Epidemio-Clinical Profile of Psychotrauma in Military Victims of Terrorists Attacks in Benin in December 2021

Introduction: In December 2021, Beninese soldiers were victims of armed terrorist attacks. This study aims to determine the psychological impact of the events experienced on the victims in order to better prevent post-traumatic stress disorder. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from December 13 to 14, 2021, i.e. 12 days after the oldest event and 4 days after the most recent. The experience of the event was assessed with the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory and the Peritraumatic Dissociation Experiences Questionnaire. Symptoms experienced in the hours and days after the event were assessed with the Revised Event Impact Scale. Results: 36 soldiers were included out of the 38 survivors, i.e. 94.73%. They were 51.43% victims of the night assault, 37.14% of the ambush on patrol and 11.43% of the explosion of vehicle on mine, all male. The average age was 31 years with extremes of 25 and 49 years. The 25 - 30 year olds predominated, 52.78%. 100% of soldiers had significant peritraumatic dissociation, of which 94.44% also had significant peritraumatic distress. 100% of the soldiers had manifestations of intrusion, 89% of manifestations of avoidance and 83% of manifestations of hyperexcitation. 88.89% had an index for acute stress including 100% of victims of night assault and vehicle explosion on mine. Conclusion: This study shows a high prevalence of peritraumatic reactions, recognized factors favoring post-traumatic stress disorder, and the interest of their evaluation for medical and psychological help adapted to the victims.

Using Multi-Attribute Decision Methods in Mathematical Modeling to Produce an Order of Merit List of High Valued Terrorists

The authors present a methodology and an example of preparing an order of merit list to rank terrorist based upon decision maker weights. This research used an old terrorist data set as our base data to keep the information unclassified. This data is used to demonstrate this methodology. The authors perform numerical iterative criteria weight sensitivity analysis to show the effects on the model’s outputs in changes in the weights. Through their analysis the most critical criterion is identified.

Repatriation Urged for Suspected Terrorists

Beijing has vigorously con- demned the United States’ recent transfer of suspected Uygur terrorists to Palau and called for their repatriation to China, according to the Chi- nese Foreign Ministry.

Pursuing Terrorists Or Resources?

The U.S.Africa Command goes into operation in Europe amid a firestorm of contention U.S.President George W.Bush announced plans to set up an Africa Command in February.Preparations have since been in full swing.A slew of officials from the U.S.State and Defense departments have visited African countries in the hope of determining a loca- tion for the Africa Command’s headquarters.

Cryptocurrency technology revolution:are Bitcoin prices and terrorist attacks related?

As a financial innovation of the information age,cryptocurrency is a complex concept with clear advantages and disadvantages and is worthy of discussion.Exploring from a terrorism perspective,this study uses the time-varying parameter/stochastic volatil-ity vector autoregression model to explore the risk hedging and terrorist financing capabilities of Bitcoin.Empirical results show that both terrorist incidents and brutality may explain Bitcoin price,but their effects are slightly different.Compared to terrorist brutality,terrorist incidents have a weaker impact on Bitcoin price,showing that Bitcoin investors are more concerned about the number of deaths than the frequency of ter-rorist attacks.In turn,the impact of Bitcoin price on terrorist attacks is negligible.Bitcoin is a potential means of financing terrorism,but it does not currently play an important role.Our research findings can help investors analyze and predict Bitcoin prices and help improve the theoretical system of anti-terrorist financing,helping to maintain world peace and security.

Modeling heterogeneous behaviors with different strategies in a terrorist attack

Existing simulations of terrorist attacks do not consider individual variations.To overcome this lim-itation,we propose a framework to model heterogeneous behavior of individuals during terrorist attacks.We constructed an emotional model that integrated personality and visual perception for pedestrians.The emotional model was then integrated with pedestrian relationship networks to establish a decision-making model that sup-ported pedestrians’altruistic behaviors.A mapping model has been developed to correlate antisocial personality traits with attack strategies employed by terrorists.Experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can generate practical heterogeneous behaviors that align with existing psychological research findings.

