Three decades of terror: Animated graphic shows the time and location of every attack across the globe for the last 30 years

  • Terrorist movements have plagued the world for decades, and have evolved greatly over that time 
  • Map graphic tracks the hotbeds of terror for the last 30 years, showing where has been most affected 
  • Here, Mail Online tracks the evolving threat, from the plane hijackings and IRA bombings of the Eighties, to the threat of ISIS and truck attacks in Europe in recent years

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This is the fascinating map that exposes every terror attack across the globe in the last 30 years.

Using data compiled by the University of Maryland and analysed by the Igarapé Institute, it shows the regions of the world most plagued by terrorism and how it has spread over those decades. 

Here, Mail Online explores how the threat has changed over the years, from the plane hijackings and IRA bombings of the Eighties and Nineties, to the terror threats of today. 

1984 

April 20, London, England: 22 people are injured when a bomb explodes in the baggage claim area. Anarchist group Angry Brigade claimed the attack, though UK authorities pointed the finger at Libyan-backed rebel groups 

August 3, Kancheepuram, India: The departures counter of Sri Lankan Airlines at Chennai International Airport is hit by a timed explosive which killed 33 people and injured 27 amid the Sri Lanka Civil War. The blame is placed on the Tamil Eelam Army

August 29 - October 10, Oregon, United States: More than 700 people are infected with salmonella by the Rajneeshee cul in what became known as the Rajneeshee bioterror attack. The group carried out the attack in order to try and influence a local election

September 20, Beirut, Lebanon: The United States embassy annex building is hit by a suicide car bomber sent by Hezbollah, killing 24 people

October 12, Brighton, England: IRA terrorists attempt to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by planting a bomb at the hotel used by the Conservative party for their annual conference. While the bomb narrowly avoided killing Mrs Thatcher and her Cabinet, it did kill Conservative MP, Sir Anthony Berry 

December 23, Florence, Italy: Seventeen people are killed and more than 250 injured when a bomb, believed to have been planted by the Sicilian Mafia, explodes on Naples-Milan Express Train 904

 

1985 

February 23, Paris, France: Hezbollah militants bomb a Marks and Spencer store in the French capital, leaving one dead and 18 injured. Terrorists linked to the country would go on to attack a Jewish film festival in March, wounding 18, and to wound another 48 in a bomb attack in Paris in December

March 8, Beirut, Lebanon: A car bomb explodes close to cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, killing 80 and wounding 200. Lebanese authorities accuse the CIA and British SIS of a failed assassination 

April 12, Madrid, Spain: Islamic Jihad terror group bombs the El Descanso restaurant outside the Spanish capital. American servicemen frequented it, and were suspected to be the target. 18 were killed and 82 wounded

June 14, Athens, Greece: Hezbollah fighters hijack TWA Flight 847, bound for Rome, murdering a US Navy Seaman in the process

June 19, Frankfurt, Germany: Three are killed and 42 wounded when a bomb placed among waiting passengers explodes inside the departures lounge at Frankfurt Airport. Police diffuse a second bomb. No group comes forward to claim responsibility

June 23, Atlantic Ocean, near Ireland: Air India Flight 182 en route from Delhi to Montreal is blown up by terrorists from the Sikh organisation Babbar Khalsa amid unrest in Punjab, India. All 329 crew and passengers are killed

July 22, Copenhagen, Denmark: One person is killed and 32 wounded when two bombs planted by Hezbollah-backed group Islamic Jihad detonate in the city. The bombers are interrupted while trying to place a third

November 23, Luqa, Malta: EgyptAir Flight 648 is hijacked by members of the Palestinian-linked Abu Nidal Organization. Egyptian authorities eventually storm the plane. In the ensuing chaos 58 people are killed, along with two of the attackers

December 27, Italy and Austria: Members of Abu Nidal simultaneously attack airports in Rome and Vienna, killing 19 and wounding 138 in gun and grenade attacks. Four of the seven attackers are shot dead

 

1986 

February - September, Paris, France: 1986 sees 10 terror attacks take place in Paris, all of which were carried out by Lebanese militants linked to Hezbollah. In total 14 people are killed and more than 250 are wounded

March 13, Damascus, Syria: Pro-Iraqi militants are blamed for detonating a car bomb in the city, killing 60 and wounding an unknown number. 144 are killed in another attack in April 

March 27, Melbourne, Australia: A policewoman is killed and 22 people are wounded when the Russell Street Police Headquarters is bombed by three disgruntled criminals

