Summary of Terrorist Incidents and Counter-Terrorist Operations Worldwide October 2015
The ICT Database Team is pleased to present a brief overview of the terrorist incidents and counter-terrorist actions that occurred worldwide in October 2015. The incidents covered in this month’s report join the over 35,000 previously-recorded terrorist and counter-terrorist incidents in the ICT database.
This month’s report covers terrorist incidents throughout the world, with special emphasis events in Middle East. On October 31, a Russian plane, Metrojet Flight 9268, carrying 224 passengers crashed over the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, killing all the pasengers and crew on board.
The flight departed the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport and was destined to land in Pulkovo Airport, Saint Petersburg, Russia. The IS claimed responsibility for the incident. Russian authorities said investigators had discovered traces of foreign-made explosive in fragments of the wreckage of downed plane and on passengers’ personal belongings and believed the bomb contained 1kilogram of TNT explosives.
October 2015 was also marked by terrorist incidents in: Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Tunisia and Yemen.
This month’s report also covers counter-terrorist incidents throughout the world, with particular emphasis also in the Middle East. On October 22, Kurdish and US commandos carried out a pre-dawn counter-terrorist raid to free prisoners being held by IS militants near the northern town of Hawija, Iraq.
It was reported that one of the targets of the raid was Nema Arbid Nayef al-Jabouri, an IS senior commander. Authorities said the prisoners were facing imminent execution by the IS captors. During the incident, one US soldier was killed (the first US combat soldier to be killed in Iraq since 2011); four Iraqi soldiers were wounded; five militants were detained and important intelligence was recovered.
The soldiers freed 70 prisoners, however, authorities said that the group of prisoners released was not the group that the soldiers had expected to find. It was unclear where those prisoners were being held.
October 2015 was also marked by counter-terrorist incidents in: Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, North America, Russia, Spain, Syria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.