Anti-terror police exit a tram. BBC/EPA.
Three people have been killed and five more were injured in an attack on a tram in Utrecth, The Netherlands. BBC. A 37 year old man of Turkish descent was arrested hours after the attack. The suspect opened fire on the tram and then fled the scene of the crime. A nationwide manhunt began and the attacker, Gokmen Tanis, was captured shortly after. The motives for the attack have not been revealed but BBC is reporting that Tanis had fought with insurgents in Chechnya and had been arrested for working with ISIS.
My Comment:
I was following this story in the morning but was unable to follow up on it until now. It's remarkable how quickly the story went from headline news to irrelevant as soon as it was discovered that the attacker was a Turkish man. I think the media were desperately hoping that this would be another right wing attack like the one in New Zealand. No such luck for them.
It's somewhat unclear what motivated this guy to do this. The BBC is reporting that Tanis had connections to ISIS but their source seems a little off. I mean, they did quote someone on the record, but he's just a local businessman and I'm not sure where he would have gotten his information. If it's true than The Netherlands made a huge mistake letting him back in the country and letting him go. As far as I am concerned anyone who fights for ISIS should be forever barred from coming back to their home countries as a free person and if they aren't a natural born citizens they should be deported immediately.
They also said in the BBC article that Tanis may have been motivated by family issues. That makes even less sense because if you are mad enough at your family to kill, you kill them and not three innocent people. It's possible that the government is just being cagey at this point and don't want to admit he was a terrorist but I find any explanation for this as anything other than a terror attack suspect.
I do wonder where this attacker got his firearm. It's unclear what kind of gun he used but my guess is that it was a handgun with limited ammo/magazines. That would explain why he fled after shooting so few people. The Netherlands has pretty strict gun laws like most of Europe and there isn't a right to bear arms there. It would be insane to me if someone like Tanis, who was apparently arrested for terrorism, would be able to buy a legal gun. It's much more likely that Tanis bought a gun off of the thriving European black market.
The use of that gun makes me wonder if Tanis had any help. Though guns aren't that hard to find in Europe they usually require a decent chunk of money and criminal connections to buy. Tanis may have had those connections already but it's circumstantial evidence that he had help.
Without a full accounting of why he did what he did, I won't speculate too much on why Tanis shot up this tram. I know others are trying to blame this on the New Zealand attack but I would remind them that there were dozens of terror attacks in Europe long before the New Zealand attack occurred. Indeed, that was a major reason why the attacker in that case did what he did. In short, radical Muslims don't really need a specific reason or trigger to launch an attack. That isn't to say that it's been ruled out that Tanis was responding to the New Zealand attack, but it is to say that it isn't necessary for someone to be inspired by that attack.
Europe has been mostly quiet lately in terms of terror attacks. This is the worst one in very recent memory and I think there is a major reason for that. ISIS has been largely defeated on the battlefield and can no longer send attackers and fund terror strikes anymore. Their propaganda arm has also been eviscerated and they are no longer putting out high quality propaganda. They can't launch their own attacks anymore and are much less able to inspire "lone wolf" attacks in their name. I am guessing that this attack is just a minor exception and not a reversal of the trend.
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