Secret Language Use of Criminals： Their Implications to Legislative Institutions, Police, and Public Social Practices

It has always been very important throughout the centuries for legislative institutions and police organizations to watch over different media and genres as instruments of conspiracy of criminals, members of organized crime, and terroristic groups in order to recognize conspiracy contents and to evaluate them systematically （intelligence work）. With the help of special methods-design, it is possible to analyze the functions and strategies of this specific sometimes open or undercover used languages of Rotwelsch, Argot, Fenya, terrorist and Jihadi groups. A very significant example is the history of Jihadi Internet as a cyber-planning tool： single websites （until 2001）, expansion and professionalization （2001-2007） and severe surveillance, distrust and new social media （after 2008 especially because of 9/11）. Since it has become clear that the National Security Agency （NSA） conducts severe intelligence research in the field of E-mail-traffic and chats, the demand of crypto-programs has grown. It is better in this situation to return to face-to-face-communication. Legislative institutions and police have to study these functions and strategies in order to practice the best fitting counter-action against crime and terrorism.

Review on emergency medical response against terrorist attack

Terrorism is a global issue and a constant international threat. As a result, anti-terrorism and emergency response strategies are tasks of critical importance that have a direct impact on the national security of every country in the world. This paper reviews new characteristics of international anti-terrorism measures and offers an in-depth reflection on emergency medical response countermeasures; additionally, this paper presents the goals of related research, which include: 1) to present a model of a highly efficient medical response command; 2) to introduce the pre-planning phases of the emergency medical response; 3) to establish a response system capable of handling various types of terror attacks; 4) to promote anti-terrorism awareness to the general public and emphasize its prevention; and 5) to continue basic investigations into emergency medical responses for various types of terrorist attacks(for example, the classifications and characteristics of new injuries, pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of the resultant stress disorders, improved high-efficiency medical response measures and equipment, etc.).

Bombings specific triage(Bost Tool) tool and its application by healthcare professionals

BACKGROUND: Bombing is a unique incident which produces unique patterns, multiple and occult injuries. Death often is a result of combined blast, ballistic and thermal effect injuries. Various natures of injury, self referrals and arrival by private transportation may lead to "wrong triage" in the emergency department. In India there has been an increase in incidence of bombing in the last 15 years. There is no documented triage tool from the National Disaster Management Authority of India for Bombings. We have tried to develop an ideal bombing specific triage tool which will guide the right patients to the right place at the right time and save more lives.METHODS: There are three methods of studying the triage tool: 1) real disaster; 2) mock drill; 3) table top exercise. In this study, a table top exercise method was selected. There are two groups, each consisting of an emergency physician, a nurse and a paramedic.RESULTS: By using the proportion test, we found that correct triaging was significantly different(P=0.005) in proportion between the two groups: group B(80%) with triage tool performed better in triaging the bomb blast victims than group A(50%) without the bombing specific triage tool performed.CONCLUSION: Development of bombing specific triage tool can reduce under triaging.

Understanding the Interrelationship Between Global Terrorist Attacks and the Citizen＇s Wellbeing.＂ The Complexity of Terrorism

Terrorism is a global phenomenon that over the last 44 years more than 140,000 terrorist events have been carried out. In the period from 1970-2001, the five countries with the largest number of terrorist attacks were Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, United Kingdom, and India. On the other hand, in the post-2001 context, the five countries with the largest number of terrorist attacks were Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Thailand. One method for measuring in an aggregate way, how many people have suffered under terrorist attacks at national level is to analyze the correlation between some national wellbeing indicators and the number of terrorist attacks. The aim of this study is to analyze empirically the correlation between the global terrorist attacks and the countries wellbeing indicators. Five indicators show a strong relationship with the number of terrorist attacks in the case of the four most attacked countries in the post-2001 context. The authors consider that their findings can support the design of new strategies for preventing terrorist activities taking into account certain socio-economic and political drivers. The authors conclude that as such drivers are socio-complex, so it is necessary to adopt the complex adaptive system （CAS） approach to provide a new way of thinking about terrorism.

