Rijeka terror attack

The Rijeka terrorist attack happened on October 20, 1995 in Rijeka, Croatia, when an Islamic terrorist organization attempted to destroy a police station by a car bomb.

Cause

In the last days of the Bosnian war, Croato-Bosnian military forces (Croatian Defense Council, HVO) captured Talaat Fouad Qasim when he attempted to enter Bosnia. This important member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was delivered quickly to Egypt with active help of Croatia. Because of that and because Croatia had de facto controlled the Croatian Defence Council, the military organization which had captured Talaat Fouad Qasim, a decision was made to commit a terrorist attack in Croatia.

The attack

At 11:21 AM of Central European Time, a Fiat 131 Mirafiori entered the parking lot of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County police headquarters. Due to a 90-degree turn required to enter the lot, the vehicle was moving very slowly. Upon the entrance, the driver didn't park in the parking spaces for civilians, but instead started to accelerate towards the wall at the end of the parking lot. Due to the low security measures, this incident wasn't noticed before the attack itself took place. After 15-20 meters, passing 8-10 car spaces available on the small parking lot, the Fiat crashed into the stairs leading to the police station and exploded. The time of explosion was recorded as 11:22 AM of local time (10:22 AM UTC). A later thorough police investigation found out the car was loaded with of highly-explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT). Also, the police found a part of the Canadian passport inside the remains of the attacker's car. The very next day, the representatives of the al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya terrorist organization from Egypt took the responsibility for the attack.

Due to an error made by the attackers, the bombing went wrong and no fatalities happened. The police headquarters were located on a higher ground than the parking lot itself, requiring the stairs in the first place. The other part of the problem was the size of the parking lot, where the Fiat 131 had neither the space and velocity, nor the horsepower to climb the stairs and impact the police station wall. Thus, the police station failed to collapse and only 29 injuries were recorded (including two unaware bystanders).

Aftermath

With the help of the CIA, officials examined the video footage of the attack. American and Croatian investigative sources came to the conclusion that Hassan al-Sharif Mahmud Saad organized this attack. Saad had come to live in Bosnia only that year; before, he had been living in Italy. Soon after the attack, Bosnian officials discovered that Saad was planning a new terrorist attack, against NATO forces, which was to happen in December 1995. A few days after that attack failed, he was killed in a firefight with Croatian Defense Council forces.

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