On this day: The El Ghriba synagogue bombing

For Sephardic Jews the site is second only to the Western Wall in popularity. It houses a unique collection of Torahs including one of the oldest scrolls known to exist.

After some investigation it became clear that the truck explosion was a planned attack by al-Qaeda suicide bomber Niser bin Muhammad Nasar Nawa.

A German convert to Islam, Christian Ganczarski, was sentenced to 18 years for planning the attack. Walid Nawar, the brother of suicide bomber Nasar Nawa, and their uncle Belgacem Nawar were jailed for 12 and 20 years respectively for their involvement in the plot.

French prosecutors believed the attack was conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US – but due to his imprisonment at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre he was not tried.

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