Lahore Blast Caps Deadly Week, From Asia to Europe

At least 144 were killed in terror attacks last week that showed the vast reach of extremists' targets.

By Lara Jakes

Pakistani relatives mourn over the body of a victim during a funeral following an overnight suicide bombing in Lahore on March 28, 2016.

The toll from a suicide blast in Pakistan's Lahore rose to 69, officials said on March 28, as authorities hunted for the "savage inhumans" behind the attack in a park packed with Christian families celebrating Easter Sunday. More than 200 people were injured, many of them children, when explosives packed with ball bearings ripped through crowds near a children's play area in the park in Lahore, leaving dozens dead or bloodied. / AFP / ARIF ALI (Photo credit should read ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images) — Pakistani relatives mourn over the body of a victim during a funeral following an overnight suicide bombing in Lahore on March 28, 2016. The toll from a suicide blast in Pakistan's Lahore rose to 69, officials said on March 28, as authorities hunted for the "savage inhumans" behind the attack in a park packed with Christian families celebrating Easter Sunday. More than 200 people were injured, many of them children, when explosives packed with ball bearings ripped through crowds near a children's play area in the park in Lahore, leaving dozens dead or bloodied. / AFP / ARIF ALI (Photo credit should read ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images)

March 28, 2016, 9:07 AM

ROME -- From Asia through the Mideast to Europe, Islamist militants unleashed a wave of violence over the past week in a series of attacks that, all told, killed at least 144 people and wounded hundreds more. The bombings did not appear to be coordinated, but they underscored the vast reach of extremism and indiscriminate terror.

ROME — From Asia through the Mideast to Europe, Islamist militants unleashed a wave of violence over the past week in a series of attacks that, all told, killed at least 144 people and wounded hundreds more. The bombings did not appear to be coordinated, but they underscored the vast reach of extremism and indiscriminate terror.

Attacks continued Monday with rocket strikes on Afghanistan’s parliament building in Kabul. That no one was hurt, according to initial reports, was a glum stroke of luck amid a high sense of insecurity as U.S. troops stand ready to withdraw from America’s longest war within a year. Below is a look at other victims who, over the past week, could not escape terrorists’ targets.

Lahore, Pakistan: At least 72 people were killed in a suicide bombing Sunday that appeared to target Christians celebrating Easter in a park in the capital of Punjab, one of Pakistan’s wealthiest provinces. There are an estimated 2 million Christians in Pakistan. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iskandariyah, Iraq: Thirty-two people — more than half of whom were school-age boys — died Friday in a suicide attack at the end of a soccer tournament in a Sunni-majority city south of Baghdad. Iskandariyah is in a region widely known among U.S. troops as the “Triangle of Death” that saw heavy fighting and high casualties during the Iraq War. Friday’s attack looked to have been carried out by a teenage boy, AFP reported; suicide attacks are a hallmark of the Islamic State.

Brussels: Authorities on Monday raised the death toll from the March 22 bombings to 35, including four Americans. European-based militants linked to the Islamic State carried out the bombings at the Brussels international airport and a subway station near the European Union’s headquarters. The bloodshed showed how European states still fail to share — or heed — threat intelligence to deter attacks.

Istanbul: The Islamic State is also believed to have inspired a March 19 suicide bombing that killed at least five on Istiklal Street, the heart of Istanbul’s main shopping district. It was the sixth suicide bombing to hit Turkey over the past year, according to The Associated Press.

Photo credit: ARIF ALI /Getty