2015 Talon bombings
| 2015 Talonée bombings | |
|---|---|
| File:Fire htl.jpg Smoke emerging from Talonée's Porte de l'Est after the bombing | |
| File:Hartly Road Map targets.png Red: Location of bombings, Green: Intended target of second bombing | |
| Location | Kinzeliko, NamQuad Porte de l'Est, Downtown Talonée, Ainin |
| Date | April 1, 2015 18:04 (Porte de l'Est) 18:12 (Kinzeliko) |
| Target | Civilians |
Attack type | Suicide bombing, truck bomb, mass murder |
| Deaths | 572 |
Non-fatal injuries | 1,790 |
Suspected perpetrators | The Caliphate |
On 1 April 2015, twin blasts struck in Centre-Ville Est and the NamQuad, two neighbourhoods of the city of Talonée, Ainin. The attacks killed 572, of which over 120 were Namorese citizens, and injured 1,790, making it the deadliest attack in Ainin proper since the 1968 siege of Desert Bay by the Nautaryan Army.
The first blast occurred onboard a RTT articulated bus as it passed under the Porte de l'Est, a city gate in the east of Talonée's downtown area. The attacker detonated plastic explosives hidden inside a large suitcase, causing a major explosion and fire. The attack destroyed the structure and caused many casualties amongst the passersby and motorists passing near and under the gate. The attack was quickly followed by a truck bomb that exploded at an intersection in the heart of Talonée's Monic ethnic enclave, the NamQuad. The attack levelled several buildings around the intersection and caused the collapse of an elevated light rail station, Kinzeliko and trapped several dozen people in an underground metro station. It reportedly exploded prematurely, as police searches of the attackers' flat showed plans to attack the nearby Porte de l'Ouest.
The Caliphate claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Aininian government has not confirmed this pending the results of a full investigation conducted by the Gendarmerie. The bombers were later identified as brothers Zaid and Abdoul Rahmani, Aininian citizens and the children of Nautaryan immigrants. According to the Intelligence and Security Directorate, they had been radicalized in Irvadistan and were on a terror watchlist.
Background
The Caliphate's predecessor groups emerged in Nautasia as a serious threat shortly after the Aininian-mediated partition of Nautarya, and the rise of the Islamic Emirate backed Islamic Courts in Kraq was an especially major concern as its controlled territory bordered East Nautarya and the group threatened to wage jihad against the "infidel" Christian population of the country. In August 2014, 16,000 Aininian troops were deployed to southern East Nautarya to prevent Emirate fighters from entering the country. Due to this Aininian intervention, Islamist propaganda began calling for Ainin's destruction as a "crusader power attacking the sons of Islam" and intelligence sources began warning of a danger of attack in Metropolitan Ainin.
In February 2015, the Attack Defence Alert System was upgraded to "Imminent Attack" as a result of major Caliphate gains in Kraq and Irvadistan and a spate of bombings in East Nautarya.
Attacks
Porte de l'Est
Zaid Rahmani was seen on CCTV footage boarding Bus T10638 at the bus rapid transit station Boulevard Saint-Jacques Ouest, holding a large green suitcase. He purchased a one-way ticket to Porte de l'Est and entered the 909 Express bus at 17:35. On security footage recovered from the bus, he was seen staring blankly out the window and seemed to show little emotion. He periodically was noted to observe and scan the passengers on the vehicle and stare at an item in his jacket pocket. As the bus approached the Porte de l'Est, he was seen taking a smartphone from his pocket and calling a number, which triggered the remote detonator and caused his suitcase to explode, consuming the bus and the gate. Shrapnel and flames flew in all directions, destroying or severely damaging "over three dozen" cars in the surrounding roundabout and killing 150, including all 47 passengers on the accordion bus.
A press conference was coincidentally being held by SDP leader Marianne de Lotbinière in the adjacent Samuel Enstate Park at the time, and widespread panic occurred as burning shrapnel began to fall on the park. She was evacuated by her police detail, but her calm reaction to the bombings and attempts to continue her speech as shrapnel began lighting nearby trees on fire remains a defining image of the day.
The gate was entirely destroyed and the paving tiles in the square the gate was built over were ripped out of the ground. The traffic circle surrounding the square was filled with burning cars that caused chain explosions and burned until the morning. Fires caused by flying shrapnel caused major damage to trees in an adjacent park, and the shockwave caused a 1950s-era parking garage a block away to collapse, trapping 17. The first emergency vehicle, an ambulance of the Aininian Red Cross, arrived on the scene a minute after the bombing, and a scene command centre was established in a nearby pizzeria within 10 minutes. By that time, social media was already aflood with reports, rumours and hearsay, and law enforcement urged for calm and restraint. Rescue operations continued into the next morning, but the last survivor, 8-year old Marie Dupuis, was extracted from a collapsed parking garage in an adjacent apartment building at 21:52.
