2010s - Assassinations, Targeted Killings, and Assassination Attempts

Assassinations, Targeted Killings, and Assassination Attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts of the decade so far include:

• 8 January 2011 – Gabrielle Giffords, U.S. Representative from Arizona, was a victim of a shooting near Tucson which was reported to be an assassination attempt on her, at a supermarket where she was meeting publicly with constituents. Giffords was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the head; 13 people were injured and 6 others were killed in the shooting, among them conservative federal judge John Roll.
• 2 May 2011 – Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant Islamist group Al-Qaeda, was killed in a targeted killing in Abbottabad, Pakistan in an operation conducted by a team of United States Navy SEAL commandos from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command, in conjunction with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives.
• 30 September 2011 – Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior talent recruiter, planner, and spiritual leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in a targeted killing in the northern al-Jawf province of Yemen, in an operation carried out by the US military in which two Predator drones fired Hellfire missiles at a vehicle in which he and other suspected al-Qaeda members were driving, killing them. The strike was carried out by Joint Special Operations Command, under the direction of the CIA.
• 21 October 2011 – Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's ousted leader, was shot to death in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces taking control of the city.
• 4 September 2012 - Pauline Marois, Premier-designate of Quebec, is rushed offstage during her victory speech after Richard Henry Bain opens fire at the Metropolis in Montreal, killing one person and critically injuring another.