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{{short description|Improvised explosive device}}
{{use British English|date=May 2025}}<!-- compromise for Northern Ireland and South / West Asia -->
{{other uses}}
[[File:Oklahomacitybombing-DF-ST-98-01356.jpg|thumb|The result of the 1995 [[Oklahoma City bombing|Oklahoma City truck bombing]], which destroyed the [[Alfred P. Murrah Building|Alfred P. Murrah building]] and killed 168 people]]
{{terrorism|expanded=methods}}

A '''car bomb''', '''bus bomb''', '''van bomb''', '''lorry bomb''', or '''truck bomb''', also known as a '''vehicle-borne improvised explosive device''' ('''VBIED'''),{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|pages=1−3}} is an [[improvised explosive device]] designed to be detonated in an [[automobile]] or other vehicles.

Car bombs can be roughly divided into two main categories: those used primarily to kill the occupants of the vehicle (often as an [[assassination]]) and those used as a means to kill, injure or damage people and buildings outside the vehicle. The latter type may be parked (the vehicle disguising the bomb and allowing the bomber to get away), or the vehicle might be used to deliver the bomb (often as part of a [[suicide attack|suicide bombing]]).

It is commonly used as a weapon of [[terrorism]] or [[guerrilla warfare]] to kill people near the blast site or to damage buildings or other property.<ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|2181845864}} |last1=Jha |first1=Rajshekhar |date=17 February 2019 |title=Why car bombs are worrying our forces |newspaper=The Economic Times}}</ref> Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of [[explosives]] without attracting suspicion. In larger vehicles and trucks, weights of around {{convert|5000|lbs|kg}} or more have been used, for example, in the [[Oklahoma City bombing]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Oklahoma City Bombing 20 Years Later |url=https://stories.fbi.gov/oklahoma-bombing/ |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=30 September 2023}}</ref> Car bombs are activated in a variety of ways, including opening the vehicle's doors, starting the engine, remote detonation, depressing the accelerator or brake pedals, or simply lighting a fuse or setting a timing device.<ref name="technology"/> The gasoline in the vehicle's fuel tank may make the explosion of the bomb more powerful by dispersing and igniting the fuel.

== History ==
{{further| Car bomb #Timeline}}
{{see also| suicide bombing}}
Car bombs have been used for attacks motivated by a wide variety of grievances and ideologies, by people and groups from a wide variety of cultural and religious backgrounds: left wing, [[Lehi (militant group) |right wing]], [[Lehi bombing of Haifa police station |Jewish]], Catholic, [[Hezbollah |Shia]], [[Yahya Ayyash |Sunni]], and others.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/><ref name="talks with IRA"/><ref name="Inquest Winchester"/>{{additional citation needed| reason = citations for the whole list are on this page, but the preceding citations only partly cover it, copy more up here if needed. |date=May 2025}}

Car bombs are preceded by the 16th century [[hellburners]], explosive-laden ships which were used to deadly effect by the besieged [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] forces in [[Fall of Antwerp (1584–1585) |Antwerp]] against the besieging [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]]. Though using a less refined technology, the basic principle of the hellburner is similar to that of the car bomb.{{according to whom|date=October 2024}}

The first car bomb may have been the one used for the assassination attempt on Ottoman Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] in 1905 in [[Istanbul]] by [[Armenian national liberation movement|Armenian separatists]] in the command of [[Papken Siuni]] belonging to the [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation]].{{according to whom|date=October 2024}}

Car bombs were also preceded by [[animal-borne bomb attacks |animal bombs]] using horses and cows, then eventually emerging into car use.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>
Prior to the 20th century, bombs planted in horse carts had been used in assassination plots, notably the unsuccessful "[[Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise|''machine infernale'']]" attempt to kill [[Napoleon]] on 24 December 1800.{{according to whom|date=October 2024}}
[[Mario Buda]]'s improvised wagon used in the 1920 [[Wall Street bombing]] is considered a prototype of the car bomb.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>