The possibility of a human-borne with bioagent terrorist at foreign Forward Operating Bases entry control point:the perceptions of U.S. military or security personnel,a preliminary report

Background:The global war on terrorism has prompted an increase in the deployment of security personnel from multi-national forces on foreign lands,especially in places where known terrorist groups are based.The aim of this study was to obtain U.S.military and security personnel's perceptions of the possibility of encountering a humanborne with bioagent(HBBA) terrorist at an entry control point(ECP).Methods:This study was a mixed-method,cross-sectional,survey-based,time-limited study.A validated,five-option Likert scale questionnaire with Cronbach's alphas of 0.82 and 0.894 for Constructs 1 and 2 was distributed to over 113 respondents with combat experience.Results:The results indicated that 92.3% of the respondents thought it was possible for a terrorist to employ a biological agent to cause terror; 61.5% claimed it was either possible or very possible,and 26.9% claimed it was somewhat possible for a terrorist carrying a biological agent to successfully breach a combat Forward Operating Bases(FOB) ECP undetected.26.9% of the respondents agreed that "ECP soldiers are knowledgeable about bioagents(BA)",only 15.4% responded that ECP soldiers have effective devices for detecting a BA on a terrorist at an ECP.Conclusion:Despite some limitations,this pre-study tends to indicate that while many U.S.military or security personnel acknowledge the possibility of an HBBA terrorist breach and the vulnerability of U.S.combat post ECPs to a BA breach,the soldiers at the ECPs lack adequate knowledge or devices to effectively detect a BA on a terrorist at an ECP.

The effectiveness of the department of defense's field manual 3-11 in detecting,deterring and degrading the breach of a combat base by a human-borne with bioagent(HBBA):perceptions of security personnel

Background: The department of defense's field manual(FM) 3-11 is among the military's field manuals for preparing for, reacting to and recovering from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Since post 9-11, U.S. military service members have been deployed in the global war on terrorism. This study attempted to determine the effectiveness of the FM 3-11 in detecting, deterring or preventing a human-borne with bioagent(HBBA) terrorist breach at an entry control point(ECP).Methods: This time-specific, cross-sectional study disseminated a validated survey tool with Cronbach's α>0.82 to respondents who have had antiterrorism training and combat ECP experience. The return rate was greater than 75.0%; however, many of the respondents failed to meet the inclusion criteria. Consequently, only 26 questionnaires were included in the sample.Results: The results revealed that while over 60.0% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that biointelligence, the deployment of biodetectors and the use of biowarning systems could be effective in preventing an ECP breach by a terrorist with a bioagent, the use of protective equipment and immunization to decontaminate service members or other tactics, techniques and procedures(TTPs) would never prevent a breach. A large percentage of respondents claimed that soldiers at the ECP lacked the devices or the knowledge to detect an HBBA at an ECP, and 72.0% suggested modifying current ECP TTPs to include education, training and equipment for security personnel at military base ECPs.Conclusion: If obtained from appropriate sources and communicated to the personnel at the ECP in an effective or timely manner, the possible effectiveness of certain TTPs in the FM 3-11, specifically FM 3-11.86(intelligence), might increase.

Medical aspects of terrorist bombings: A focus on damage control surgery and damage control resuscitation

