Mass Crushing Down: Israeli-made and Daesh-imported

Mustafa Hamza

The method of mass crushing down has become famous in recent times, after its use by the Islamic State terrorist group or Daesh in more than one incident in the West; especially that it draws widespread media attention. It is one of the combat tactics urged by prominent leader Taha Subhi Falaha, known as “Abu Muhammad al-Adnani”, who served as the organization’s former spokesman. In a voice recording dating back to 2014, al-Adnani told lone wolves (an intelligence term indicating that an unorganized person or persons who are not subject to a hierarchical organization from which they receive any instructions to perpetrate terrorist acts), “if you did not succeed in throwing a bomb or opening the fire on French or American infidels, you can stab them with a knife or hit them with a stone or crush them down with a car.”

Despite the widespread popularity of this method, Daesh was not the first to use it against its enemies, but rather the first mass crashing down dates back to 1987, when an Israeli truck driver ran over a number of Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for his son who was killed on the streets of the Gaza Strip, causing the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising.

This method targets the places of civilian gatherings and is taken from Al-Qaeda which resorted to it after 2003, to disperse the security forces undoubtedly seeking to secure all similar targets and places of other gatherings. This will lead to the lack of necessary security in other places and then they would be easily controlled by the organization by entering into a guerrilla war with the remaining security forces in these areas, in addition to the immersion of these countries in fighting terrorism internally, and leaving the international alliances facing Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

The intensification of the mass trampling down incidents within Europe also makes the western citizens feel that their country is not safe and that their government is unable to protect them. This makes the citizens lose confidence in these governments and destabilizes relations between the peoples and the ruling regimes. This comes in preparation for coaxing them into a state of punishment and fatigue (The continuation of jihadist operations to exhaust the central government in preparation for its overthrow), which the organization set as the first stage to manage barbarism and conflict (a state of chaos that erupts in a certain state or a particular region if the grip of the ruling authorities on it disappears). Then comes the alleged empowerment (increasing the spiritual, political, social and economic capabilities of individuals and communities).

These operations also help the Daesh terrorist group recruit new extremist elements that make up for the weakness they face in Iraq and Syria, especially since the extremists in Europe tend to be violent and are attracted by Daesh’s barbaric operations. This is known as barbaric recruitment (which means that Islamists in the West are more attracted by Daesh’s barbarism, than the Arab extremists).

The most prominent incidents

One of the most common mass trampling down incidents was the July 2016 attack in the French city of Nice, using a “cargo car” to kill 84 people who were attending the Bastille Day celebrations. This type of operations has been repeated in more than one country, including in the Northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region on May 22, 2014, killing 39 people and injuring more than 90 others.

On December 19, 2016, a member of the Daesh led a truck collided with visitors to the Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others. The truck driver was later killed in an exchange of fire with the police.

On March 22, 2017, Khaled Massoud, a member of Daesh, hit a number of passersby on the Westminster Bridge in London. He then hit the British Parliament fence and tried to sneak into it. When one of the policemen tried to stop him, he was stabbed. Another policeman killed him and the incident led to the killing of four and the injuring of more than 50 people.

On April 7, 2017, a Daesh driver ran over a truck in the center of Stockholm, killing four people and injuring 15, including critical cases. Police later arrested the truck driver.

On June 29, 2017, one person was killed and 10 others injured in an operation that targeted a gathering of Muslims near the Finsbury Park mosque, north of London, British police said.