The first reported car bombing was the [[Bath School disaster |Bath School bombings]] in [[Michigan]], USA in 1927. Multiple separate explosions on the same day killed 45 people, including the bomber, and half of a school was destroyed.{{according to whom|date=October 2024}}
The bombings were all carried out by [[Andrew Kehoe]], motivated by a [[suicide attack #personal|personal grievance]]. 
His death was possibly an intentional [[suicide]], but the cause of the explosion was a gun shot that might not have been intended to set off the load. The explosion itself did not seem to form part of a [[suicide attack]] on a specific planned target other than possibly himself and his truck.
The explosives in his truck detonated when he saw two men nearby had a gun, after he set off multiple other bombs.<ref name="Inquest Page 326"/><ref name="Inquest Page 352"/>
The explosion may have been set off indirectly by him firing his own gun at the men.<ref name="Inquest Winchester"/><ref name="Jones PhD Dissertation Page 1"/>
Most of the deaths were caused by the earlier bombs.<ref name="ellsworth ch 2"/><ref name="Burcar"/>

Some groups in [[Palestine (region) |Palestine]] have used both cars and [[suicide bomb #Donkeys |donkeys]]{{Broken anchor|date=2025-08-01|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=suicide bomb #Donkeys|reason= The anchor (Donkeys) [[Special:Diff/1302671865|has been deleted]].|diff_id=1302671865}}.<ref name="972 donkey"/><ref name="MEMO 1937"/><ref name="Donkey human shield"/>
The [[Irgun]], a [[Zionist political violence |Zionist militant group]] in [[British Mandate for Palestine |British controlled]] [[Mandatory Palestine |Palestine]], abused [[Cultural references to donkeys |donkeys]] as [[Suicide attack #1947 |suicide bombers]] in [[List of Irgun attacks |two attacks]] on [[Haifa]] vegetable market [[1939 in Palestine |in 1939]]. They used [[animal-borne bomb attacks #Palestine |unwitting donkeys]] loaded with explosives to [[List of massacres in Mandatory Palestine |attack the market]], one attack killed 78 people, the other killed 21 people and wounded 24.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2016-05-02/ty-article/.premium/hamas-and-the-irgun-how-dare-i-compare-the-two/0000017f-f73b-d318-afff-f77bf9ca0000 |title=Hamas and the Irgun? How Dare I Compare the Two... For all those suffering from voluntary amnesia here are just a few of the Irgun's highlights of Hamas-worthy violence |last1=Michael |first1=B. |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |quote=June 20, 1939 — A particularly successful shuk operation: 78 Arabs (and a donkey) are murdered in an explosion in a Haifa open-air market. The donkey was booby-trapped.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last1=Persico |first1=Tomer |title=Would pre-state Zionist militias be terrorists by today's standards? |url=https://www.972mag.com/would-pre-state-zionist-militias-be-terrorists-by-todays-standards/ |work=[[+972 Magazine]] |date=10 April 2016 |quote=In July 1939, Jewish militants placed bombs at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, killing five Arabs and wounding 14. That same month, a donkey mounted with explosives killed 21 Arabs and wounded 24 in the Haifa vegetable market.}}</ref>
The previous year the [[Irgun]] attacked the market with a car bomb, killing 35 Arab civilians and wounding 70.<ref>{{cite web |title=Notorious massacres of Palestinians between 1937 & 1948 |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/factsheets/ZionistMassacres_1937-48.pdf |website=[[Middle East Monitor]] |quote=The Haifa Massacre - 25/7/1938 A car bomb was planted by the Irgun Zionist gang in an Arab market in Haifa which killed 35 Arab civilians and wounded 70.}}</ref> There are no clearly documented cases of the Irgun using car bombs in suicide attacks, but the Irgun and their extremist [[Lehi (militant group)|Lehi]] splinter group [[Cultural references to Samson #militant |used suicide]] in [[suicide mission |other circumstances]] and are seen as the key developers of car bombs, that were later used by other groups in numerous suicide attacks.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>
The Irgun were extremely influential.{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}<!-- Empty reference <ref name="wotr"/-->

