Terrorist organizations’ threats against public transportation in western countries have increased. The recent terror attack, which targeted Parsons Green tube station in Fulham, southwest of the Britain’s capital London, revealed this trend of increasing threats.
A primitive improvised explosive device (IED) was put in Parsons Green station, but it did not detonate. The material used to manufacture the bomb caught fire resulting in a “limited fire”, as explosive experts put it, and injured 22 people. The number of victims could have been much greater if the explosion happened. ISIS claimed the explosion via the agency Amaq.
Terrorist organizations focus on targeting public transportation networks in major cities due to the presence of massive crowds. It is also difficult to secure these networks and easy for attacker to hide. This is in addition to the major social and psychological repercussions resulting from these attacks.
“Terrorism in Transportation:”
The London Tube station attack is not the first of its kind. A terrorist tried to detonate a bomb armed with nails and gas canisters inside the Brussels Central Station in June 2017. Security forces inside the station killed him before he executed the operation.
In April 2017, an explosion rocked the metro station in Russia’s Saint Petersburg killing 14 people and injuring dozens others. Russia’s security forces also found an explosive device in the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station and defused it before it went off.
Public transportation attacks often resorted to more primitive methods. In July 2016, an Afghan refugee attacked train passengers in Germany using a knife and an axe injuring four people. ISIS claimed the attacked. Moreover, Brussels witnessed a series of explosions as well as in March 2016, an explosion rocked the Maelbeek metro station killing 15 people and injuring dozens.
In August 2015, an extremist terrorist opened fire on the passengers of a train that links Paris and Amsterdam injuring three people before passengers subdued him. Public transportation in the Russian city of Volgograd was also targeted in 2013, when a suicide bomber blew herself up in a bus in October 2013 killing 6 people. In December 2013, a terrorist who was carrying a bomb detonated it when security forces tried to search him at the Volgograd railway station. The attack killed 17 people and injured dozens others. On the next day, a bombing targeted a bus in the same city killing 14 people.
The 2004 Madrid train bombings were the biggest terrorist attack in terms of the number of victims in such attacks. The number of those killed was estimated at 191 people, while hundreds were injured. The same can be said about the 2005 London bombings, which targeted three underground trains and a bus during rush hour killing around 52 people.
Targeting Motives
The increase of these attacks targeting public transportation networks in western countries is linked to several major factors. The most important ones are:
1. Massive crowds: Means of public transportation are distinguished for their daily massive crowds. Attacks there cause more deaths and spread panic among civilians. For example, the transportation authority affiliated with the office of London’s mayor estimated the number of trains that pass by London every day to be 543 trains carrying more than 5 million passengers. That is according to the most recent data. Attacking public transportation networks also spreads panic and fear among citizens leading to a stampede and increasing the number of victims. Public transportation is, thus, a typical goal for terrorist organizations.
2. Difficulty to secure them: Although London Police uses advanced technologies to secure the public transportation sector, there are still several gaps that allow terrorist groups to execute attacks. There are more than 12,000 surveillance cameras in tube stations and train carriages and around 700 policemen deployed in London Tube. It’s difficult to secure these stations due to the several exits and entrances and the massive number of people who use public transportation daily. This is in addition to the vast areas, which need to be secured.
3. Infiltrating cities: The design of public transportation is distinguished for connecting cities via spider webs that penetrate cities from their outskirts all the way to the centers. Security level is, thus, not the same in all areas, as it will depend on how many vital institutions and facilities there are. This design allows terrorists to move from less dense areas to the heart of the capital without security forces noticing. A terrorist may board a train from an uninhabited area to go to the targeted city, or the center of the capital, to execute the attack and inflict as much losses as possible.
4. Easy to hide: It is possible to carry out terrorist operations in public transportation networks without security forces noticing. The wide area of stations and congestion makes it easier for one to hide explosives inside trains or among passengers in waiting areas. This is linked to the spread of blind spots in crowded areas in cities. Terrorist organizations can know where these blind spots are by noting where surveillance cameras are and observing the daily pattern of crowds in the city. Members of these terrorist cells can, thus, exploit these blind spots later to hide from security forces.
5. “Sympathizers’ terrorism": Carrying out terrorist attacks inside public transportation networks does not require advanced skills or special training. These attacks are the most suitable tactics for terrorist organizations that push their sympathizers, who lack military skills, to execute random terror attacks that cause major human losses. Primitive means can be used to attack public transportation, such as IEDs, stabbing, shooting and blowing up railways, thus steering trains out of their track.
6. Al-Qaeda’s incitement: Targeting public transportation is linked to Al-Qaeda’s incitement to carry out such attacks. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen dedicated the August 2017 edition of its English online magazine “Inspire” to incite its members to attack trains and railways in Europe. 18 pages of the 97 focused on explaining how to directly attack trains or target their railways to steer them off the track or target metro stations. They also explained that these attacks do not require suicide bombers as there are different ways to carry them out. In mid-August the British Daily Telegraph warned that train railways may turn into “death trains”, which terror groups in Britain can resort to as a tactic to spread terror.
ISIS inherited the tactic of targeting public transportation from al-Qaeda. This is linked to operations carried out by “lone wolves” and to “possible terrorism” operations that depend on available tools to carry out terrorist attacks in western countries.
7. Psychological influence: This kind of terrorist operations aims to threaten the pattern of daily life in cities, as citizens sometimes have to go from residential areas on the cities’ outskirts to city centers for work. A sense of security is, thus, an essential requirement for urban interaction. Terror attacks spread fear and panic among civilians and create of sense of insecurity. This is what terrorist organizations aim to achieve by carrying out attacks outside of their strongholds in conflict zones.
8. Economic losses: Continuous attacks on public transportation networks in major cities in western countries cause massive economic losses, due to obstructing transportation across cities. This leads to difficulties in transporting products that spoil quickly, such as agricultural crops from rural areas to cities. It also affects tourism due to tourists’ fears of traveling to countries, which witnessed these attacks. Tourists are also afraid of visiting these countries due to security institutions’ warnings of escalating terror threats that may target crowded areas in tourist attractions and public transportation facilities.
In general, terrorist operations, which target public transportation in western countries are likely to increase because it is difficult to secure these facilities and as ISIS seeks to avenge from the countries that are part of the international coalition against terrorism. ISIS also wants to retaliate for to its losses in Syria and Iraq. It further aims to send a message to its sympathizers, which stipulates that the organization and its members are capable of carrying out effective operations. ISIS also wants them to know that they are not affected by the decline of their power in major strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