April 2, Argos, Greece: TWA Flight 840, which travels from Los Angeles to Cairo via New York City, Rome, and Athens is bombed mid-flight by Palestinian organisation Abu Nidal, killing four and wounding seven

April 5, West Berlin, West Germany: A bombing ordered by the Libyan government kills three and wounds more than 200 people at a club in the city frequented by American soldiers

September 5, Karachi, Pakistan: Gunmen from Abu Nidal hijack Pan Am Flight 73. After a 16-hour standoff police stormed the plane, leaving 20 passengers dead and 120 wounded. The following day Abu Nidal gunmen open fire at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Turkey, killing a further 22

December 25, Arar, Saudi Arabia: Iraqi Airways Flight 163 is hijacked by members of the Islamic Jihad organisation. Two grenade explosions force the plane to crash-land, leaving 60 people dead and dozens wounded 

 

1987 

April, various locations, Sri Lanka: Gun attacks by the LTTE group leaves more than 200 dead in this month alone amid the country's brutal civil war

April 25, Athens, Greece: A Greek Air Force bus carrying American military personnel is bombed by the November 17 Organization, a far-left group, wounding 18

June 19, Barcelona, Spain: A bomb is set off at a shopping centre by members of the Basque separatist group ETA, killing 21 and injuring 45. In December, the group bombs Zaragoza, killing 11 and wounding 88

July, Haryana, India: Members of Sikh militant group Khalistan Commando Force shoot dead more than 70 people in a series of gun attacks in Punjab

 

1988 

January 24, Santander, Colombia: Eight policemen are killed amid continuing conflict between the government and various rebel groups including FARC, ELN and SGSB that would escalate as the year went on and culminate in the deaths of five Colombian soldiers and the wounding of 270 more during an ambush in Guaviare

March - August, various locations, Northern Ireland: Michael Stone kills three mourners and wounds 68 more in a gun and grenade attack during an IRA funeral. Three days later British soldiers David Howes and Derek Wood are shot, stabbed and beaten to death at another IRA funeral amid fears they were Ulster loyalists planning a similar attack. Two Provisional IRA bombings later in the year left 14 dead and dozens wounded, while the IRA also shot down a police helicopter

December 21, Lockerbie, Scotland: Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi planted a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York on order from Moammar Gaddafi. It explodes over Scotland killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew and injuring five people on the ground

 

1989 

September 19, Tenere, Niger: UTA Flight 772 is blown up en route from Brazzaville to Paris and comes down in the desert. All 170 people are killed, with Libya blamed

November 27, Soacha, Colombia: Avianca Flight 203 is bombed en route from Bogota to Cali, killing 110 people. The Medellin cartel claim responsibility

December 6, Bogota, Colombia: A truck bomb at the DAS headquarters kills 52 people and injures over a thousand. Again, Medellin claims responsibility

 

1990

January - December, various locations, Colombia: Ongoing conflict between the government, FARC rebels and the Medellin cartel leaves hundreds dead and thousands wounded in dozens of attacks

May 16, London, England: The IRA detonate a bomb under a military minibus in London, killing Sgt Charles Chapman, and injuring four other soldiers. Later, the group bombed the London Stock Exchange, though luckily nobody was hurt

June 11, Sri Lanka: More than 600 unarmed police officers are killed in an ambush by LTTE

November 5, New York, United States: Far-right American-Israeli politician Meir Kahane is shot and killed by Egyptian Islamist El Sayyid Nosair at the Marriott hotel in New York

December 8, Sabadell, Spain: ETA bombs a police convoy that was on its way to police a football match, killing six and wounding 10

 

1991

February, London, England: The Provisional IRA wounds four people launching mortar shells at Downing Street in an attempt to kill John Major and his Cabinet, then kills one and injures 38 in bombings at Victoria and Paddington stations

June 15, Ludhiana, India: Sikh militants massacre around 100 mostly Hindu passengers on two trains

October 15, Palliyagodella, Sri Lanka: A year of ongoing conflicts culminates in the murder of more than 200 people by LTTE militants 

 

1992 

February 5, Belfast, Northern Ireland: Five Catholic civilians are killed in a UDA attack on an Irish nationalist shop

February 6, Madrid Spain: Four military personnel and a civilian employee of the military are killed by an ETA car bomb in Madrid

March 17, Buenos Aires, Argentina: 28 die and more than 200 are injured as an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber rams his car into the Israeli embassy. Argentina has accused Hezbollah of being involved in the attack

