[michaelt]

Back in the 1970s, the IRA demonstrated lots of ways to make bomb attacks anonymously - such as leaving a bomb in a stolen car parked near their target, or putting a bomb in a trash can near their target, or sending a bomb through the mail addressed to their target.

(They would often be accompanied with a telephone warning allowing people to evacuate - but hoax warnings and deliberately vague warnings were also sometimes made)

The good news is it would appear very few people are inclined to carry out anonymous bombings, in spite of the ease with which it can be done.

[hnbad]

The problem is that if the bomb is intended to kill a specific target, it's much harder to do so anonymously. If it is intended to "send a message", anonymity is usually the opposite of what the bomber wants.

A lot of so-called anonymous attacks also leave traces that can be used to pin the attack on someone if there is sufficient political will to lead a thorough investigation. And of course the victim can still decide to interpret them differently even if you didn't want to remain anonymous. Consider for example how Turkey would attribute acts of terrorism in Turkey to the PKK despite ISIS claiming them, because it was politically useful to justify a focus on attacking PKK-aligned Rojava in Syria even when it meant aligning with ISIS.

I guess what's saving us from anonymous bombings being commonplace is that few people are willing to carry them out, foolhardy to do so despite the risk of being caught, competent enough to carry them out successfully and sufficiently motivated to cause the death and injury of their victims. And of course the people most likely to be targeted tend to also be much harder to target.

And on an individual grievance level: while it's almost trivially possible to kill someone without being found out, it's much harder to kill a specific someone you want to kill without being found out.

[michaelt]

> If it is intended to "send a message", anonymity is usually the opposite of what the bomber wants.

Well, coffeebeqn did speak of terrorism with a "terrifying degree of anonymity"

In the IRA case they would generally make an anonymous phone call where the organisation claimed responsibility, but the actual individuals have long since fled the scene.

[bloopernova]

I'd like to revisit this statement in 10 years, if I'm still around:

> "The good news is it would appear very few people are inclined to carry out anonymous bombings, in spite of the ease with which it can be done."