Highlighted by the horror of Beslan (Terrorist Incident) and echoed by small-scale incidents in North America and Europe, it is becoming increasingly apparent that schools are soft and appealing targets for terror, and this has not escaped terrorists? notice. Since September 11 (Terrorist Incident) and the Global War on Terrorism, terrorists have been hard-pressed to generate the high-casualty incidents that they would like. Meticulously worked-out plans for various attacks that were abandoned because they would not produce enough casualties have been discovered, and terrorist websites? message boards demonstrate frustration on the part of the international community of terrorist supporters at the infrequency of high-casualty and high-impact events. In such a milieu, schools as targets make sense.

In many Muslim countries, there are American and other international schools where foreign children are sent to receive an education similar to what they would receive at home. Attendees include children of western diplomats and businessmen, often the children of the native elite as well. For a terrorist, there is perhaps no better way to strike at such a concentration of his enemies at once. These kinds of schools exist in Europe and around the world as well, sometimes with glaringly provocative names like ?the American School.? In Europe, especially France , Jewish schools have been firebombed and burned on several occasions. Though these incidences look more like hate crimes than terrorist attacks, as they occur when students are not in and seem to be more focused on property damage than loss of life, the trend is disturbing and demonstrates that militant groups have identified schools as a target for their rage. At one Jewish school that was burned in Montreal, Canada , the arsonists left a note explaining that the damage was in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of Hamas? Sheikh Yassin. Retaliatory attacks against a number of Islamic primary schools rocked the Netherlands following the slaughter of director Theo Van Gogh (Terrorist Incident) by an Islamic militant last month (see related articles in the WAR Report). Although characterized as hate crimes rather than terrorist attacks that seek human victims, the increasing extent to which schools are being brought into the cross-fire between Islamic militant groups and Europeans is alarming. On a terrorist website after the Dutch attacks on Islamic schools, a message appeared with an ultimatum to the Dutch government to stop the attacks or face violent consequences. The group claimed to be linked to Zarqawi?s Tawhid group (Group Profile).