Houses of worship – including Catholic – are targets for extremist attacks

A look at recent records shows numerous attacks on houses of worship are carried out by extremists.

Since 2010, for example, there have been at least 27 deadly attacks in places of worship.

The following timeline offers a sample of these attacks.

July 16, 2010: 27 killed and 270 injured after a double suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque in southeastern Iran.

Oct. 31, 2010: militants attack a Catholic church in Baghdad during Sunday night mass, killing 58 people.

Dec. 15, 2010: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up near a mosque in southeastern Iran, killing six others.

Aug. 5, 2012: Six members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin are fatally shot by a white supremacist.

Nov. 18, 2014: Two Palestinians using axes, knives and a gun kill four Jewish worshippers and an Israeli police officer in a Jerusalem synagogue.

Jan. 30, 2015: Suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan kills 71.

March 20, 2015: Suicide bombers attack two mosques in Yemen’s capital, killing 137 people.

June 17, 2015: Nine black worshippers, including a pastor, were killed after their killer prayed with them in South Carolina.

Sept. 24, 2015: A suicide bomber strikes a mosque in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, killing 25 worshippers during prayers.

Nov. 12, 2016: Suicide bomber kills over 50 at a shrine in Pakistan.

Dec. 11, 2016: Suicide bomber strikes inside a Cairo chapel adjacent to the seat of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church. The attack killed at least 25 people.

Jan. 29, 2017: A gunman kills six men during evening prayers at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City.

Feb. 16, 2017: Suicide bomber detonates his explosives vest at a shrine in Pakistan, killing 98.

April 9, 2017: Twin suicide bombings in Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Tanta kill at least 45 people.

June 15, 2017: A suicide bomber kills four people at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan.

Aug. 1, 2017: A suicide bomber opens fire on worshippers during evening prayers at the largest Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, before blowing himself up and killing at least 90 people and wounding hundreds more.

Aug. 25, 2017: Militants attack a packed Shiite mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers, killing 28 worshippers and wounding 50, many of them children.

Sept. 29, 2017: A suicide bomber blows himself up outside a Shiite mosque in Kabul, killing five. The attack took place as worshippers were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.

Oct. 20, 2017: A suicide bomber attack kills 31 and wounds 29 at a Shiite mosque in Kabul.

Nov. 5, 2017: A lone gunman opens fire at a Baptist Church in Texas, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others.

Nov. 24, 2017: Militants kill 311 worshippers in a mosque attack in north Sinai.

Dec. 17, 2017: An attack on a church in Quetta, Pakistan, kills 16 people.

Aug. 3, 2018: Suicide bombers attack a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan, killing 27 people.

Oct. 27, 2018: A gunman believed to have spewed anti-Semitic slurs and rhetoric on social media entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 and wounding six, including four police officers.

Jan. 27, 2019: Two suicide attackers detonate two bombs during a Mass in a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines, killing 23 and wounding about 100 others.

30 January, 2019: An attacker hurls a grenade in a mosque in the southern Philippines, killing two.

March 15, 2019: At least 49 people are killed in an attack at mosques in Christchurch.

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