A car bomb exploded in

Mostar , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Mostar (collage image).jpg , image_caption = From top, left to right: A panoramic view of the heritage town site and the Neretva river from Lučki Bridge, Koski Mehmed Pasha ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

on 18 September 1997, injuring 29 people and destroying or damaging 120 apartments, as well as 120 vehicles. The attack is thought to have targeted Croat civilians and policemen as retribution against the

Croatian Defence Council The Croatian Defence Council ( hr, Hrvatsko vijeće obrane or HVO) was the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized entity that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO wa ...

(HVO), which had fought Bosnian Muslim forces for control of the city during the Croat–Bosniak War. The attack was carried out by radical Islamists. The attack was organized by Ahmad Zuhair Handala, with his associates, Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad from

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, Nebil Ali Hil, nicknamed Abu Yemen, Saleh Nedal and Vlado Popovski from

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

. At least two of the arrested had links to Al-Qaeda. The attackers did not mention whether the bombing was religiously motivated or whether it was retribution against the Croatian Defense Council.

History

On 18 September 1997, a car bomb exploded on Splitska Street, in front of a police station in majority-Croat western

. During the Bosnian War, the building housed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the

Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia ( hr, Hrvatska Republika Herceg-Bosna) was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bos ...

. Twenty-nine people were either seriously or lightly wounded in the attack, including three police officers. The explosion created a crater wide and deep. In total, 120 apartments sustained some level of damage, of which 56 were completely destroyed. About 120 vehicles were also affected, including 46 that were completely destroyed. NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) peacekeepers were the first to arrive at the scene. An investigation commenced the following day, and was carried out by the criminal police of the

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton ( hr, Hercegovačko-neretvanska županija; bs, Hercegovačko-neretvanski kanton) is one of 10 cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The canton mainly comprises the Neretva ...

with help from experts from

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

and

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

. Immediately after the attack, domestic and foreign security agencies began searching for the perpetrators. Bosniak politicians, including prime minister

Haris Silajdžić Haris Silajdžić (; born 1 October 1945) is a Bosnian politician and academic who served as the 5th Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2010. He was the 3rd Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzeg ...

and media outlets, accused the Croats of carrying out the attack. As it occurred shortly after the Croat and Bosniak city police forces were united, and after the

Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( hr, Hrvatska demokratska zajednica Bosne i Hercegovine or HDZ BiH) is a Christian democratic, nationalist political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, representing the Croats of Bosnia and ...

(HDZ BiH) secured victory at the general elections, SFOR suspected three possible motives. In their opinion, it was either politically motivated and designed to sabotage the re-unification of the city's police force; mafia-related; or carried out by Islamic extremists with the goal of creating as many casualties and causing as much damage as possible. SFOR considered the latter hypothesis the least likely of the three, as it expected that a terrorist group would have taken responsibility immediately after such an attack. Handala's name was made public by the leader of the

Wahhabi Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, an ...

community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alu Husin Imad, known as Abu Hamza. Abu Hamza told reporters that " he Wahhabist communitydoesn't justify, but understands the crime". Handala and his associates apparently carried out the attack as retribution to the

(HVO), which had fought the predominantly Muslim Bosniaks during the war.

Arrests and trial

In September 1998, Italian attorneys issued an international warrant for a group of criminals suspected of multiple crimes in Italy, including terrorist acts. Among the group was Saleh Nedal. He was arrested in

Travnik Travnik is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, west of Sarajevo. As of 2 ...

in April 1999. Investigating judge Mirjana Grubešić and district attorney Marinko Jurčević, asked the County Court in Travnik to comply with the Italian request to extradite Saleh but the court, presided by Senad Begović, ruled against Saleh's extradition in July 1999. The same judge later signed a decree which terminated Saleh's imprisonment. The Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, presided by judge Nazif Sulman, affirmed the decree in August 1999. Saleh later warned Zuhair, who fled Bosnia before the start of his trial on 18 September 1998. During the police investigation, Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad admitted to committing the crime and made the same admission before the investigating judge. However, he denied any involvement at the trial, stating that the police had coerced him by promising a quick trial followed by his release. He was not charged with terrorism, but for constructing a car bomb, a criminal act which endangered the general safety and as a result, all the accused received lighter sentences. Zuhair was tried ''in absentia'' and sentenced to ten years in prison, while Ali Hamad received eight- and Nebil Ali Hil five years in prison. Handala was eventually arrested after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, and in 2007 was being detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

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