April 10, London, England: The Baltic Exchange building is destroyed by a Provisional IRA semtex truck bomb, killing three

July 16, Lima, Peru: 25 die and 155 are wounded in two truck bombings claimed by communist group Shining Path

 

1993 

January 25, Virginia, United States: Pakistani immigrant Mir Qazi opens fire on CIA employees outside the CIA headquarters, killing two

February 26, New York, United States: The first World Trade Centre bombing takes place, organised by five terror groups, killing six and injuring more than 1,000

March 12, Bombay, India:  13 bombings targeting banks, hotels, the Bombay Stock Exchange and other buildings kill more than 250. It was orchestrated by criminal group D-Company

March 20, Warrington, England: Two bombs planted by the Provisions IRA explode in bins, killing two children

 

1994 

February 5, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: 68 die when a mortar shell fired by the Army of Republika Srpska lands in a market 

February 25, Hebron, West Bank: Israeli Baruch Goldstein kills 29 and injures 125 Palestinian worshippers in an attack in the Cave of the Patriarchs

June 27/28, Matsumoto, Japan: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release deadly sarin gas in a neighborhood of Matsumoto, Nagano

July 18, Bueno Aires, Argentina: A suicide bomber rams his car into the building of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) killing 85 people. Multiple countries blame Hezbollah

 

1995 

January 30, Algiers, Algeria: A car bomb exploding near the police headquarters in Algiers kills 42 amid the country's civil war 

February 28, Zakho, Iraq: A car bomb, exploding in a crowded market place, killed 76. The Patriotic Union of Kudistan was blamed

March 20, Tokyo, Japan: Members of Aum Shinrikyo release sarin gas onto five trains on the Tokyo subway, killing 12 and sickening more than 1,000

April 19, Oklahoma, United States: A bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City kills 168 and wounds more than 650. It was carried out in retaliation for the government's handling of the Ruby Ridge and Waco sieges

June 14–19, Budyonnovsk, Russia: Dozens of Chechen rebels attack the town before taking thousands hostage in a local hospital. After days of siege the Russians storm it, leading to 150 people being killed

Ongoing conflicts in Colombia, Sri Lanka and around the West Bank leave hundreds dead and thousands hurt

 

1996 

January 9-18, Dagestan, Russia: Around 200 Chechen rebels raided an airbase before taking hostages. It resulted in a shootout with the Russian military in which 200 Kremlin soldiers, 96 rebels, and 26 civilians died

February 9, London, England: The Provisional IRA detonated a massive truck bomb in the Canary Wharf, killing two and injuring 200

February - March, various locations, Israel: Four Hamas suicide bombers leave 60 dead and 284 wounded in a series of suicide bombings

June 15, Manchester, England: The Provisional IRA set off another large bomb, wounding more than 200 

 

1997

A soldier is shot dead in Northern Ireland early in the year, while Uyghyr separatists launch several attacks in China  and in New York there is a shooting on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

Islamist gunmen carry out a major attack in Egypt, while ongoing conflicts in Colombia, Sri Lanka and India kill hundreds. Sixteen and killed and dozens wounded in bomb attacks in Israel

 

1998

Dozens more die and hundreds are injured in attacks in Colombia, India and Sri Lanka.

In August two United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were bombed by members of al-Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Killing 200 and injuring 4,000.

Later the same month the IRA kills 29 and wounds more than 200 with a bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

In Yugoslavia, the KLA carries out attacks killing a dozen and wounding dozens more 

 

1999 

A series of car bombings takes place in Uzbekistan in January, before Chechen rebels strike again in Vladikavkaz, Russia, leaving 62 dead and 168 wounded. Later in the year a series of bombings, believed to have been carried out by Chechens, kills a further 293 people.

In Turkey, the Kurdish group PKK is blamed for a series of market bombings while neo-Nazi David Copeland detonates three bombs in London, England, in April.

In the United States 13 people are killed in the Columbine Massacre

 

2000 

The ETA breaks a ceasefire with Spain to launch a bomb attack in Madrid before carrying out several other attacks later in the year.

The Philippines is hit by a wave of terrorist attacks, as in neighbour Indonesia.

Chechen insurgents launched five suicide bomb attacks on the Russian military and police headquarters and barracks, killing 54 and wounding 100.

