Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, on trains en route to (1) Hamm or Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, and (2) Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate
Date
31 July 2006
Target
Commuter trains
Attack type
Bombings (attempted)
Weapons
Improvised explosive devices
Victims
None; bombs failed to ignite
Perpetrators
Youssef Mohamad el-Hajdib and Jihad Hamad
Motive
Islamic terrorism
On 31 July 2006, two men placed two suitcases filled with bombs on regional commuter trains in Germany. Departing from the central station in Cologne, the bombs were timed to go off near Hamm or Dortmund and near Koblenz, and according to German investigators "would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people ... on a much larger scale than the terrorist attacks on London subways and buses in July 2005."[1] However, due to faulty construction, the bombs only failed to ignite, even as the detonators worked. According to the German prosecutor, at the time Germany had "never been closer to an Islamist attack than in this case."[2]
German investigators suspected a terrorist organisation was behind the plot.[3] Investigations found two Lebanese men to have been behind the attempted bombings.[4] Jihad Hamad, who had fled to Lebanon after the attempted attacks was sentenced to twelve years in prison in Beirut in 2007.[5] Youssef Mohamad el-Hajdib, arrested in Kiel on 19 August, was in 2008 sentenced to life in prison in Germany for the attempted bombings.[6] There remained suspicions of involvement by the brother of one of the convicted men, Saddam el-Hajdib, a high-ranking member of Fatah al-Islam who was killed in fighting with the Lebanese Army before he could be tried in court.[7]
Europol classified the attack as Islamic terrorism in a 2007 report.[8]
^Suspects in Attempted Bombings Face Prison for Life, Deutsche Welle, October 22, 2006
^"Man jailed for German train bombs plot". The Guardian. 9 December 2008.
^Cite error: The named reference DW2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Gohel, Sajjan M. (August 2011). "Germany Increasingly a Center for Terrorism in Europe". CTC Sentinel. 4 (8). Combating Terrorism Center.
^Cite error: The named reference NYT07 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference BBC08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Chalk, Peter (2013). Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 248–249. ISBN 9780313308956.
^"TE-SAT 2007: EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report". Europol. p. 18. Archived from the original on 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
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