Car ramming attack

Damage caused by the 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack that killed 3 victims and the attacker

Car ramming attack is a form of attack in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a motor vehicle into a building or crowd of people.^[1][2] The term has been used in the context of terrorism, but is also applicable to rampage killers in general who use a vehicle.

Vehicles are also used by attackers to breach a building with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.

21st-century increase

There have been vehicle rampages in which an individual used a car to attack an institution or attack a group of pedestrians. The 21st century has seen a rise in car ramming attacks carried out as acts of terrorism by individuals committed to an ideology.^[3] In 2014, Canadian columnist Andrew Coyne describes the phenomenon as a form of "micro-terrorism", and argues that Canadians "had better get used to... the baffling phenomenon of the homegrown terrorist... who for whatever reason takes it into his head to kill any number of his fellow citizens in the service of his cause."^[4]

Causes propelling the rise of the tactic

According to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, the tactic has gained popularity because "Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a Homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience."^[1] Counterterrorism researcher Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Slate that the tactic has been on the rise in Israel because, "the security barrier is fairly effective, which makes it hard to get bombs into the country."^[5] In 2010, Inspire, the online, English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged jihadis to choose "pedestrian only" locations and make sure to gain speed before ramming their vehicles into the crowd in order to "achieve maximum carnage".^[5]

Vehicle attacks can be carried out by lone-wolf terrorists who are inspired by an ideology, but who are not actually working within a specific political movement or group.^[6] Writing for The Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel suggests that the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack may be "the kind of terrorist the West could be seeing a lot more of in the future", a kind that he describes, following Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation, as "stray dogs", rather than lone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure to Islamist propaganda.^[7] A 2014 propaganda video by ISIL encouraged French sympathizers to use cars to run down civilians.^[8]

According to Clint Watts, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where he is a senior fellow and expert on terrorism, the older model where members of groups like al-Qaeda would "plan and train together before going to carry out an attack, became defunct around 2005", due to increased surveillance by Western security agencies.^[7] Watts says that Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al-Qaeda imam, as a key figure in this shift, addressing English-speakers in their own language and urging them to "Do your own terrorism and stay in place."^[7]

Jamie Bartlett, who heads the Violence and Extremism Program at Demos, a British think tank, explains that "the internet in the last few years has both increased the possibilities and the likelihood of lone-wolf terrorism," supplying isolated individuals with ideological motivation and technique.^[9] For authorities in Western countries, the difficulty is that even in a case like that of the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack, where Canadian police had identified the attacker, taken away his passport, and were working with his family and community to steer him away from jihad, vehicle attacks can be hard to prevent because, "it's very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed. We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it's not a crime in Canada."^[9][10]

According to Stratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.^[11] Experts see a sort of saving grace in the ignorance and incompetence of most lone wolf terrorists, who often manage to murder very few people.^[9]

Protective measures

Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, UK. These heavy blocks of concrete are designed to prevent a car bomb or other device being rammed into the building.

On October 23, 2014, the US National Institute of Building Sciences updated its Building Design Guideline on Crash- and Attack-Resistant Models of bollards, a guideline written to help professionals design bollards to protect facilities from vehicle operators, "who plan or carry out acts of property destruction, incite terrorism, or cause the deaths of civilian, industrial or military populations".^[12] The American Bar Association recommends bollards as effective protection against car ramming attacks.^[13]

Security bollards are credited with minimizing damage and casualties in the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack.^[14][15] Security bollards are credited with preventing ramming in the 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, leading the assailant to abandon his car and attack pedestrians waiting at a bus stop with a knife, after his effort to run them over was thwarted.^[16]

List of car ramming attacks

Terrorism

In chronological order:

• 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Lebanon
• September 11 attacks, United States
• 2002 Lyon car attack, France
• 2006 UNC SUV attack, University of North Carolina, United States
• 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, Scotland
• 2008 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel
• 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Israel
• 2011 Tel Aviv nightclub attack, Israel
• Murder of Lee Rigby, London, May 2013
• May 2014 Ürümqi attack, China
• 2014 Jerusalem tractor attack, Israel
• 2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack, Canada
• October 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel
• November 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel
• 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, West Bank
• 2014 Dijon attack, France
• 2014 Nantes attack, France
• 2015 Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack, France
• 2016 Nice attack, France
• 2016 Ohio State University attack, United States

Other

• Olga Hepnarová, 1973 case of a Czechoslovakian woman using a truck to go on a rampage
• Shawn Nelson, 1995 case of a plumber using a stolen tank to go on a rampage
• Marvin Heemeyer, 2004 case of a welder using an armored bulldozer to destroy buildings
• 2006 San Francisco SUV rampage, 2006 case of a paranoid schizophrenic man using an SUV to go on a rampage
• Akihabara massacre, 2008 mass murder using a truck and a dagger
• 2009 attack on the Dutch Royal Family, 2009 case of a man driving through a barricade in The Netherlands
• 2010 Hebei tractor rampage, 2010 mass murder using a bucket loader
• 2015 Graz van attack, 2015 mass murder using an SUV and a knife

See also

• Ram raiding

References