Abe, Gaddafi and other political assassinations of this century

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday by a gunman who opened fire on him as he delivered a campaign speech on a street in western Japan.

Here is an overview of other high-profile assassinations in the 21st century:

– October 15, 2021: British lawmaker David Amess is stabbed to death by an Islamic State supporter while meeting voters.

— July 7, 2021: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is assassinated by armed men who also injured his wife Martine during a nighttime raid on their home in Port-au-Prince. More than 40 people have been arrested in Haiti for the attack, including high-ranking police officers and a group of former Colombian soldiers.

— April 20, 2021: Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno is killed while fighting rebels in the north. Hours earlier, he had been declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power.

– February 13, 2017: Kim Jong Nam, estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is killed by the nerve agent VX at a Malaysian airport. He had been seen as a possible threat to his brother’s regime and was said to have met with US intelligence agencies.

— December 19, 2016: Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is shot dead by a Turkish policeman shouting condemnation of Russia’s military role in Syria, in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibition. The shooter was later killed in a shootout with police.

— June 16, 2016: British MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right supporter in the English village of Birstall, which is part of her constituency.

— February 6, 2013: Chokri Belaid, leader of Tunisia’s left-wing opposition, was shot dead outside his home in Tunis. His assassination – followed six months later by that of another left-wing leader, Mohammed Brahmi – plunged Tunisia into political chaos with effects that reverberate to this day. No one has been convicted in either case.

— September 11, 2012: US Ambassador Chris Stevens is killed when militants storm the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Three other Americans died.

— October 20, 2011: Longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is hunted down and summarily killed by insurgents after being overthrown in a NATO-backed uprising.

– March 2, 2009: The President of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo Vieira, is killed by renegade soldiers in his palace, hours after a bomb attack killed his rival in the East African country. West.

— December 27, 2007: Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister of a Muslim-majority country and Pakistan’s second nationally elected prime minister, was shot and attacked by a suicide bomber during a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

— February 14, 2005: Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a suicide truck bomb on a boulevard by the sea in Beirut. Another 21 people died and 226 were injured in the attack, which is seen by many in Lebanon as the work of neighboring Syria.

— December 29, 2003: Bishop Michael Courtney, the Pope’s ambassador to Burundi, was shot dead by armed men as he was returning from a funeral and died during an operation.

— March 12, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was shot dead in front of the Serbian government headquarters in Belgrade. He was a key leader in the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. Twelve people have been convicted of the murder, which was carried out to end his pro-Western reforms, according to a ruling of Serbian justice.

— May 6, 2002: Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn was shot dead in a town in the north of the Netherlands, a few days before a general election in which he was a candidate, by an animal rights activist.

— June 1, 2001: King Birendra of Nepal is killed when his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, opens fire on his family in the royal palace. The dead include Queen Aiswarya, a prince and five others. Officials said the shooting followed a row over the prince’s marriage.

— January 18, 2001: Congolese President Laurent Kabila was assassinated at the presidential palace in the capital, Kinshasa, by one of his bodyguards, who was killed a few minutes later by the security forces.

The Associated Press

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