Namorese Quarter
Eight minutes after the first blast at the Porte de l'Est, a much larger blast occurred at the intersection of Yunglang Antelope Avenue and Marlane Boulevard West, in the heart of Talonée's NamQuad, the main ethnic enclave for Kannei Namorese and other Monic immigrants. A rental truck parked at the red light detonated its payload of ammonium nitrate explosives without warning. The major intersection was very busy, located besides a light rail-metro transfer station, the Namorese consulate, a traditional medicine hospital and an apartment complex. The initial blast engulfed several cars in the intersection and levelled the Namorese consulate's small visa processing annex.
The blast's shockwave did far more damage, wreaking havoc in the neighbourhood of old and poorly-built tenements dating largely from the 1940s. At least 13 buildings, one located 4 city blocks away from the blast site, collapsed or suffered major structural damage, including one that fell on a public square and buried 30 senior citizens alive. The elevated light rail station across the street collapsed after the support beams buckled, killing dozens of commuters waiting for a train and derailing a departing train, causing it to fall to the ground and catch on fire. Debris from the collapsed light rail station blocked the exits to the transit hub's underground metro station, causing at least 200 to be trapped inside the station. They were later evacuated by civil defence authorities. The hospital and Namorese consulate both suffered major structural damage due to proximity to the blast but were built according to the Building Code and survived, and their occupants largely escaped with only minor injuries.
422 died in the blast, including 120 Namorese citizens (at least 62 of which were dual Namo-Aininian citizens). The high death toll caused outrage in Namorese-Aininian communities and Namor itself, as they were caused by systematic unenforcement of the building code by local authorities in the NamQuad and decades of neglect of infrastructure in the ethnic enclave.
Porte de l'Ouest (failed)
Documents recovered in a police raid on the brothers' flat seems to indicate that the truck bomb that struck the Namorese Quarter was actually intended for the city's western gate, the Porte de l'Ouest. Recovered documents include detailed schematics of the structure, road maps with annotations, instructions for a time-controlled detonator and traffic speed estimates in the neighbourhood. Adboul Rahmani activated the time detonator sometime after leaving the flat in the rental truck, and was delayed for seven minutes by unexpected construction on Aininian Autoroute 17. The truck failed to get to its target on time and prematurely detonated in the NamQuad instead.
Perpetrators
The perpetrators were identified by DNA testing as Abdoul and Zaid Rahmani, second-generation Nautaryan-Aininian immigrants. They were aged 28 and 29, respectively, at the time of their deaths. Their parents immigrated to Ainin in the 1980s, profiting from relaxed asylum rules after the Social Democratic Party came into power. In 1985, the Rahmani family returned to visit Freedomtown (now Saint Martin), Nautarya). While visiting, Aininian aircraft bombed the home of a suspected terrorist in the city. A stray bomb accidentally struck the staircase leading to the Grand Mosque, killing the Rahmanis' parents. Since that time, close friends revealed that the brothers had a profound hate for the Aininian government when questioned by investigators. However, they did not believe that the friends planned on acting on their hate. Personal files show them attending the University of Talon and graduating from their baccalaureate courses with top honours.
The brothers reportedly stumbled on Islamic propaganda on the Internet in 2013, and became increasingly radicalised over that year. Friends recount how they suddenly began growing long beards and reciting Muslim prayers while attending university lectures. They travelled in March 2014 to Irvadistan, where they reportedly attended a training camp hosted by the Islamic Emirate and pledged allegiance to the group. Over the next year, they gathered materials necessary for their bombing. Abdoul, a corporal in the Republican Guard, managed to steal plastic explosives from a military armoury without notice, while his brother and an unidentified family friend purchased ammonium nitrate from a bulk agricultural supplier. Even though both men were on a terrorism watchlist, the purchase of two tonnes of ammonium nitrate and remote detonators was not flagged by Aininian intelligence.
They both died instantly in the bombings. Their remains were cremated and dumped into the East Namor Sea by local authorities.
Aftermath
An unprecedented outburst of grief and anger occurred across Ainin on social media and in public, leading to keywords expressing solidarity and strength trending on various social media platforms for weeks after the bombing and mass street protests in solidarity with the victims of the attack. Extensive social and traditional media coverage of the day's events has led to some observers musing that this "was the most well-documented tragedy in Esquarian history."