In Yemen, the USS Cole is bombed, killing 19 and wounding 39  

 

2001 

Almost 3,000 people are killed and thousands more injured in the World Trade Center attack in New York, prompting George W Bush to declare war in Afghanistan, and later Iraq.

Meanwhile in the UK the IRA bombs the BBC, and in Angola a train is derailed amid the country's civil war, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more 

 

2002 

200 people are killed during the Bali bombings which targeted western tourists in Indonesia, with radical Islamists suspected of carrying out the attack

In Russia the Moscow theatre hostage crisis leaves 131 people dead which Chechens blamed, while in Mombasa, Kenya, Al-Qaeda gunmen kill 13 and injure 80 

 

2003 

The year's deadliest attack came in Iraq, courtesy of Al-Qaeda, which bombed the Imam Ali mosque leaving 95 dead and hundreds wounded.

Hundreds more were left dead across Russia in a series of suicide attacks, while violence continued to escalate inside Israel and the Marriott Hotel was bombed in Indonesia 

 

2004 

Spain is hit by the largest terror attack in its history as bombs explode on several trains, killing almost 200 and wounding thousands more. 

Bombings in Erbil, Iraq, targeting Kurdish buildings killed 117 people while two bomb attacks were carried out on the Moscow metro.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta was also targeted, while hundreds of bomb attacks took place across Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider Middle East

 

2005 

In London a series of bombs on tubes and buses kill 52 and wound more than 700. This is followed by a second attempted attack, though the devices fail. In America, there is a failed bombing in Oklahoma 

Suicide bombings continue across the Middle East, while two attacks take place in Thailand and are attributed to separatist movements. 

 

2006 

The Sri Lankan civil war reignites with a series of attacks by the LTTE, while bombings have become the norm across much of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In India the Mumbai train bombings kill more than 200 and wound more than 700 

 

2007

A series of car bombings in Iraq kill more than 800 and injure 1,500, making them the second-deadliest behind the 9/11 terror attack in New York

 

2008 

Hundreds continue to be killed in bomb attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, while in India seventeen blasts in Ahmedabad kill 56.

Blasts also rock Pakistan, killing dozens more, including an attack on the Marriott Hotel.

In Mumbai terrorists launch a coordinated series of attacks leaving 173 confirmed dead and hundreds more injured. They attack a train station, hotels, restaurants, a police station, and a hospital with automatic weapons

 

2009

Iraq and India fell victim to suicide bombings and shootings. Car bombings killed hundreds in Pakistan in October of that year

 

2010

Pakistan continues to be filled with bloody violence and suicide bombings which injure more than 500 in just three days in September

 

2011 

Pakistan and India continue to see frequent attacks, as does the Middle East, though is considerably lessened as the end of the Iraq War approaches. Somalia also sees attacks take place  

 

2012 

Syria begins to be plagued by frequent terror attacks in foreshadowing of the conflict to come, while attacks continue in east Africa. Pakistan and Bangladesh also see unrest, as does the Philippines and parts of Indonesia 

 

2013 

In America the Boston Marathon bombing claims the lives of five people and wounds more than 250.

A series of bloody attacks in Pakistan, Syria and Iraq claim the lives of thousands and wound thousands more as the region once again descends toward all-out conflict 

 

2014 

A lightning offensive by ISIS sees the organisation spread across Syria and much of Iraq, leaving a trail of bloody destruction in its wake. Meanwhile in Nigeria, Boko Haram leave more than 200 dead in a series of attacks

Pakistan continues to be a hotbed of violence with gun attacks an suicide bombings a regular occurrence. Gunmen slaughter 148 at a military school

 

2015 

Terrorists in San Bernardino kill 16 and wound two dozens after opening fire at a work event. In Paris gunmen kill hundreds and wound scores more in coordinated gun and bomb attacks across the city. It comes after the offices of Charlie Hebdo were attacked in January.

Meanwhile Boko Haram continues its attacks in Nigeria and spreads to neighbouring Cameroon, leaving hundreds dead it its wake.

ISIS spreads its influence in the Middle East, claiming hundreds more lives, while bombings in Turkey and Yemen also kill hundreds between them

 

2016 

Brussels airport is attacked by bombers, killing 32, while police in Paris and Berlin are stabbed. Nice is also targeted by a truck attacker, while in December another truck attack strikes in Berlin

A series of deadly bombings and attacks across Syria and Iraq are responsible for hundreds of deaths over the year, while Somalia, Pakistan and Turkey continue to be targeted.

Bombs are also detonated in New York and New Jersey, though nobody is killed 

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