While not an adaptation of a people-carrying vehicle, the WW2 German [[Goliath tracked mine|Goliath]] remote control mine shares many parallels with a vehicle-based [[Improvised explosive device|IED]]. It approached a target (often a tank or another armoured vehicle) at speed before exploding, destroying itself and the target. It was armoured so that it could not be destroyed en route. However, it was not driven by a person, instead operated by remote control from a safe distance.{{sfn|Lepage|2014|pages=164−166}}

The first non-[[suicide bombing #1947 |suicide]] car bombing "fully conceptualized as a weapon of urban warfare" came on 12 January 1947 when the [[Lehi (militant group)|Lehi]] (also known as [[Avraham Stern |Stern]] Gang), a [[Zionism|Zionist]] paramilitary organization, [[Lehi bombing of Haifa police station (1947)|bombed the Haifa police station]].<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>
On 4 January 1948, a Lehi car bomb in [[Jaffa]] killed 70 Palestinian Arabs.<ref name="Haaretz Dare Compare"/>

Car bombing was a significant part of the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (PIRA) campaign during [[The Troubles]] in [[Northern Ireland]]. [[Dáithí Ó Conaill]] is credited with introducing the car bomb to [[Northern Ireland]].<ref name="talks with IRA"/> Car bombs were also used by [[Ulster loyalist]] groups (for example, by the [[Ulster Volunteer Force|UVF]] during the [[Dublin and Monaghan bombings]]).<ref name="Lewiston"/><ref name="CAIN1969"/><ref name="CAIN1974"/><ref name="comeheretome"/>
PIRA Chief of Staff [[Seán Mac Stíofáin]] defines the car bomb as both a tactical and a strategic guerrilla warfare weapon. Strategically, it disrupts the ability of the enemy government to administer the country, and hits simultaneously at the core of its economic structure by means of massive destruction. From a tactical point of view, it ties down a large number of security forces and troops around the main urban areas of the region in conflict.<ref name="Revolutionary in Ireland"/>

A notable suicide car bombing was the [[1983 Beirut barracks bombing]], when two simultaneous attacks killed 241 U.S. and 58 French peacekeepers. The perpetrator of these attacks has never been positively confirmed. In the [[Lebanese Civil War]], an estimated 3,641 car bombs were detonated.<ref name="Atlas Group and Walid Raad"/>
The tactic was adopted by [[Palestinian Joint Operations Room |Palestinian militant groups]] such as the [[Qassam Brigades]] (militant wing of [[Hamas]]), [[Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades]] (militant wing of [[Fatah]],{{efn| militant wing of [[Fatah]] at the time, but now independent}} and [[Saraya al-Quds]] (militant wing of [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]]).<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library - Comprehensive Listing"/><ref name="Jewish Virtual Library - Since Oslo"/>{{better source needed|date=June 2025}} especially during the [[Second Intifada |Second Intifada (2000–2005)]].<ref name="Brief History"/><ref name="Dreams Deferred"/><ref name="Toledo Blade"/>

Mass-casualty suicide car bombings are predominantly associated{{who|date=May 2025}} with the Middle East, particularly in recent decades.{{according to whom|date=May 2025}}{{cn|date=May 2025}}

In the [[autumn]] of 2005, there were 140 car bombings happening per month.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>{{ verify source | reason = changed "fall" to "autumn" because it was unclear, please check it meant the season, I cannot access the source. |date=May 2025}}

