing of the perpetrator in the early morning by police. Two victims and the perpetrator were killed, while five police officers were wounded. [12]
The Kundby case - a 2016 plan to bomb two schools in Denmark, including a Jewish school in Copenhagen. The girl, 15-years-old at the time of her plan and a recent convert to Islam, was convicted in 2017. [13] [14]
2016 Copenhagen terror plot - an attempted attack on Copenhagen with bombs and knives by two Syrian refugees (one living in Sweden, another in Germany) under direction of Islamic State instructions. [15]
Ringsted terror plot - A Norwegian-Iranian was arrested and suspected of having planned Iranian intelligence operations in Denmark. Both Norwegian PST and Danish PET also suspected the man to take part in the planning of an assassination against the leader of the Iranian group Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz. He was arrested in Gothenburg in Sweden on 21 October. [16]
Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) and police arrested around 20 people throughout Denmark 11 December 2019, 8 of which have been charged with attempted terrorism. They had bought bomb-making materials and tried (unsuccessfully) to acquire firearms. It is unknown if their target was in Denmark or abroad, but the motive was radical Islamist ideology. [17] [18]
Two Swedish teenagers were arrested by Danish Police in connection with a bomb blast near the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen on October 2. The attack is investigated as a possible terror attack. [19] Swedish television stated that the attacks are suspected to be perpetrated by the Foxtrot network on orders from Iran. [20]
In 2001, a network of interconnected terrorist cells in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands was uncovered by law enforcement. The network had connections to al-Qaeda and was planning to commit one or more bombings.
A series of Islamist terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda were planned to occur on or near January 1, 2000, in the context of millennium celebrations, including bombing plots against four tourist sites in Jordan, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), USS The Sullivans, and the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.
Kurt Westergaard was a Danish cartoonist. In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban as a part of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which triggered several assassinations and murders committed by Muslim extremists around the world, diplomatic conflicts, and state-organized riots and attacks on Western embassies with several dead in Muslim countries. After the drawing of the cartoon, Westergaard received numerous death threats and was a target of assassination attempts. As a result, he was under constant police protection.
Until the late 2000s terrorism in Sweden was not seen as a serious threat to the security of the state. However, there has been a rise in far right and Islamist terrorist activity in the 21st century.
The Vollsmose terrorists were three men convicted of attempted terrorism in Denmark in 2007–2008. Nine men were initially arrested by Danish police in the Vollsmose neighbourhood of Odense on 5 September 2006, but most were later released without charges, including a police mole who played a role in the investigation and trial. Four men were charged with attempted terrorism, three of whom were convicted. According to Danish police, the group had been under investigation for quite a while.
On 31 July 2006, two men placed two suitcases filled with bombs on regional commuter trains in Germany. Departing from the central station in Cologne, the bombs were timed to go off near Hamm or Dortmund and near Koblenz, and according to German investigators "would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people ... on a much larger scale than the terrorist attacks on London subways and buses in July 2005." However, due to faulty construction, the bombs only failed to ignite, even as the detonators worked. According to the German prosecutor, at the time Germany had "never been closer to an Islamist attack than in this case."
Abu Bashar is a Syrian-born imam of the mosque of The Islamic Society in Denmark in Odense, Denmark. He was involved in protests against the Jyllands-Posten cartoons of Muhammad and in the Vollsmose terrorist arrests.
On September 4, 2007, two men who were planning a terror attack were arrested along several others by Danish police officers and Security Intelligence Service agents in several coordinated actions throughout the Greater Copenhagen area. The two men were later convicted and sentenced to twelve and seven years in prison, respectively. In Danish, it became known as the "terror case from Glasvej" after the road where the convicted ringleader had his apartment, which had been under surveillance for an extended period of time before the arrests. It is unknown if the target of the planned bombing was in Denmark or abroad.
The 2007 bomb plot in Germany, planned by the al-Qaeda controlled, Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) affiliated Sauerland terror cell, was discovered following an extensive nine-month investigation involving more than 600 agents in five German states. The number of agents involved in a counterterrorism operation led by the federal police had never been the case before. At the same time, Danish police in Copenhagen were busy with explosives. A Pakistani and an Afghan man have been charged with preparing to carry out their attacks under al-Qaeda plans. Authorities said they were unaware of any direct links between the terrorists arrested in the two European countries. Three men were arrested on 4 September 2007 while leaving a rented cottage in the Oberschledorn district of Medebach, Germany where they had stored 700 kg (1,500 lb) of a hydrogen peroxide-based mixture and 26 military-grade detonators, and were attempting to build car bombs. A supporter was arrested in Turkey. All four had attended an IJU-training camp in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2006. They were convicted in 2010 and given prison sentences of varying lengths; all have since been released.
Terrorism in the United Kingdom, according to the Home Office, poses a significant threat to the state. There have been various causes of terrorism in the UK. Before the 2000s, most attacks were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict. In the late 20th century there were also attacks by Islamic terrorist groups. Since 1970, there have been at least 3,395 terrorist-related deaths in the UK, the highest in western Europe. The vast majority of the deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict and happened in Northern Ireland. In mainland Great Britain, there were 430 terrorist-related deaths between 1971 and 2001. Of these, 125 deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict, and 305 deaths were linked to other causes, including 270 in the Lockerbie bombing. Since 2001, there have been almost 100 terrorist-related deaths in Great Britain.
In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.
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.
Munir Awad is a Lebanon-born citizen of Sweden who was convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in Denmark. Munir Awad, and his fiancée were arrested in Kenya in 2007 when Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia and foreigners were detained as suspected terrorists. On December 29, 2010 Awad was arrested in Denmark and in 2012 was found guilty of plotting a terrorist attack in revenge for Jyllands-Posten's publication of Muhammad cartoons.
The 2010 Copenhagen terror plot was a terrorist plot against Jyllands-Posten, the publisher of the controversial cartoons of Muhammad in 2005.
On 22 July 1985, two bombs exploded in a terrorist attack in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the bombs exploded near the Great Synagogue and a Jewish nursing home and kindergarten, and another at the offices of Northwest Orient Airlines. At least one more bomb, planned for the El Al airline offices, was discovered. One person was killed and 26 people were injured in the attacks. Sweden-based Palestinians Abu Talb and Marten Imandi were sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden for the bombings, which were part of a series of attacks in 1985 and 1986, while two co-conspirators received lesser sentences of one and six years imprisonment.
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".
From March to May 1998, a terror plot against the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France was uncovered by European law enforcement agencies. More than 100 people were arrested in seven countries as a result of the plot, although only some of them were tried or convicted. Organised by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and backed by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the plot is thought to have targeted the England–Tunisia match on 15 June 1998, and involved infiltrating the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in order to attack players and spectators during the game, attack the hotel in Paris hosting the United States national team, and finally hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant near Poitiers.
The Kundby case was a 2016 plan to bomb two schools in Denmark, including a Jewish school in Copenhagen. The plan was made by a 15-year-old Danish girl from Kundby, Denmark named Natascha Colding-Olsen. The police found chemicals to create a bomb in her home in Kundby.