Although terrorist bombings have tormented the world for a long time, currently they have reached unprecedented levels and become a continuous threat without borders, race or age. Almost all of them are caused by improvised explosive devices. The unpredictability of the terrorist bombings, leading to simultaneous generation of a large number of casualties and severe "multidimensional" blast trauma require a constant vigilance and preparedness of every hospital worldwide. Approximately 1.0%-2.6% of all trauma patients and 7% of the combat casualties require a massive blood transfusion. Coagulopathy is presented in 65% of them with mortality exceeding 50%. Damage control resuscitation is a novel approach, developed in the military practice for treatment of this subgroup of trauma patients. The comparison with the conventional approach revealed mortality reduction with 40%-74%, lower frequency of abdominal compartment syndrome(8% vs 16%), sepsis(9% vs 20%), multiorgan failure(16% vs 37%) and a significant reduction of resuscitation volumes, both crystalloids and blood products. Damage control surgery(DCS) and damage control resuscitation(DCR) are promising new approaches, contributing for the mortality reduction among the most severely wounded patients. Despite the lack of consensus about the optimal ratio of the blood products and the possible influence of the survival bias, we think that DCR carries survival benefit and recommend it in trauma patients with exsanguinating bleeding.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Mediated by Exposure Level in French Civil Firefighters Following a Terrorist Attack: Some Hypotheses towards a Structural Model

To date, few studies have investigated the impact of organizational factors such as organizational status or the rank of firefighters on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a terrorist attack. To fill this gap in the scientific literature, this field study aimed to investigate the consequences of terrorist attacks on firefighters’ psychological health in terms of PTSD. Data were collected in France following two terrorist attacks. PTSD was assessed with the PCL-S (DSM-IV) 3 to 6 months after the events. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with existing PTSD models were inconclusive, leading us to find a two-factor model via an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). A cluster analysis showed different symptom profiles that were influenced by the exposure level. Elements for a structural model explaining PTSD symptoms are proposed and suggest a central role of the exposure level. Firefighters I/II represented an at-risk sub-population, suggesting that PTSD was mainly experienced among those who performed tasks not common to their occupation.

Radical Islamism in Georgia

The paper describes and analyzes the chronology of radical Islamism activities in Georgia, the threats and challenges for Georgian state coming from terrorist organizations, the spread of Ideas of Militant Islamism and Jihadism, the possibilities of using Georgian territories by the foreign and local fighters and steps taken by Georgian State. Also popularization of the idea of creation world Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East and ISIL Caucasus Province, joining the terrorist organizations ISIL and A1-Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria by some of the Georgian Muslims. The author analyzes the factors of the popularization of radical Islamism ideas among the young generation, the problems of Georgian Muslim communities and gives the recommendations for state actors.

Improvised Technique for Analyzing Data and Detecting Terrorist Attack Using Machine Learning Approach Based on Twitter Data

Social media are interactive computer mediated technology that facilitates the sharing of information via virtual communities and networks. And Twitter is one of the most popular social media for social interaction and microblogging. This paper introduces an improved system model to analyze twitter data and detect terrorist attack event. In this model, a ternary search is used to find the weights of predefined keywords and the Aho-Corasick algorithm is applied to perform pattern matching and assign the weight which is the main contribution of this paper. Weights are categorized into three categories: Terror attack, Severe Terror Attack and Normal Data and the weights are used as attributes for classification. K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are two machine learning algorithms used to predict whether a terror attack happened or not. We compare the accuracy with our actual data by using confusion matrix and measure whether our result is right or wrong and the achieved result shows that the proposed model performs better.

Forensic odontology identification response to terrorist attacks in Paris November 2015

The terrorist attacks of November 2015 led to the immediate death of 129 victims admitted to the Legal and Forensic Medicine Institute of Paris,including 41 unidentified.During the Disaster Victim Identification(DVI)operations,22 bodies were examined by the postmortem(PM)dental team with the aim of establishing PM odontograms.At the same time,the dental expert in the antemortem(AM)unit collected a large number of dental files,progressively filtered as the list of missing persons became reduced.Feedback from these events has highlighted the difficulties of implementing the DVI chain principles in a legal framework,published the day before the attacks,and also the technical complexity of collecting dental data on a week end of terror.The return on experience after this event has represented a paradigm shift on previous methods of DVI in Paris and even more in France.Indeed,the victim identification procedure was redesigned,integrating new technical means such as a CT scan directly on spot,allowing the extraction of maxillofacial data as soon as possible in order to support the PM dental examination team.Moreover,the National Dental Council proceeded to the overall remodeling of the dental identification unit,which is composed of trained members,from local,regional and national aspects.These forensic experts are dedicated,at the request of the legal authorities,to DVI operations and deployed throughout the country capable of managing AM and PM data.This unit aims also to share experiences and awarenessraising among health professionals and investigators in order to optimize a better submission of AM elements and also to enhance the major interest of odontology as a primary identifier in disaster.

