The War on Terror

On 14th September 2001, 5 days after the 9/11 attacks, The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMS) was passed by the United States Congress which authorised the use of the US armed forces against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks and any “associated forces”. This allowed the President to use “necessary and appropriate force” against anyone involved in planning and carrying out the attacks, and anyone else found harbouring them.

The term War on Terror was first used on 20th Septermber 2001 by then US President, Geroge W Bush, to describe the American-led global counter-terrorism campaign. 

During a televised address to Congress, President George W. Bush said: "Our war on terror begins with al- Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

In response to 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, The US congress moved quickly to strengthen security controls. On 26 October, 45 days after the 9/11 attacks, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush.

Most importantly it made permissible for US authorities the seizure “any tangible thing” without warrant that the government had reason to believe was affiliated with an act of terrorism, surveillance or wiretapping of a specific person or facility without warrant and secret surveillance on non-US citizens who have given probable cause of engaging in or supporting international terrorism.

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On 6th December 2001, The battle of Tora Bora, a military engagement in Afghanistan which lasted 12 days, was launched by the US forces who believed Osama bin Laden to be hiding in the Tora Bora mountains.

Though the US and allied forces managed to overrun the Taliban and al-Qaeda positions and intercept bin Laden’s voice in radio transmissions, they failed to capture him and bin Laden escaped to The Federally Administrated Tribal areas of Pakistan.

Image by Members of team Juliet Forward (exact member unknown. either CIA or US military) - USSOCOM 20th Anniversary History

On 11th December 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen who had been denied a visa to enter the US was alleged by prosecutors to have been a replacement for the initial “20th hijacker”, and was charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, alongside five other related charges. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the September 11th attacks and in 2006 he eventually received a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Image Public Domain

In January 2002, Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a United States military prison located within the Guantanamo Bay naval base, along the coast of Cuba was opened.

The camp was established as part of the War on Terror, where suspects considered extraordinarily dangerous people could be held and interrogated.

The camp has received significant opposition for holding inmates indefinitely without trial, with detainees reporting abuse and torture. Amnesty International has declared the operations within the camp a major breach of human rights. Under president Bush’s administration however, the United States claimed that Guantanamo Bay detainees were not on US soil and therefore not covered by the US Constitution, and that enemy combatant status meant they could be denied some legal protections.

Image by Sara Wood

On 12th October 2002, three bombs were detonated in the popular tourist area of Kuta in Bali, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209.

The death toll included 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and others of over 20 nationalities. Two of the bombs were detonated in or near popular nightclubs, while a third much smaller bomb caused more minor damage outside the US Consulate located nearby in Denpasar.

Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death. An audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama bin Laden stated that the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor.

On 3rd November 2002, the first predator drone strike in the War on Terror outside of Afghanistan was launched by the CIA, killing 6 alleged terrorists in Yemen, including Abu Ali al-Harithi, the reputed head of al-Qaeda in Yemen and a wanted suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole (A United States Navy guided-missile destroyer).

The drone struck a jeep that the men were travelling in, with Yemini sources reporting that the vehicle was destroyed and that the bodies were burned beyond recognition.

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On 15th February 2003, a coordinated day of protests took place across more than 600 cities worldwide, in which protesters expressed their opposition to the imminent Iraq war, in what has been described as the largest protest event in human history. Many questioned the US governments motives and rationale behind the decision to go to war with Iraq.

Estimations vary of the number of people who protested ranging from six to thirty million, with the largest crowds drawn in Europe; 3 million protesters in Rome broke the world record for the largest anti-war rally in history, being listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records.

On 20th March 2003 the invasion of Iraq began in what was known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, after an ultimatum issued to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was issued by then United States President, George W Bush a few days before stating that should Hussein and his family not leave Iraq within 48 hours the country would face military action.

The United States led coalition launched a bombing campaign on a farming community outside of Baghdad where Saddam Hussein was believed to have been hiding.

Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed and the invasion led to the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s government within a few weeks.

In November 2003, Four truck bomb attacks occured in Istanbul, Turkey, in which 57 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured.

On 15th November two trucks carrying bombs drove into the Bet Israel and Neve Shalom Synagogues in Istanbul. The ensuing explosions devastated the Synagogues, killing 23 people and injuring more than 300 others.

5 days later another two trucks carrying explosives were detonated by suicide bombers operating the vehicles at the HSBC Bank headquarters and the British Consulate, killing 30 people and injuring 400 others.

A Turkish Islamist group initially took responsibility for the attacks, although Turkish investigators since attributed the attacks to high ranking military officials seeking to destabilise the government

On 27th February 2004 A terrorist attack in the Philippines resulted in the sinking of SuperFerry 14, killing 116 people in both the deadliest attack in the Philippines and the world’s deadliest terrorist attack at sea.

