Rijeka terror attack

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Rijeka terror attack
Location Rijeka, Croatia
Date October 20, 1995
Attack type Suicide car bomb attack
Deaths 1
Injured 29
Perpetrator(s) al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya

The Rijeka terror attack happened on October 20, 1995 in Rijeka, Croatia.


Contents

[edit] Prelude

In the last days of the Bosnian war, Croato-Bosnian military forces (HVO) captured Talaat Fouad Qassem [1] when he attempted to enter Bosnia. This important member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was delivered quickly to Egypt with active help of Croatia. Because of that and because Croatia had de facto controlled HVO (Croatian Defence Council), a military organization which has captured Talaat Fouad Qassem decision was made to start a terror attack in Croatia.

[edit] Attack

October 20, 1995, started peacefully in Rijeka, Croatia's most important harbor. At 11:21 CET, a FIAT Mirafiori [2] entered the small parking lot of police headquarters in Rijeka slowly because of a 90-degree turn. After entering the parking lot, the car did not stop in parking spot for civilians but the driver began to give more power to the engine and started moving towards the wall of the police station. Because of low security, nobody noticed this change in normal parking routine. Only 15 meters after entering parking lot (this parking lot is having space only for 8 - 10 cars) the car slammed into the small stairway of the police station and exploded at 11:22. At this point, it became clear that the driver was a suicide bomber. Police investigation later discovered that the car contained 70 kg of TNT dynamite. Inside the destroyed car, police found part of a Canadian passport [3] that was owned and had been used by the attacker. This attack resulted in no fatalities other than the suicide bomber due to poor planning by the attacker. Before the attack, the bomber did not notice that the police station was on higher ground than the road and that between the parking lot and the wall of the police station was a small stairway on which the car, because of low speed, would never been able to raise itself upon. This meant that it was not possible to touch the police station wall with the car before detonation; because of this, only 29 people were injured in the attack.

The next day, representatives of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Egypt took responsibility for the attack [4].

[edit] After attack

With the help of the CIA, officials examined the camera shots of the attack. American and Croatian investigative sources came to the conclusion that Hassan al-Sharif Mahmud Saad organized this attack. Saad had come to live in Bosnia only that year; before, he had been living in Italy. Soon after the attack, Bosnian officials discovered that Saad was working on a new terror attack now against NATO forces, which was to happen in December of 1995. A few days after that terror attack failed, he was killed in a fight with HVO.

[edit] Sources