== As a delivery system ==

[[Image:Iraq carbomb.jpg|thumb|Car bomb in Iraq, made up of a number of [[artillery shell]]s concealed in the back of a [[pickup truck]].]]
Car bombs are effective weapons as they are an easy way to transport a large number of explosives to a target. A car bomb also produces copious [[Shrapnel (fragment)|shrapnel]], or flying debris, and secondary damage to bystanders and buildings. In recent years, car bombs have become widely used by suicide bombers.<ref>{{cite web|title=2015: an epidemic of suicide bombs {{!}} AOAV|url=http://aoav.org.uk/2015/2015-an-epidemic-of-suicide-bombs/|website=AOAV|publisher=Action on Armed Violence|date=10 August 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921195327/http://aoav.org.uk/2015/2015-an-epidemic-of-suicide-bombs/|archive-date=21 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Holly|first1=Williams|title=Reports of suicide car bombs, possible exposure to chemical weapons in Mosul fight|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-car-bombs-and-reports-of-possible-exposure-to-chemical-weapons-in-battle-for-mosul/|work=CBS News|date=March 5, 2017|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707025849/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-car-bombs-and-reports-of-possible-exposure-to-chemical-weapons-in-battle-for-mosul/|archive-date=July 7, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=David|first1=Enders|title=Car Bombs Have Become the Islamic State's Assault 'Weapon of Choice'|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/car-bombs-have-become-the-islamic-states-assault-weapon-of-choice/|website=VICE News|date=23 June 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921193829/https://news.vice.com/article/car-bombs-have-become-the-islamic-states-assault-weapon-of-choice|archive-date=2017-09-21}}</ref>

=== Countermeasures ===
Defending against a car bomb involves keeping vehicles at a distance from vulnerable targets by using [[roadblock]]s and [[Security checkpoint|checkpoint]]s, [[Jersey barrier]]s, concrete blocks or [[Bollard (traffic)|bollard]]s, [[Metalith|metal barriers]], or by hardening buildings to withstand explosions. The entrance to [[Downing Street]] in London has been closed since 1991 in reaction to the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] campaign, preventing the public from approaching [[10 Downing Street|Number 10]]. Where major public roads pass near buildings, road closures may be the only option (thus, for instance, in [[Washington, D.C.]] the portion of [[Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|Pennsylvania Avenue]] immediately in front of the [[White House]] is closed to traffic). Historically these tactics have encouraged potential bombers to target [[soft target|"soft" or unprotected targets]], such as markets.<ref>See Davis.{{full citation needed|date=May 2024}}</ref>

=== Suicide usage ===
{{see also| suicide attack #Donkeys | suicide attack #Late Cold War and War on Terror}}

In the [[Iraqi Civil War (2014-17)|Iraqi]] and [[Syrian Civil War]], the car bomb concept was modified so that it could be driven and detonated by a driver but armoured to withstand incoming fire. The vehicle would be driven to its target area, in a similar fashion to a [[kamikaze]] plane of [[WW2]].{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=3}} These were known by the acronym SVBIED (from Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) or VBIEDs. Ordinary civilian cars were outfitted with armour plating intended to protect the VBIED as it approached its target.{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=3}} Such SVBIEDs were driven into enemy troop areas or incoming enemy columns.{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=4}} Most often, the SVBIEDs were used by [[ISIL]] against Government forces, but also used by Syrian rebels ([[free Syrian army|FSA]] and [[Syrian opposition to Bashar al-Assad|allied militias]], especially the [[Al-Nusra Front]]) against government troops.{{sfn|Kaaman|2020|pages=1−13}}

The vehicles have become more sophisticated, with armour plating on the vehicle, protected vision slits, armour plating over the wheels so they would withstand being shot at and occasionally additional [[Slat armor|metal grating]] over the front of the vehicle designed to crush or destroy incoming [[shaped charge]]s such as those used on [[Rocket-propelled grenade|rocket propelled grenades]].<ref>Trends Institution "Daeshis-armored-vehicle-borne IED" {{cite web |url=http://trendsinstitution.org/daeshis-armored-vehicle-borne-improvised-explosive-devices-avbieds-insurgent-use-and-terrorism-potentials/ |title=Daesh/IS Armored Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (AVBIEDs): Insurgent Use and Terrorism Potentials &#124; TRENDS |access-date=2016-10-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030002622/http://trendsinstitution.org/daeshis-armored-vehicle-borne-improvised-explosive-devices-avbieds-insurgent-use-and-terrorism-potentials/ |archive-date=2016-10-30}}</ref>