Agent-based modeling of emergency evacuation in a railway station square under sarin terrorist attack

Evacuation modeling is a promising measure to support decision making in scenarios such as flooding,explosion,terrorist attack and other emergency incidents.Given the special attention to the terrorist attack,we build up an agent-based evacuation model in a railway station square under sarin terrorist attack to analyze such incident.Sarin dispersion process is described by Gaussian puff model.Due to sarin’s special properties of being colorless and odorless,we focus more on the modeling of agents’perceiving and reasoning process and use a Belief,Desire,Intention(BDI)architecture to solve the problem.Another contribution of our work is that we put forward a path planning algorithm which not only take distance but also comfort and threat factors into consideration.A series of simulation experiments demonstrate the ability of the proposed model and examine some crucial factors in sarin terrorist attack evacuation.Though far from perfect,the proposed model could serve to support decision making.

NETWORK ANALYSIS OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES

This paper uses an extensive network approach to "East Turkistan" activities by building both the one-mode and the bipartite networks for these activities.In the one-mode network,centrality analysis and spectrum analysis are used to describe the importance of each vertex.On this basis,two types of core vertices——The center of communities and the intermediary vertices among communities— are distinguished.The weighted extreme optimization(WEO) algorithm is also applied to detect communities in the one-mode network.In the "terrorist-terrorist organization" bipartite network,the authors adopt centrality analysis as well as clustering analysis based on the original bipartite network in order to calculate the importance of each vertex,and apply the edge clustering coefficient algorithm to detect the communities.The comparative and empirical analysis indicates that this research has been proved to be an effective way to identify the core members,key organizations,and communities in the network of "East Turkistan" terrorist activity.The results can provide a scientific basis for the analysis of "East Turkistan" terrorist activity,and thus provide decision support for the real work of "anti-terrorism".

An overview of forensic operations performed following the terrorist attacks on November 13,2015,in Paris

On the evening of November 13,2015,the city of Paris and its surroundings was hit by a series of attacks committed by terrorist groups,using firearms and explosives.The final toll was 140 people deceased(130 victims and 10 terrorists or their relatives)and more than 413 injured,making these attacks the worst mass killings ever recorded in Paris in peacetime.This article presents the forensic operations carried out at the Medicolegal Institute of Paris(MLIP)following these attacks.A total of 68 autopsies of bodies or body fragments and 83 external examinations were performed within 7 days,and the overall forensic operations(including formal identification of the latest victims)were completed 10 days after the attacks.Over this period,156 body presentations(some bodies were presented several times)were provided to families or relatives.Regarding the 130 civilian casualties,129 died from firearm wounds and one died from blast injuries after an explosion.Of the 10 terrorists or their relatives who were killed,eight died from suicide bombing,one was shot by police and one died from crush injuries due to partial collapse of a building following the police raid against a terrorist’s hideout after the attacks.All mass shootings were perpetrated with AK-47 or Zastava M70 assault rifles using 7.62mm39mm cartridges.In the case of ballistic injuries,death was most often obviously caused by craniocerebral injuries,extensive organ lacerations and/or massive haemorrhage.Among the terrorists killed by bombing,the lesion patterns were body transection,multiple amputations,extreme organ lacerations and the presence of foreign bodies owing to the shrapnel load(steel nuts,glass fragments)or the explosive charge fastening system of the devices.This discussion highlights the particular difficulties of interpretation encountered within the framework of ballistic injuries,a conclusion that should lead to a modest and realistic approach in these exceptional situations where forensic operations involve a very large number of victims in a constrained time.