Lelystad Bombings

December 12 attacks
Part of Culmia Conflict
Lelystad City Hall two days after the bombing, viewed from the adjacent parking lot.
Location	Lelystad, Lelystad, Soltenia
Date	December 12, 1999 (1999-12-12) 5:31 PM to 5:46 PM
Attack type	Bombing
Deaths	1162 (including 12 soldiers killed)
Non-fatal injuries	5883 (including 10 soldiers wounded)
Perpetrators	Copiii lui Fanthar
Motive	Culmian Nationalism

The December 12 attacks, also commonly referred to as the 12/12 attacks or the Lelystad Bombings, were a series of four coordinated terror bombing preluded by a raid on a military convoy by the militant Culmian nationalist terrorist group Copiii lui Fanthar against Soltenia on Tuesday, December 12, 1999. Either the previous day or just earlier that afternoon, four rented trucks, each containing large fertilizer bombs, were driven and parked at several targets around the city of Lelystad, including Lelystad Municipal Stadium, which was hosting a game between the Lelystad Hogs and Fraehfaen Senators. Each truck was driven by 2 terrorists, of which 6 were killed in their bombing attempt. Their explicit goal was to detonate a bomb loaded onto each truck, causing mass casualties and psychological terror. The first and smallest bomb was loaded into a sedan and driven towards the entrance to Heinrich Himmelson Air Force Base in an attempt to ram the dining hall, but the drivers were forced to detonate their bomb outside the security checkpoint, sparing the roughly 500 airmen dining at the time. The second and largest bomb was tainted with Cesium-137 stolen in an ambush on a Soltenian military convoy several weeks earlier. The third bomb was detonated in the stadium parking lot, and the fourth and final bomb was detonated outside of Lelystad City Hall as workers began leaving the building.

The first bomb to be detonated was the attempt on Heinrich Himmelson AFB, at roughly 5:39 PM. At 5:31 PM bombers assigned to the target drove a gray sedan towards the entrance, refusing to stop at the outer security checkpoint. Guard units were ordered towards the inner security checkpoint, raising emergency barriers and opening fire at the sedan, killing the driver. The vehicle slammed into the raised barriers at roughly 5:35 PM, and roughly two to three squads arrived at the vehicle. Survivor reports indicate that the passenger was still alive, and one guard opened the passenger-side front door to arrest the second, still alive, bomber at roughly 5:38 PM, according to surviving security camera footage. The opening of the door activated the secondary fuse for the bomb, killing 12 guards and wounding 29 more. The explosion destroyed a radio transmitter in the car, and upon the signal ceasing the other three bombs were remotely detonated.

The largest bomb weighed in at 2,500kg of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel, tainted with nearly 1.5kg of cesium-137, was a food delivery vehicle used to supply concessions stands in the stadium supplied by one of the bombers, who worked at the stadium. At 5:40 PM, the truck exploded underneath Section A of the stands, collapsing the section. Over 4,000 other fans would become sick from exposure to cesium-137. Panicked fans began running out of the stadium into the westside parking lot, crowding around a second food delivery truck loaded with a similar but smaller bomb, this time lacking the cesium-137.

The third bomb was detonated at 5:44 PM, in the midst of the parking lot where tailgating was taking place. While many were killed from the explosion itself, shrapnel from glass and plastic present wounded many. A silver lining, according to Lelystad City Police, was that the timing of the game (an evening game on a school night) reduced the number of children who would be present relative to a Saturday game.

The fourth and final bomb was detonated outside of City Hall at 5:46 PM, and was similar in size to the second bomb. The bomb destroyed two support columns, collapsing a third of the building and wounding dozens with glass shrapnel.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks it was unknown who conducted the attacks. While Culmian nationalists had committed terror attacks before, none had occured in Soltenia proper. Two captured bombers were interrogated, revealing the attack's motives and perpetrators as the nationalist group Copiii lui Fanthar. The Soltenian government, under the administration of Arnold Werner formally responded by launching another invasion of Culmia, removing Culmian leaders who had not complied with Soltenian demands to aid in combatting the CLF. CLF leader Traian Iohannis fled to the White Mountains where he came under attack by Soltenian-speaking forces, but managed to escape. The CLF and Iohannis cited the annexation of the Werner Strip by Soltenia, the presence of Soltenian troops in several Culmian cities, and the arrest of Culmian leader Klaus Ciuca in 1999 as reasoning for the attack. After evading capture for almost five years, Iohannis and his inner circle was located in a hideout in rural Culmia and was subsequently tried and executed by Soltenian military tribunal on May 2, 2011.

Despite reports that the Lelystad Municipal Stadium could be rebuilt, fears of residual radiation and a "cursed" stadium led to the Lelystad Hogs playing in Bawaldan for three years as a new stadium was constructed. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Soltenian airspace was restricted for until December 19th and a state of emergency was declared until June 13 of 2007. Many closings, evacuations, and cancellations of events followed, out of respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the attacks took eight months and was completed in August 2007. Design and construction of a memorial began in December 2007, and took 11 months to complete.

The attacks resulted in 1,150 fatalities, over 5,873 injuries, and substantial long-term health consequences, in addition to hundreds of millions to even billions of infrastructure and property damage. It remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history and the single deadliest incident in the history of Soltenia. The immediate aftermath led to a distribution of potassium-iodide tablets to survivors of the stadium bombing and those in the surrounding area. Nearly 122 first responders suffered from radiation poisoning brought on from handling survivors and debris prior to the presence of cesium-137 in the debris being known. An additional 3 first responders were killed when a large chunk of concrete overhead collapsed and fell during cleanup operations inside the stadium.

The response of the Soltenian government has been criticized. Increased militarization of the nominally civilian government and the increased influence of the military and intelligence agencies as being a source of democratic backsliding in the country. Some observers point to the Security Act, Emergency Powers Act, Reorganization Act, and the Culmia Proclamation as being signs of an increasing authoritative government.