>TERRORISM TIMELINE
Selected key events from the last 15 years:
Sept. 11, 2001: At 8:46 a.m., the first of four airplanes hijacked by Al Qaeda operatives crashes into the World Trade Center. A second follows 17 minutes later, along with two more plane crashes, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. In total, 2,983 people die. Oct. 7: The United States begins bombing Afghanistan. Oct. 26: U.S. President George W. Bush signs into law the Patriot Act, a broad-based anti-terrorism bill. Dec. 18: Canada’s Bill C-36, the Anti-Terrorism Act, takes effect. Dec. 22: Richard Colvin Reid, a.k.a. the Shoe Bomber, tries (but fails) to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami by igniting a bomb in his shoe. Oct. 12, 2002: Two nightclubs are bombed in Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 people, by an Al Qaedaaffiliated group. March 20, 2003: U.S. and allied troops invade Iraq. March 11, 2004: Ten bombs explode on Madrid’s commuter transit system, killing 192 people and wounding 2,050. Al Qaedaaffiliated groups claim responsibility. Sept. 1: Armed Islamist and Chechen fighters take more than 1,100 hostages at a school in North Ossetia, mostly children. More than 330 hostages and dozens of perpetrators die. July 7, 2005: Four suicide bombers attack London’s transit system during rush hour, killing 52. July 11, 2006: Seven explosions tear through trains and platforms along the Western Railway system in Mumbai, India. At least 181 people die. Nov. 26, 2008: Ten members of Lashkar-e-Tabia, based in Pakistan, carry out a co-ordinated attack over four days across Mumbai, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308. May 1, 2011: Osama bin Laden is killed in his Pakistan compound by an elite team of U.S. navy SEALs. July 22: Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, an-anti-Muslim extremist, sets off a bomb in Oslo and follows up with a mass shooting at an island youth camp, killing 69 people. Sept. 21, 2013: Al Shabab gunmen attack shoppers at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 67 and wounding more than 175. Dec. 16, 2014: Seven gunmen with Tehrik-i-Taliban attack an army public school in Peshawar, Pakistan. They kill 141 people, including 132 children. Jan. 7, 2015: Two Al Qaeda-linked gunmen kill 11 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris. A total of 17 people and three gunmen die in a related attack on a kosher market. March 20: Four suicide bombers strike mosques in Sanaa, Yemen, during midday prayers. The blasts kill 142 people and wound more than 351. April 2: Gunmen storm a college in Garissa, Kenya, killing 148 people. Al Shabab claims responsibility. Oct. 10: Suicide bombers in Ankara kill about 100 people in the Turkish capital. Nov. 12, 2015: Two Daesh suicide bombers hit a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. As many as 43 people are killed in the mainly Shia Muslim area. Nov 13: Extremists linked to Daesh kill 130 people in attacks across Paris. Jan. 30, 2016: Eighty-six people are killed and 62 injured when attackers linked to Boko Haram shoot and firebomb residents of the village of Dalori in Nigeria. March 22: Co-ordinated bombings at Brussels airport and the Maelbeek Metro Station kill 32 and injure more than 300. Daesh claims responsibility. Sources: Star library, Newsday, news reports