[[File:USMC-100727-M-6126D-003.jpg|thumb|upright|A mock explosion of a pickup truck converted to SVBIED, used by [[U.S. marines]] for [[OPFOR]] purposes at [[Camp Pendleton]]. ]]

Trucks were sometimes used to start an assault, and benefitted from their greater storage space that could contain very heavy explosives.{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=5}} Animal drawn carts, typically pulled by horse or mule, have also been used.{{sfn|Armistead|2013|pages=39−40}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barron |first1=James |title=After 1920 Blast, The Opposite Of 'Never Forget'; No Memorials on Wall St. For Attack That Killed 30 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/nyregion/after-1920-blast-opposite-never-forget-no-memorials-wall-st-for-attack-that.html |access-date=29 September 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=17 September 2003}}</ref> Tactically, a single vehicle may be used, or an initial "breakthrough" vehicle, then followed by another vehicle.{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=6}}

While many car bombs are disguised as ordinary vehicles,<ref>{{cite book |last=Olson |first=Dean |title=Tactical Counterterrorism the Law Enforcement Manual of Terrorism Prevention |publisher=Charles C Thomas |location=Springfield |year=2012 |isbn=9780398087234}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=UJDwCAAAQBAJ&pg=166 p.166]</ref> some that are used against military forces have [[improvised vehicle armour]] attached to prevent the driver from being shot when attacking a fortified outpost.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/take-a-look-inside-a-car-bomb-made-by-islamic-state-militants/6997112|title=Take a look inside an armoured Islamic State car bomb|work=ABC News|date=2 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203094445/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/take-a-look-inside-a-car-bomb-made-by-islamic-state-militants/6997112|archive-date=2015-12-03}}</ref>

=== Operation ===
{{more citations needed|section=yes|date=January 2021}}
[[File:061509 story4.jpg|thumb|[[Transportation Security Administration|TSA]] officers view the post-blast remains of a [[Dodge Neon]] after an explosive was detonated inside it during training.]]

Car bombs and detonators function in a diverse manner of ways and there are numerous variables in the operation and placement of the bomb within the vehicle. Earlier and less advanced car bombs were often wired to the car's ignition system, but this practice is now considered more laborious and less effective than other more recent methods, as it requires a greater amount of work for a system that can often be quite easily [[defuse]]d. While it is more common nowadays for car bombs to be fixed [[magnetism|magnetically]] to the underside of the car, underneath the passenger or driver's seat, or inside of the [[Fender (vehicle)|mudguard]], detonators triggered by the opening of the vehicle door or by pressure applied to the brakes or accelerating pedals are also used.<ref name="technology"/>

Bombs operating by the former method of fixation to the underside of the car more often than not make use of a device called a [[tilt fuse]]. A small tube made of glass or plastic, the tilt fuse is similar in operation to a [[mercury switch]] or medical tablet tube. One end of the fuse will be filled with [[mercury (element)|mercury]], while the other open end is wired with the ends of an open circuit to an electrical firing system. When the tilt fuse moves or is jerked, the supply of mercury will flow to the top of the tube and close the circuit. Thus, as the vehicle goes through the regular bumping and dipping that comes with driving over a terrain, the circuit is completed, and the explosive is detonated.<ref name="technology"/>

Car bombs are effective as booby traps because they also leave very little evidence. When an explosion happens, it is difficult for forensics to find any evidence because things either denigrate or become charred.<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb"/>

As a safety mechanism to protect the bomber, the placer of the bomb may rig a [[timer|timing device]] incorporated with the circuit to activate the circuit only after a certain time period, therefore ensuring the bomber will not accidentally activate the bomb before they are able to get clear of the blast radius.<ref name="technology"/>

== Groups that use car bombs==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2020}}

