McDonald's attack in Italy - Moroccan terrorist fails and kills only himself

[cerulean]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/29/italy.blast.reut/index.html

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Italian police say they are investigating whether an explosion that killed a man near a McDonald's fast food restaurant in northern Italy was an accident or a failed attack.

A car loaded with four gas canisters exploded while the driver was in a queue to buy food at the outlet of the U.S. hamburger chain late on Sunday in Brescia.

The driver was killed as he was trying to get out of the car, witnesses quoted by local media said.

The car, whose registered owner was from Morocco, exploded because it was saturated with gas, but it was not clear if the man had opened the values or if they had leaked, police said on Monday.

It could be either one. Non-Islamist terrorists have blown up McDonald's in France. If this is terrorism, this would be the first Islamist attack on a McDonald's that I know of.

[cerulean]

Bomber dies in blast at Italian McDonald's
It is terrorism.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=506489
By Peter Popham in Rome

An apparent attempt to blow up a McDonald's drive-in restaurant in northern Italy was foiled on Sunday but the suspected terrorist died when his car exploded with him strapped inside.

Witnesses said a man, later identified as Moustafa Chaouki, a native of Casablanca, drove his Fiat Tempra into the queue of cars waiting at the restaurant in Brescia, 100km east of Milan, at 10 pm. His car contained four cylinders of kitchen gas, each with a capacity of more than 70 litres.

Police believe he opened the taps of the cylinders, filling the car with gas. Witnesses said he then suddenly opened the driver's door, and the car detonated into a fireball.

A woman in the car directly behind the Fiat, told the daily, Corriere della Sera: "I had just said to my boyfriend, 'Don't you smell something strange?' Then there was the blast. That man didn't even try to get out of the car. He stayed there, immobile in his seat, with one leg out of the door."

About 20 customers were inside the restaurant, and a firefighter told Corriere: "We arrived within three minutes, and it was fortunate that we did because we succeeded in containing the explosion, chilling some of the gas cylinders inside the car."

Otherwise, the unnamed officer added, the cylinders could have exploded, firing lethal metal fragments through the restaurant windows and possibly igniting other cylinders of carbon dioxide belonging to the restaurant which were close to the burning car.

Moustafa Chaouki was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1968 and was a resident of Brescia. Yesterday the assistant prosecutor of the city, Roberta di Martino, who is also the city's anti-terrorism boss, would only say of the incident: "It was not an accidental occurrence."

Last year, a Palestinian with a Kuwaiti passport, Al Khatib Muhammad, died in his car after it exploded close to a synagogue in the town of Modena, 160 kms south-east of Brescia. The crime is still unsolved.

And prosecutors in Brescia are also investigating an imam linked to the Iraq-based Islamist terror group Ansar-al-Islam, who was arrested one year ago.

Mourad Trabelsi, the former imam of a mosque in the town of Cremona, 50km south-west of Brescia, was arrested in April last year, after being under surveillance by the Brescia authorities for three years.

Investigators believe he helped raise funds for terrorist activities, recruited would-be terrorists and acted as the intermediary between a cell of Italy-based terrorists and international terrorist groups.

30 March 2004

[Kev]

This is a story that should have got more airplay but I must guess these days that only takes place if the body count is at least equal in numbers to other attacks, otherwise, its not deemed valid enough of an act! :rolleyes:



Those in Israel would unfortunately understand that media bias!
:(

[L@mplighterM]

I know that Europeans won’t send Muslims packing but it’s really the only way to stop Islamic terrorism.

[Ahava]

Originally posted by Kev
This is a story that should have got more airplay but I must guess these days that only takes place if the body count is at least equal in numbers to other attacks, otherwise, its not deemed valid enough of an act! :rolleyes:


Indeed, if I hadn't read it here, I wouldn' t have known. To the media, this isn't even news anymore it seems.

[Mediocrates]

There is no such thing as terrorism. Clearly this was the spontaneous upwelling of downtrodden people in defence of defenceless beef cattle and the poor proletariat who process them.

[cerulean]

I actually find it a little scary that this Italian McDonald's incident hasn't gotten more attention. But then the attempted Italian synagogue explosion, as mentioned in the Independent article, did not get much attention either. Does this mean that Islamist terrorism is accepted as normative in Europe?

[L@mplighterM]

The bottom line is that people are too wrapped up in every day living to focus on terrorist attacks that are unsuccessful. The list of successful attacks is long and it’ll get longer as time progresses, if unsuccessful attacks or the planning thereof where added it would most likely be 50-100 times as long.

If one was to take a comprehensive look at Islam and terrorism throughout the world you’d have to be an idiot to believe that it’s a peaceful movement. I think that Muslim infestation (supporters and terrorists) in the EU has reached a point where the leaders there don’t have the resources or ability to deal with the situation.