Frag Out! Magazine

Frag Out! Magazine #29

Frag Out! Magazine

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Story by: Michał Piekarski illustrations: wooki In reality, the arsenal that used to be used, and that will be used by the ter- rorist is far more diverse. As shown by the Global Terrorism Database (currently the most comprehensive data resource in that domain), out of 191,461 recorded incidents between 1970 and 2018, firearms were used in more than 68,000 attacks. For the sake of comparison, one should also mention that different explosive de - vices have been employed in 99,000 attacks mentioned in the aforesaid dataset. The latter form the most varied group of tools used by the terrorists. They may come at different scales, from a hand grenade, a firecracker wound in a wire, a primitive pipe bomb to bombs hidden in cargo vehicles (see the events in Oklahoma City or the first WTC attack). They could be used by suicide bombers who would carry or transport them to the attack site, they may also be placed there ear - lier on. Sometimes the bombs were planted in advance - for instance when the IRA attacked the Conser- vative Party Convention in Brighton, back in 1984, the explosive device was planted a month before, at the hotel, five stories above the confer- ence room. Back then, it was close - PM Thatcher almost got killed. Preparing an attack like so requires some conditions that need to be met. The terrorists need to define the best place and time to attack and then prepare an explosive device and plant it on-site, without being detect- ed. The perpetrators are quite often unable to set a proper place and time for an attack as such. Hence, a pro- nounced trend observed here is the selection of easy targets, that can be set in advance with the strikes being easy as well. The events such as concerts or official events have their dates set with a major advance. Creating a proper explosive device is also becoming far more convoluted, as readily available explosives are becoming less and less accessible in Europe. Any attempt to manufacture explosives, such as TATP, entails high risk, both at the production stage, as well as during the detonation itself. Sometimes attacks with the use of explosives create a lot of damage, kill - ing numerous victims (Belgium 2016), and sometimes (Paris 2015), the only victims are the suicide bombers us- ing the explosives. No wonder then that the IRA mentioned above has been perfecting its explosive designs The image of a terrorist that is omnipresent during the training exercises of the CT units is well known all around. It can be described as follows: a male, wearing a tracksuit and a balaclava, armed with an AK. The terrorists' image in pop-culture is also stereotypic, however, here people with darker skin color are usually the ones who yield the Kalash- nikov rifles. Hans Gruber and his „Die Hard" crew, using HK P7, MP-5s, and other fancy modern weapons, were unique (at least at the time). The selection of those weapons was to make it clear to the viewers that the „bad guys" won't be an easy enemy for the main protagonist. www.fragoutmag.com

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