The attack in Germany in which a 50-year old Saudi national drove his car into the Christmas market is being viewed as a lone wolf attack.
This attack has once brought to focus how vehicles continue to remain a lone wolf’s preferred weapon of choice while carrying out mass murders.
Two people were killed after the accused identified as Taleb rammed a car into a bustling Christmas market in Magdeburg. 68 persons have been injured in the attack.
The German police are treating this incident as a case of lone wolf terrorism. However there is a slight twist in the tale as the accused is anti-Islam which is the reason he had left his birth country of Saudi Arabia.
Taleb was born n Hofuf, Saudi Arabia in 1974. He has been living in Germany since 2006 and secured permanent residence. In 2016, he was recognised as a refugee. He was incapable of expressing his atheist thoughts and views in Saudi Arabia and hence had left the country.
Taleb according to preliminary investigations may have carried out the attack due to his anti-immigration stance. He supports the Alternative for Germany which is a far right German political party which has an anti-immigration stance.
Taleb is wanted by Saudi Arabia on charges related to terrorism and smuggling girls from the Middle East to US countries. Germany however refused to extradite him and granted him asylum despite the charges against him.
A lone wolf’s weapon of choice
Vehicles have been the preferred choice for lone wolves. One has witnessed the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda inspired lone wolf attackers using vehicles to kill people.
While the recent attack is not being treated as an act of Islamic terror as yet, incidents such as these are not new in Germany. Eight years back, a failed asylum seeker with Islamist links crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin killing 12 people. The man behind the attack was Anis Amri who had links to the Islamic State.
The inspiration for such attacks come from an Al-Qaeda handbook titled, ‘Pick up the trick now, not to mow grass, but to mow down enemies.’ The Islamic State too had the same advice for the lone wolves inspired by the outfit. It had said if you are unable to find an IED or a bullet, run your enemy with a car. There are cars available and targets ready to kill. Kill them, spit on their faces and run them over with your car, the Islamic State had said.
“If you are unable to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him,” Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, a member of the Islamic State had said.
The concept of lone wolf attacks were made popular by the Al-Qaeda in 2014. The Islamic State too backed this concept heavily following its fall in Syria and Iraq. The leadership had said that with the Islamic State falling in the mainland, it is time for the foreign fighters to return to their home country and carry out lone wolf attacks.
Lone wolf attacks are extremely lethal since due to the weapons that are used. Terror groups say that the weapons could be vehicles, stones and knives. This makes it hard for the agencies to track as such things do not come under the scanner unlike bombs and grenades or guns.
What makes the lone wolves lethal
The thing that makes a lone wolf extremely lethal is that he is impossible to track. He or she do not operate with a group or hold discussions with a handler before an attack is carried out. This leaves very little or no scope for the Intelligence agencies to track such a person down. These persons are self motivated and plan attacks in their home, thus leaving no trail.
Further such persons are not profiled like the usual terrorist and hence there is no information on them.
The only action that the security agencies can take in such attacks is preventing it while it is taking place or about to take place. The success rate is however very low as there is always an element of surprise in such attacks.
The reason why terror groups encourage such attacks is because it is surveillance proof and cost effective. If these groups carry out planned strikes which involves a lot of logistics scouting and weapons transport then there is every chance of them getting beaten down as the Intelligence agencies will pick up such movements. When the heat on a terror group is high it is becomes difficult for them to sneak in arms and ammunition. Hence they tend to use to vehicles, poison, stones and knives as these do not come under the radar of the agencies.
Further such attacks are easier to carry out and remain cost effective. Terror groups have zero investments in such attacks. The only thing that they need to do is provide the propaganda material online and hope that the attacks are carried out in their name. Terror groups tend to benefit since they get credit for an attack for which they have invested nothing.
Bharat’s tryst with lone wolf attacks
The year 2022 was a grim one for Bharat. Two lone wolf attacks were carried out radical Islamists in Udaipur and Amaravati. These attacks had put the focus back on lone wolf attacks and immense radicalisation on the internet.
In Amaravati, a Hindu chemist Umesh Kolhe was killed by lone wolves, while in Udaipur an innocent Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal was killed by Riyaz and Ghouse Mohammad.
Both incidents have been treated as lone wolf attacks. The reason being that in both incidents the killers were not affiliated by any terror group. They claimed that the two Hindus had supported Nupur Sharma and hence they were killed. They were inspired by the provocative comments made by the Popular Front of India calling for attacks against Hindus and hence went about the killing.
In 2015, Abdul Mallik alias Abdul Razak stabbed a constable posted outside the Pusad Mosque in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district. He was not part of any terror group, but was a sympathiser of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India.
In 2016 at Labhpur in West Bengal Mohammad Mosiduddin had planned a lone wolf attack on foreigners.The National Investigation Agency found that he was inspired by the Islamic State.
On April 3 2022, Murtaza Abbasi, an IIT Mumbai alumnus forcibly entered the Gorakhnath Temple in Uttar Pradesh and attacked two security personnel with a sickle. He too was inspired by the Islamic State.
In 2020 at Baramullah in Kashmir, a lone attacker fired at CRPF personnel. He claimed that he was inspired the The Resistence Front an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
One of the first lone wolf attacks involving a Muslim from India was in 2007. The Bengaluru born engineer Kafeel Ahmed rammed an explosive laden vehicle into the Glasgow Airport in the United Kingdom.
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