Why are terrorist attacks targeted on civilians?

Question

what do they gain by killing inoccent people?

There was a serial bomb blast on trains in Mumbai India.
All the people killed were middle class people returning home from their work places.

so what have been gained by killing these people?

Most of the times there are no ransom or demands.

They just blow a bomb in the most populated part of the city.

if they wanted to fight the government ,why dont they place their demands first?

Answer 1

Terrorism is usually carried out by those who can't participate according to the "rules" of civilized war-- they don't have the resources, the standing military forces, or the economies to only attack military targets.

As sovereign nations, they have the right to defend themselves, and to act against those they believe are doing them harm. Terrorism has attempted to have been justified (it is explained, at least) by this inability to wage a conventional war. They can't possibly accomplish anything by attacking combatant targets, so they target innocents. It also has a much more profound effect just because the targets are uninvolved.

Sovereign nations, even the poorest ones, can't just roll over and get trampled by bigger nations. They fight the only way they can. It's terrible.

Answer 2

Terrorists target civilians for more than one reason, I think.

1. They put pressure on governments to make deals with them in order to get what they want that way. People get more emotional about a civilian in harms way than a soldier.

2. They seek to cause fear and panic in people so that the government cannot act as effectively to stop the terrorists' activities.

Answer 3

because they're basic targets and the concept of terrorists is to unfold concern in many circumstances in the time of a inhabitants even as centred on particular persons doesn't inevitably benefit that. finally there is no universally agreed definition for a terrorism except the overall one it truly is they use violence to unfold concern. a set which launches attacks and motives destruction that kills no one remains a terrorsit crew. The IRA as an celebration released some attacks that did not kill human beings (lots did kill tho) in spite of the indisputable fact that their attacks were nevertheless ones of terrorists

Answer 4

Sometimes the attacks are meant to cause panic and shake the foundation of the governing entity.

What Israel and America do is protecting their interests. If they are being attacked, they will attack back, with the single intention of hitting those who are responsible. Unfortunately, terrorists like to hide behind innocent people, therefore there are many civilian casualties. The difference between terrorists and US/Israel is that terrorist go and blow themselves up in the name of God with the single intention of killing civilians.
The US/Israel have no choice but to try to track down the terrorists, even if it results in civilian casualties.

Answer 5

Why do americans and israelies kill far more civilians then the "terrorists" ?
answer that question and i'll answer yours .

regarding schillinfl2 : your obviously no fan of truth, let me break it down for you , 85% of the poeple that have died in iraq have been killed by american coalition, that means 85% of close to 500,000 have been killed because of americans, so id yes we do kill em on purpose . dont believe me ? then check these links :
http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2003/03/24/44952.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11648
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=9858
http://iraqbodycount.net/
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

to answer your second question , "terrorists" do place demands the goverments of such nations just refuse to adress those demands . the terrorists before 9/11 demanded that US stop supporting the secular dictatorships in the mid-east that were killing al qaedings, but the US refused to listen and it cost it much of civiliancy .

Answer 6

Killing civilians causes the most outrage, panic, and media coverage, giving them the publicity and attention they are seeking. Also, civilians are far easier to target than the military.

Answer 7

by targeting civilians they gain a lot one of them is people feel terorized....and if the people are scared to do their daily activities then the economy would fall followed by the goverment.and then the terrorist could do whatever they planned for in the first place.

Answer 8

To get the most media attention and strike a higher level of fear into the general population.

Answer 9

Attention of the government, which is what they're initially after. It's pretty much like "give me what I demand or I'll kill some more"! To the terrorists, it doesn't matter who they kill.

Answer 10

Because the perpetrators are usually too cowardly to face military targets head on.