Norway woke up on Saturday 23 July 2011 to the devastating news that the death toll from the two terror attacks that took place on Friday 22 July 2011 had risen to at least 87 and is likely to go even higher. The second shock was that the man apparently responsible for the attacks is a 32 year old Norwegian national, named as Anders Behring Breivik who was arrested at the island where the shooting attack on young people attending a Labour Party summer camp took place.
Suspect Is Norwegian
At first pundits and theorists had claimed that the attacks were the work of an Islamic terrorist group but it is now becoming clear that instead it was the work of a lone Norwegian, a home grown terrorist like Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma USA in 1995. An Islamic Jihadist group had claimed responsibility according to the New York Times but that would appear to have been an attempt to muddy the waters of the investigation.
The suspect, Breivik, has been charged with two counts of terrorism and is being questioned by the police. Quite what his motives for the attack are remain unclear but it is known that he had right wing, anti-Islamic views. Both his Facebook and Twitter accounts had been set up just days before the attack, according to the BBC . A Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang quoted a friend as saying that Breivik became interested in right wing extremism in his twenties but had no military training apart from the national service expected of all young Norwegians.
Norway has had a history of neo-Nazi groups as anyone who has read the Millennium trilogy of author Stieg Larsson would know. The Swedish crime writer was an expert on the Neo-Nazi movement in Norway, a fact which comes out in his books.
Tragedy at Utoya Island
The worst part of the tragedy appears to be the attack on Utoya Island where Breivik appears to have fired indiscriminately at the young people, including at those who tried to escape the island by swimming. According to reports, he was armed with a handgun, an automatic weapon and a shotgun. The death toll from the island shooting is expected to rise as it is not clear exactly how many young people were on the island at the time of the attack. Police continue to scour the water around the island. Families are gathered on the shore line as they wait for news of their loved ones.
In a press conference, the Norwegian Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg said that the attacks were a “national tragedy” and that it was the worst violence the country had seen since World War II. He said "For me, Utoya was the paradise of my youth, now it has become hell,"
Norwegians now have to come to terms with the fact that their beautiful and peaceful country has become the scene of carnage and terror on a scale that they have never experienced before and that it is possible that it is all down to a Norwegian national, a home grown terrorist.
Amanda Payne - By Amanda Payne: Topic Editor for European Affairs. Amanda is a freelance writer with a special interest in Spain and all things ...