On the night of 27th February the 192-ton ferry set sail out of Manila for Cagayan de Oro City with 899 recorded passengers and crew on board. A television set containing a 3.6KG TNT bomb had been placed on board the lower deck.

An hour after the ferry had set sail the explosion from the TV bomb resulted in a fire that engulfed the ship. Survivors fled the ship by either jumping into the sea or embarking the rescue boats. The final death toll in the days that followed the attack amounted to 116 people.

Months after the incident there was evidence found of a bomb blast which contradicted earlier reports of the blast having been an accident. A man named Redondo Cain Dellosa, a Rajah Sulaiman Movement  member – a Philippine terror group, confessed to planting the bomb, triggered by a timing device, for the Abu Sayyaf  group, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Philippine Province.

On 4th April 2004 the First Battle of Fallujah, also known as Operation Vigilant Resolve began to root out extremist elements in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, as a respone to the deaths of 4 American contracters a month prior. 

US forces launched a major assault, and fighting ensued for nearly a month, after which the forces withdrew,  turning over any remaining operations to the newly formed Fallujah Brigade - a Sunni security force formed by the CIA, which would be armed with US weapons and equipment.

However, the local forces disintegrated soon afterwards, and the city was taken by insurgents, with all the US weapons being handed over to the insurgency.  

On 18th June 2004 one of the first known US drone strikes in Pakistan took place in Wana, South Waziristan – a mountainous region in the northwest. The target was the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda factions. The attack killed between 5 and 8 people, including a prominent Pakistani mujahideen (jihadi leader), Nek Muhammad Wazir and his two children.

Wary of revealing the CIA’s involvement, Pakistan’s army initially claimed the attack as their own work.

On 17th October 2004, al-Qaeda in Iraq was established when Abu Mus ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant already leading insurgent attacks in Iraq, formed an alliance with al-Qaeda, pledging his group’s allegiance to Osama bin Laden in return for bin Laden’s endorsement as the leader of al-Qaeda’s franchise in Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi, who quickly came to be regarded as one of the most destructive militants in Iraq, organized a wave of attacks, often suicide bombings, that targeted security forces, government institutions, and Iraqi civilians.

The group’s aims included the expulsion of US forces from Iraq, taking control of the region and establishing a ‘caliphate’, or Islamic authority.

On 7th July 2005 the deadliest terror attack to have taken place on British soil occurred in London when four suicide bombers detonated homemade explosives in a coordinated attack. 

At 8.49am explosions took place on three tube trains within 50 seconds of each other, followed by a bombing on a double-decker bus an hour later. 52 people lost their lives in total during the height of the morning rush hour. A further 700 were left injured.

The bombers left videotaped messages in which they praised Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders, and said that similar attacks would continue until Britain and America withdrew all troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and ended support for Israel.

On 15th January 2006 The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of at least six Islamist militant groups taking part in the Iraqi insurgency against US-led coalition forces, was established.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Spokesman, Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi announced the formation of the Mujahideen Consultative Council via a statement posted on jihadist website, Hanin Net. The main purpose of the group was to resist efforts by the American and Iraqi authorities to win over Sunni supporters of the insurgency and as a result to ward of the invading ‘infidels’.

On 7th June 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born jihadist who had been the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq since late 2004, was killed in a targeted US air strike, after being located in a safehouse in northern Iraq.

He was reported to have been killed along with 5 others, including one of his wives and children. His body was identified the following day by facial recognition, fingerprinting, known scars and tattoos. The death of one of his key lieutenants, spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman was also announced.  

The task force had been tracking Zarqawi for some time but he had managed to elude several close calls, before intelligence pointing towards his safehouse led to his eventual demise.

In October 2006, the merging of two Islamist insurgent groups, the Mujahideen Shura Council and al-Qaeda in Iraq, led to the formation of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi presented as emir (leader) of the group. It was declared that the Islamic State of Iraq would encompass the governorates of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Niniveh, and parts of Babel and Wasit – a swathe of central and western Iraq where most Sunni Arabs live. The goals of ISI were to expel the US from Iraq, and turn the country into a Sunni Islamic caliphate, as well as extend this programme to neighbouring countries.

On 30th December 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by the post-invasion Iraqi authorities after a trial which took less than a month to complete.

Despite his wish to be shot (feeling it to be more dignified), Hussein was denied the request and hanged at Camp Justice - an Iraqi army base in the capital Baghdad. Hussein was convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Shi’ites in the town of Dujail in 1982. An official videotape of his execution was released by the Iraqi government.