=== Americas ===
*Although it has never been officially acknowledged, the American [[CIA]] has occasionally been accused of being behind car bombings. One such attack was the failed assassination attempt on Grand Ayatollah [[Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah]] in the [[1985 Beirut car bombing|Beirut car bombing on 8 March 1985]]. Although there has been widespread speculation of CIA involvement, this has never been proven conclusively.
*The [[Juárez Cartel]]'s armed wing, [[La Línea (gang)|La Línea]], used a car bomb to attack police officers in [[Ciudad Juárez]], [[Mexico]] on 15 July 2010.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ellingwood|first=Ken|title=Mexico arrests man alleged to have directed fatal Juarez car bomb attack|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-oct-21-la-fg-mexico-carbomb-20101022-story.html|access-date=6 May 2012|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=21 October 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120508033707/http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/21/world/la-fg-mexico-carbomb-20101022|archive-date=8 May 2012}}</ref>
*The [[Sinaloa Cartel]] and the [[Gulf Cartel]] were blamed for using car bombs in [[Nuevo Laredo]], [[Mexico]] on 24 April 2011 to "heat up" the turf of [[Los Zetas]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Car bomb explosion followed by shootout in Nuevo Laredo|url=http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=745672#.T6XAxJ9YvDE|access-date=6 May 2012|newspaper=[[KGBT-TV]]|date=24 April 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426224747/http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=745672#.T6XAxJ9YvDE|archive-date=26 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Reafirma El Chapo presencia en Tamaulipas con coche bomba|url=http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2012/04/reafirma-el-chapo-presencia-en-tamulipas-con-coche-bomba/|access-date=6 May 2012|newspaper=[[Blog del Narco]]|date=24 April 2012|language=es|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427212401/http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2012/04/reafirma-el-chapo-presencia-en-tamulipas-con-coche-bomba/|archive-date=27 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Suman 23 ejecutados en Nuevo Laredo, entre decapitados y colgados|url=http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=306356|access-date=6 May 2012|work=[[Proceso (magazine)|Proceso]]|date=4 May 2012|language=es|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507040149/http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=306356|archive-date=7 May 2012}}</ref>

=== Europe ===
*[[Dissident republican]]s in Northern Ireland used car bombs in the last two decades,{{clarify timeframe|date=November 2022 |reason=This mentions a 1998 attack, but that was not within the last two decades}} the deadliest attack being the [[Omagh bombing]] of 1998.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10853360|title=200lb of explosives in Derry car bomb|newspaper=BBC News|date=3 August 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822161330/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10853360|archive-date=2010-08-22}}</ref>
*The [[Sicilian Mafia]] from the 1980s through the 1990s used car bombs in various attacks such as the [[Capaci bombing]] or the [[Via D'Amelio bombing|Via d'Amelio bombing]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=1992-07-21 |title=DI STRAGE IN STRAGE - la Repubblica.it |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1992/07/21/di-strage-in-strage.html |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it |language=it}}</ref>
*The [[Security Service of Ukraine]] used a car bomb in [[2022 Crimean Bridge explosion]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-26 |title=SBU claims responsibility for 2022 Crimean Bridge attack |url=https://news.yahoo.com/sbu-claims-responsibility-2022-crimean-170000550.html |access-date=2023-08-02 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== West Asia ===
*[[Hezbollah]] member [[Imad Mughniyah]] was assassinated by a car bomb in Syria in 2008, allegedly by [[Mossad]].
*Various Palestinian militant groups such as [[Hamas]], [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad|Islamic Jihad]],  [[Fatah]], and [[Islamist anti-Hamas groups in the Gaza Strip|various opposition Islamist groups]] against both military and civilian [[Israel]]i targets.
*[[Al-Qaeda]], in attacks around the world since the 1990s, most notably the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]].
*During the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|U.S.-led war in Afghanistan]], the [[Taliban]] have often employed vehicular explosives against enemy targets. This included not only cars and trucks, but even [[bicycle bomb]]s.
*Similar to [[Mossad]], other organizations associated with the [[Israeli government]], including the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF), have been known to use car bombs to kill rivals of the Israeli state.<ref name="disap"/>{{additional citation needed| reason = only covers some of the points here |date=June 2025}}
[[Image:Car bomb in Iraq.jpg|thumb|A 2005 car bombing in Iraq, in which a second car bomb was detonated while [[US forces]] were investigating the scene of an earlier such blast, resulting in 18 casualties.]]
*The [[Iraqi insurgency (Iraq War)|Iraqi insurgency]]. An estimated 578 car bombs were detonated in Iraq between June 2003 and June 2006.
*The [[Islamic State]], which has employed armored explosive-laden [[Crossover (automobile)|crossover]]s, full-sized [[pickup truck]]s, and [[sport utility vehicle|SUV]]s as suicidal tactical units to breach enemy defensive fronts in Syria and Iraq. The use of armored tractors and [[haul truck]]s was also recorded over the course of the war.

