Vehicle ramming as a terrorism tactic

A vehicle-ramming attack is a form of attack in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a motor vehicle into a building, crowd of people, or another vehicle.

Deliberate vehicle ramming into crowd of people is a tactic used by terrorists, becoming a major terrorist tactic in the 2010s because it requires little skill to perpetrate and has the potential to cause signficant casualties. Deliberate vehicle-ramming has also been carried out in the course of other types of crimes, including road rage incidents. Deliberate-vehicle ramming incidents have also sometimes been caused by the driver's psychiatric disorder.

Vehicles can also be used by attackers to breach a building with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.

The 21st century has seen a rise in vehicle ramming attacks carried out as acts of terrorism by individuals committed to an ideology. In 2014, Canadian columnist Andrew Coyne describes the phenomenon as a form of "micro-terrorism", and argues that Canadians "had better get used to... the baffling phenomenon of the homegrown terrorist ... who for whatever reason takes it into his head to kill any number of his fellow citizens in the service of his cause."

According to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, the tactic has gained popularity because "Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience." Counterterrorism researcher Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Slate that the tactic has been on the rise in Israel because, "the security barrier is fairly effective, which makes it hard to get bombs into the country." In 2010, Inspire, the online, English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged jihadis to choose "pedestrian only" locations and make sure to gain speed before ramming their vehicles into the crowd in order to "achieve maximum carnage".

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