Hussein’s body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit the following day and buried amongst the graves of other family members.

The execution received international criticism, from human rights groups in particular for a flawed trial and an alleged lack of due process.

On 11th February 2007, two car bombs were detonated in a near simultaneous attack in the Algerian capital of Algiers, starting around 09.30 local time.

The first explosion occurred near the Supreme Constitutional Court, with the second – a confirmed suicide bombing – occurring on the road that separates the United Nations offices from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, causing the third highest number of staff casualties in the history of the United Nations, with 17 employees losing their lives.

Overall the number of victims was 41, with a further 177 people injured. The newly formed al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On 7th October 2007, The Caucasus Emirate was founded – partially a successor to the secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which was abolished by its former president, Dokka Umarov, who instead declared himself the first emir of the Caucasus Emirate.

The aims of the militant jihadist organisation was to expel Russian presence in the North Caucasus region and establish an independent Islamic emirate.

The emirate received significant funds from overseas Islamic terrorist organisations and was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations. During its years of operation it claimed a number of attacks, including the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings.

A few years after the formation of the Emirate the insurgency began to decline and by August 2016 dissolved entirely.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known simply as the Taliban, is an umbrella organisation of Islamist militant groups, with close ties to al-Qaeda, operating in Pakistan which includes most local Taliban groups as well. The organisation was formed in December 2007 when 13 such groups united under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud, operating mostly in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas along the border of Afghanistan.

The stated objectives of the group at the time of formation included: resistance against the Pakistani state, Pakistani army, enforcement of their interpretation of Sharia and a plan to unite against NATO-led forces in Afghanistan

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was officially designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the United States in 2010 and while the Taliban had a significant presence elsewhere (e.g. Afghanistan), the Pakistani Taliban gained notoriety for its willingness to attack local authorities and Muslim citizens, as well as Western targets. The organisation became responsible for many of the suicide bomb attacks that took place in the country.

On 2nd June 2008, a suicide car bombing at the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, resulted in 8 dead and 24 injured, when a stolen Toyota Corolla driving at high speed past the entrance, managing to forgo heightened security due to its diplomatic registration plates, stopped at a parking lot in front of the complex, detonating a car bomb, causing structural damage and leaving a crater in front of the building.

None of those killed were Danish employees of the embassy, although at least 2 local employees and numerous bystanders were caught up in the attack, including a Danish citizen of Pakistani origin. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, citing the reprinting of a Danish newspaper’s cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed and the presence of Danish troops in Afghanistan as motives for the attack. The attack received international condemnation, in particular from then Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Per Stig Møller.  

In November 2008, 10 trained members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an Islamist militant organisation based in Pakistan, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, beginning on 26th November and lasting four days.

According to investigations the attackers had travelled by sea from Karachi, hijacking an Indian fishing trawler and forcing the captain to sail to Mumbai after having killed the crew of four onboard. They then entered Mumbai on a rubber dinghy.

Transport terminals, cafes, hotels, cinemas and a hospital were all targeted, as well as hostages taken at the Taj Hotel and at a Jewish centre in Colaba. LeT reiterated its aim to introduce an Islamic state in South Asia and to "liberate" Muslims residing in Indian Kashmir. The attacks which saw 166 people killed, including 28 foreign nationals from across 10 countries and over 600 non-fatal injuries, drew widespread global condemnation

On 29 November, India's National Security Guards (NSG) conducted 'Operation Black Tornado' to flush out the remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel, ending all fighting. Only one attacker survived, who was hanged in jail at a later date.

Following a power-sharing deal between the previous governing forces and more moderate Islamists from the Islamic Courts Union, the previous phase of the Somali Civil War from 2006-2009 was brought to an end, with the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and national elections.

However, more hard-line Islamist factions broke off from the Islamic Courts Union, leading to splinter groups such as al-Shabaab, which have since affiliated with al-Qaeda in the 2009-present phase of the war, which is concentrated in southern Somalia, and has led to the displacement of thousands of people.

Civil war between new government forces (including the moderate Islamists) and al-Qaeda continued and is still ongoing today, though the Somali government has taken control of much of central and southern Somalia from the insurgents.

On 16th April 2009, a low-level, prolonged conflict between the Islamist Caucasus Emirate and Russian government forces began, following the end of the decade-long Second Chechen War on the same day.

The insurgency is a direct result of the two post-Soviet wars fought between Chechnya and Russia and has been marked by conflict in the North Caucasus region, particularly Chechnya, as the insurgents seek independence from Russia and the establishment of an Islamic emirate. Although it has become relatively dormant in recent years, sporadic violence associated with the insurgency continues today, with militants in the insurgency being associated with the Caucasus Emirate as well as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Boko Haram, a Jihadist rebel group, began its armed insurgency on 26th July 2009 by rebelling against the government of Nigeria, in response to an investigation launched by the government into the group’s activities amid rumours that members were arming themselves; after having conducted its operations more or less peacefully up until this point.

