Attached.

Running head: BLOODY LESSONS1

Bloody Lessons

Student Name
Institution Affiliation

BLOODY LESSONS

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Introduction
In the morning of March 2016, three IED attacks in the form of suicide bombings rocked
Brussels. The first two attacks targeted the busy airport in Brussels while the third attack targeted
the Maalbeek metro station in the middle of Brussels. The two improvised explosive devices
were placed inside two large suitcases at the departure hall of the Zaventem Airport. While the
first two explosions occurred nine minutes apart at the airport, the third explosion occurred an
hour later at the metro station. The explosions caused the loss of thirty-two civilian lives, three
suicide bombers and over three hundred injured civilians (Henley, 2016). The Brussels attacks
happened after November Paris attacks just months earlier as officials believed that the terrorists
had created a cell in Brussels to avoid arrests by the Belgian police and anti-terror units. Belgian
officials confirmed that the IEDs were made of nails hence causing a devastating impact on the
victims. ISIS acknowledged being behind the bombings.
The Motive
The motive of the attack was to create fear and inter-religious tensions in Belgium as well
as advance the extremist teachings. Belgium was a part of the NATO allies of the United States
that also included Canada, Germany, and France that were involved in the military campaign
against the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. By the time of this attack, France had
already been hit in Paris and Belgium was in high alert. Indeed most of the terrorists had been
involved in the Jihad activities of the Islamic State and had been moving...