Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 13 / 2019 Figure 2 – Types of terrorist attacks in Europe2 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 13 - Año: 2019 - Págs.: 275 a 306 280 The UK experienced the highest number of attacks (107), followed by France (54) and Spain (16). Spain’s was a special case as it experienced jihadist attacks after having been relatively safe from such strikes for a long period of time. More critically, the nature of these attacks indicates a high number of separatist and jihadist attacks.2 A total of 33 failed, foiled and completed jihadist terrorist attacks were reported in the EU in 2017, which is more than double the number from last year. Out of these, ten attacks were successful as they achieved the goals of the perpetrators, invariably set as “killing of enemies of Islam” by the terrorists. This led to 62 fatalities with the most casualties occurring in UK, followed by Spain, which suffered 16 deaths. Regarding the degree of sophistication employed, the trend showed a decrease as less specialized measures were used. In cases when high degree of sophistication was required, the at-tacks were generally abortive, for instance the attack in Brussels when a premature det-onation in the incendiary devices placed in a luggage trolley was caused due to poor designing and manufacturing. Alarmingly, the attack in Parsons Green, where the explosives failed to detonate, could have resulted in a high number of casualties had it been carried out with high quality manufactured components and handled properly. Trend regarding ISIS and Jihadist attacks As the trend shows, jihadists are carefully selecting the targets and goals they want to pursue3. Such attacks are being carried out in indiscriminate fashion, designed to 2 Europol. “Terrorism Situation and Trend Report”. 2018. 3 Europol. “Terrorism Situation and Trend Report”. 2018.
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