After several arrests were made in Bauchi, deadly clashes began with the Nigerian forces, which resulted in an estimated 700 deaths. The group’s founder and leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed during this time whilst in police custody. Abubaker Shekau was named his successor.

The group base their operations in the predominantly-Muslim northern states of the country, controlling territory in the north-east and carrying out numerous terrorist attacks against Christians in the south.

The group have more recently become infamous for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, in which Boko Haram militants abducted 276 female students from a college in Chibok. Many of the girls were sold into forced marriages, and the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls began as a worldwide campaign for efforts to achieve the girls’ release.

On 23rd August 2010, The Battle of Mogadishu began when al-Shabaab insurgents attacked Somali and African Union military positions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The battle lasted for just under a year, and was eventually won by government forces and resulted in the withdrawal of al-Shabaab, who continued to carry out terrorist attacks via a guerrilla warfare approach. Over 1,000 al-Shabaab militants were killed and 2,000 injured, with over 600 Somali and African Union soldiers killed in action. Taking place in one of the most densely populated regions of the country, the battle resulted in heavy civilian casualties also, with over 2,000 dead and 6,000+ wounded.

The Sinai insurgency began after the Egyptian revolution in 2011 in which former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, with Islamist militants attacking Egyptian civilians and security forces.

After the onset of the Arab Spring in which numerous Arab countries experienced protests and the overthrow of autocratic regimes in favour of greater democracy, insurgents took advantage of the resultant instability in Egypt, launching numerous attacks on government forces. The insurgency continues today, with a recent terrorist attack in November 2017 on a mosque in the north-east of the country resulting in over 300 deaths and 100+ injured. The waves of military and security campaigns have had little to no success in ending the crisis and it's the first time in Egypt's modern history that an organised non-state actor acquires that level of military skill and resources. 

On 16th January 2012, Islamist insurgent groups began an armed conflict against the Malian government, seeking independence for northern Mali and the imposition of strict Islamist law upon the region.

By March 2012 President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup. Mutinous soldiers then took control and suspended the Constitution of Mali. Consequently Mali’s 3 largest northern cities fell to rebels due to the instability in the country.

On 5th April 2012 after the capture of the town of Douentza, independence for northern Mali was proclaimed from the rest of the country, and was subsequently named Azawad.

The government of Mali asked for foreign help to re-take the north and in January 2013 the French military began operations against the Islamists, alongside forces from other African Union states. In less than a month the northern territory had been recaptured by the Malian military.

The conflict officially ended with the signing of a peace accord in the capital on 15th April 2015, however fighting is still ongoing, even though French forces are scheduled for withdrawal.

Both al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram have been involved in the conflict fighting alongside local insurgent groups.

In April 2013, the leader of Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a series of audiotapes in which he announced that the now popular Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN) or al-Nusra Front in Syria had been founded and financed by ISI. Baghdadi announced that the two groups were merging to become the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the leader and founder of JaN and Aymen al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's replacement at the top of al-Qaeda Central, both publicly rejected the merger, stating that they had not been consulted and nothing agreed.

Throughout 2013 al-Qaeda leadership made several public and private rulings against the merger which were publicly rejected by Baghdadi, causing a major schism in international Jihadism. Zawahiri ordered that JaN lead operations in Syria while Baghdadi's group remain in Iraq. A defiant Baghdadi, bolstered by a campaign to attack Iraq's prison system freeing hundreds of veteran Jihadists began increasing the group's presence in Syria.

By the end of 2013, ISIS had captured large swathes of territory in Syria, including Raqqa and parts of Aleppo. ISIS has been extremely well-funded through oil revenues and taxes gained from captured territory, ransom demands and alleged state backing by Gulf states including Saudi Arabia. It has been unique among Islamist terrorist groups in its ability to run its version of a caliphate, or fundamentalist Islamist state, in its captured territories. The group has since lost the vast majority of its territory in Iraq and Syria, however, and has resorted to continued terrorist attacks.

On 1st November 2013, a US drone strike killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistan Taliban in the North Warizastan region bodering Afghanistan, when missiles struck the vehicle he was travelling in. Mehsud at the time had a $5 million bounty on his head set by the FBI. Security officials said that he was killed along with 3 others, including his bodyguard and driver. 
Mehsud’s death at the time was the latest in a series of setbacks for the Pakistani Taliban.

Mullah Fazlullah was named his successor in the days following the strike.