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The Persistent Threat to Soft Targets
In the early hours of July 20, a gunman entered a packed movie theater
in Aurora, Colo., and opened fire on the audience that had gathered to
watch the premiere of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. The
gunman killed 12 people and injured 58 others. Though police are looking
for potential accomplices, the attack appears to have been conducted by
James Holmes, a lone gunman who, according to some police reports, may
have had a delusional fixation on the Joker, a violent villain from an
earlier Batman movie.
On July 18, just two days before the Colorado attack, a man reportedly disguised in a wig and posing as an American tourist in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas, Bulgaria, detonated an improvised explosive device hidden in his backpack as a group of Israeli tourists boarded a bus bound for their hotel. The blast killed five Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver and wounded dozens more. It is unclear if the incident was an intentional suicide attack; the device could have detonated prematurely as the man placed it on the bus. In any case, the tourists clearly were the intended targets. Read More »
Comments? Send them to responses@stratfor.com
On July 18, just two days before the Colorado attack, a man reportedly disguised in a wig and posing as an American tourist in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas, Bulgaria, detonated an improvised explosive device hidden in his backpack as a group of Israeli tourists boarded a bus bound for their hotel. The blast killed five Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver and wounded dozens more. It is unclear if the incident was an intentional suicide attack; the device could have detonated prematurely as the man placed it on the bus. In any case, the tourists clearly were the intended targets. Read More »
Comments? Send them to responses@stratfor.com
