Major Explosion in Oslo - Pm's office destroyed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14252515

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/ir…cle4180673.ece

There was one bad in December too. Anyone have a clue why anyone would want to bomb Norway?

Pretty massive explosion from the pictures.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
There was one bad in December too. Anyone have a clue why anyone would want to bomb Norway?

Afganistan and Libya are only conflicts Norway is involved in. Libya has issued direct threats against Nato recently though.

At first I thought it was an inside-out pressure wave, but looking at the pictures (such as they are) closer, it looks more like the pressure wave was on the outside of the building. That means carbomb.

More reports.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe…html?hpt=hp_t2

Looks like 2 explosions in different locations.

It happend after working hours for the goverment administration. No reports on killed yet.

Originally Posted by dteowner
At first I thought it was an inside-out pressure wave, but looking at the pictures (such as they are) closer, it looks more like the pressure wave was on the outside of the building. That means carbomb.

There are reports of crater in the road where a car was parked.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/eu…232705239.html

Possible motivation:

Norwegian prosecutors on Tuesday filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, who is accused of threatening a former minister, Erna Solberg, with death.

"Norway will pay a heavy price for my death," he said. "If, for example, Erna Solberg deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate."

It is not clear whether Friday's attack is related to the threat.

What's kind of funny is Norway hasn't had the death penalty for quite a while, so no so sure what Mullah is thinking.

Mullah was worried about deportment to a country that does have the death penalty.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
What's kind of funny is Norway hasn't had the death penalty for quite a while, so no so sure what Mullah is thinking.

He was destined for Iraq but it was stalled because no security garantee could be met by the Iraqi. Think he has been under heavy surveillance for quite a while.

Ahh, didn't realize that.

Another possible motivation is the Muhammad cartoons which were printed also in Norwegian newspapers, and recently a book about them was published.

The area should be littered with surveillance. That will atleast give police something to go on.

I always wonder why militant and extremist Christians don't invade islamic countries to launch bombs there ?

We're just biding our time.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I always wonder why militant and extremist Christians don't invade islamic countries to launch bombs there ?

what will that accomplish? Islamic continues are in ruins already!

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I always wonder why militant and extremist Christians don't invade islamic countries to launch bombs there ?

http://www.newsrescue.com/2009/05/br…s-us-magazine/

Definitely not a car bomb. Looks like it the explosion was on the top floor.



Also hearing reports now of some subsequent shootings.

The shooting took place on an island (Utøya) some distance from Oslo. The youth organization of the social democratic party (the major party in government) has a camp there every summer.

One person shooting wildly - looks more like a "school shooting", but according to rumors the perpetratot wore a police like uniform, and got access to the island, claiming it was a routine operation connected to the bombing.

IF there is a connection, it sounds like this is not an al quaida operation or similar, I can't see why they would, in addition to bombs in Oslo, send one person to shoot wildly at a summer camp.

BTW, I live in Bergen 500 km from Oslo.

The idea is to create a sense of terror that there is no place safe.

Beg to differ, bn.

Look at the bricks on the corner. They were peeled off. Outside pressure wave. Look at the structural buckling (the previous pictures are actually a better angle to see it), the beams are bowed inward (which can happen with an internal wave, but generally only due to other structural failures) which most likely shows an outside pressure wave. The fire may be at the top, but the worst damage is at ground level.

The reason there's no fire at the bottom is because all the flamables were either incinerated in the explosion or were blown far into the building. By the time you get to the top floor, you've got enough heat for ignition but not for incineration and the pressure wave has spread enough that all the paper/furniture/curtains/etc aren't blown away from the blast zone.

I'm not an engineer, so 90% of that went above my head! But I'll defer to you since you seem to know what you are talking about.

Engineering 101: Spouting convincing bullshit.

I'd certainly defer to someone with military experience on this one, but since Buzzkill hasn't swung by I'm going with basic fracture mechanics. The real telltale is the bricks on the corner. There's only a few columns of bricks missing on the "right" wall, while the "left" wall is missing many columns. Think of how the "boom" would "move". The "right" wall would see a largely perpendicular push. Brick walls resist that sort of load fairly well as their own weight helps keep the bottom in place and you've got the structure behind it. The "left" wall would see a 45 degree push from the back side (coming around the corner). That's bad because there's no back support in that direction and mortar doesn't do well in torsion (twisting). So you end up peeling the corner out into the street.