Connecting the Dots, From Casa to Riyadh
May 20 -- Any time, any place, anywhere. Suicide bombers have upped the ante in the past week, delivering a wave of blasts around the globe in a trend some fear could be the spark to a new wave of violence.
Dozens have died in the attacks of the last week and in addition to concerns of al Qaeda launching a new round of violence, a Chechen separatist warlord also signaled two suicide attacks in the region may be just the beginning.
Abdallakh Shamil Abu-Idris, more commonly known as Shamil Basayev, Russia's most-wanted man in Chechnya, said the attacks were "a tiny part" of a new campaign against what the Kremlin calls its "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya. Basayev is believed to have ties to al Qaeda.
The biggest attack in Chechnya came just hours after a suspected al Qaeda attack in Saudi Arabia when terrorists drove cars packed with explosives into three compounds housing expatriate workers, killing over 30 people and injuring nearly 200.
And on Friday, at least 20 people were killed in four bomb attacks — three of them car bombs — in Morocco's commercial capital Casablanca.
In Israel and the Palestinian territories, five suicide bombings were launched in just two days, claiming nine lives.
The attacks came just weeks after President Bush strode out onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare the end of the war in Iraq and "the turning of the tide" of the war on terror.
Rather than turning the tide, experts say, the latest spate of bombings, and their timing, point to the fundamental nature of terrorism — and a possible change in the character of the war on terror.
The Terrorist’s Modus Operandi
The relative period of calm lasted throughout the war in Iraq. After the war, the State Department's counter-terrorism chief Cofer Black crowed to The Washington Post: "This was the big game for them — you put up or shut up and they have failed. It proves that the global war on terrorism has been effective, focused and has got these guys on the run."
