2000s (decade) - Assassinations

Assassinations

The prominent assassinations of the decade included:

• Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi was assassinated by three Palestinian assailants, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on October 17, 2001.
• Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated by environmentalist activist Volkert van der Graaf, on May 6, 2002.
• Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated on March 12, 2003.
• Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh was assassinated on September 10, 2003, after being stabbed in the chest, stomach, and arms by Serbian national Mijailo Mijailović while shopping in a Stockholm department store.
• Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the militant Islamist group Hamas, was killed in a targeted killing in the Gaza Strip in an operation conducted by the Israeli Air Force on March 22, 2004.
• Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, a critic of Islamic culture, was assassinated in Amsterdam by Mohammed Bouyeri on November 2, 2004.
• Former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafik Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in Beirut. The assassination attempt killed also at least 16 other people and injured 120 others.
• Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, by a bomb blast. The assassination attempt killed also at least 20 other people.
• The President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, was assassinated on March 2, 2009, during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
• Anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder assassinates George Tiller, a pro-choice advocate and late-term abortion provider, on May 31, 2009, at Tiller's church in Wichita, Kansas.