While the actions of the first responders and rescuers were praised, the intelligence community came under intense criticism for their failure to properly identify threats. A report in République alleged that the Intelligence and Security Directorate (ISD) failed to flag Rahmani's purchase of explosives because the task team in charge was understaffed and was busy investigating the purchase of potassium compounds by a farmer living in Marlane-la-Prairie. The bombings led to drastic changes in security measures, including increased surveillance powers for law enforcement being granted by the National Assembly of Ainin and the merging of many small domestic intelligence services into the ISD and its foreign equivalent, the Execution Bureau.
The extensive damage done to the heart of the NamQuad meant that entire blocks were condemned and are now slated to be demolished. The redevelopment of the Namorese Quarter remains a point of contention, with local residents advocating it to be rebuilt in the same style as before, with mixed-use residential-commercial buildings, the Namo-Aininian Chamber of Commerce advocating a commercial-only neighbourhood and the municipal government advocating for a modern, high-class shopping district with high-end condos. The Porte de l'Est will be rebuilt in the same style that it used to be in, according to STA International, while Samuel Enstate Park will be rebuilt as a memorial to the victims of the attacks.
The bombing affected the campaign leading up to the 2015 election, which was delayed for three weeks in the aftermath of the attacks out of respect for the victims. The fear of Islamic terrorism led to a spike in support for the far-right fascist National Alliance, which went on to win its first seat in the traditional socialist stronghold of Linaque province. The bombing also drove up support for the SDP and Citizens' Alliance, which benefited from claims that the ruling ProgCons were responsible for the intelligence failures leading up to the attacks.
Reactions
Supranational
- File:WETO.png ETO: Secretary-General Luc Marcheur expressed his deepest sympathies with the Aininian government and offered to "prosecute those responsible to the maximum extent of our resources."
EU: Speaker for the Esquarian Congress Joseph Daskalov expressed his deepest sympathies to the Aininian government, and said that "we will prosecute those responsible." The International Criminal Court subsequently issued an international arrest warrant for 58 suspected Caliphate members.
International
- Template:Country data Arnborg: Prime Minister Yngvi Gudmund condemned the "brutal and barbaric attacks," and expressed condolences to Ainin. Gudmund told reporters that "this [the attacks] is why Ainin needs to allow us to assist them in their efforts to keep negroes and Moslems away from white countries like Ainin and Arnborg." There were some reports of anti-Muslim hate crimes in the southern provinces, especially in white communities where Muslims worked as "migrant workers."
- Template:Country data East Nautarya: President Grégoire Bourbonnais condemned the "brutal, barbaric" attacks and expressed East Nautarya's "unwavering solidarity with the Aininian people." He also ordered increased security across the country after reports of anti-Muslim lynch mobs being raised across East Nautarya after the attacks.
- Template:Country data Kraq: President Ahmed Hussein harshly denounced the attacks as a "strike against basic humanity and human dignity" and reiterated his "unwavering support Aininian people in their time of need." The weeks following after attacks saw a considerable increase of airstrikes against Caliphate targets in Kraq and an major offensive by East Nautaryan and Kraqi forces retake rebel-held areas along the Kraqi-East Nautaryan border.
Luziyca: President Breuvi Shjoraski condemned the attacks, denouncing them as "inhumane, and a strike against humanity," and also reiterated his support for the "people of Ainin who have lost family and friends in these horrifying bombings." A vigil was held in Gijirokastra, and over the next few months, Luziyca increased support to the Kraqi government.
Namor: The Namorese government strongly condemned the bombing and the deaths of over 120 Namorese citizens. President-General Fu Wen called the bombing "not justifiable in any way or by any civilized standard" and offered support to Ainin "at this devastating time for both our countries." Domestically, lack of confidence in ETO increased; a poll administered by The Mojing Sibo showed over 60% of Namorese agree that ETO "has no purpose as an alliance."
Tuthina: The Imperial government condemned the bombing for its indiscriminate attacks against civilians, calling it "barbaric and dishonourable". The government also expressed sympathies with the Aininian people, especially the Monic and Namoric populations, who suffered a significant amount of casualties, and has offered financial and material support to Ainin.- Template:Country data Vajorr: Liberal Prime Minister Maria Grüner condemned the bombing as an "evil and disgusting" attack on "the basic values of civilised world," and stated her government's support for the "the Republic of Ainin and her great people." All the major parties of the Nationalrat quickly backed her statement. The following weeks saw the rise of a nationalistic fevour, with membership of the National League increasing by a couple thousand members.