=== South Asia ===
*Militants and criminals in [[India]] occasionally utilize car bombs in attacks. This includes Muslim, [[Sikh]], [[Kashmir]]i and [[Naxalite]] militants, as well as rival politicians within the government and [[organized crime]]. A notable recent attack was the [[25 August 2003 Mumbai bombings]], in which two car bombs killed 54 people. The attack was claimed by the Pakistani-backed Kashmiri separatist group [[Lashkar-e-Taiba]].
*The [[Pakistani Taliban]] have occasionally used car bombs in their ongoing conflict with the government of Pakistan.

== Timeline ==
{{main|List of mass car bombings}}

=== 20th century ===
* 1920: The [[Wall Street bombing]] — Suspected that Italian anarchist [[Mario Buda]] (a member of the "[[Galleanists]]") parked a horse-drawn wagon filled with explosives and [[Fragmentation (weaponry)|shrapnel]] in the [[Financial District (Manhattan)|Financial District]] of [[New York City]]. The blast killed 38 and wounded 143.
* 1927: The [[Bath School disaster]] — [[Andrew Kehoe]] used a detonator to ignite [[dynamite]] and hundreds of [[pound (mass)|pounds]] of [[pyrotol]] which he had secretly planted inside a school. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the [[Superintendent (education)|school superintendent]], and killing and injuring several others.{{citation needed| reason = this doesn't cited version above or details in linked pages |date=May 2025}} In total, Kehoe killed 44 people and injured 58, making the Bath School bombing the deadliest act of [[mass murder]] in a school in U.S. history.{{citation needed| reason = need to cite both the number itself and the "deadliest" and confirm if current |date=May 2025}}
* Militant group [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] were the first group to use car bombs in the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate for Palestine]] during the 1940s.
[[File:Scene of Viet Cong terrorist bombing in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam., 1965.jpg|thumb|[[Vietcong]] car bombing aftermath scene in [[Saigon]], 1965.]]
* The [[Viet Cong]] guerrillas used them throughout the [[Vietnam War]] in the 1960s and 1970s.
* The [[Organisation armée secrète|OAS]] used them at the end of the [[French rule in Algeria]] in 1961 and 1962.
* The [[Sicilian Mafia]] used them to assassinate independent magistrates starting in the 1960s and up to the early 1990s.
* The [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]] used them frequently during its [[Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997|1960s to 1990s campaign]] during [[the Troubles]] in [[Northern Ireland]] and England. The 1998 [[Omagh bombing]] by the [[Real IRA]], an IRA splinter group, caused the most casualties in [[the Troubles]] from a single car bomb. [[Ulster Loyalism|Loyalist]] organisations in Northern Ireland of the 1960s and 1970s such as the [[Ulster Volunteer Force (1966)|Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) and [[Ulster Defence Association]] used car bombs against civilians in both [[Northern Ireland]] and the [[Republic of Ireland]]. The 1974 UVF bombs in [[Dublin and Monaghan bombings|Dublin and Monaghan]]<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/297183.stm Car bomb kills Northern Ireland lawyer]  ''BBC News'', 15 March 1999.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Peter |author-link=Peter Taylor (Journalist)|title=Loyalists|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|year=1999 |pages=125–126|isbn=0-7475-4519-7}}</ref> caused the most casualties in a single day during [[the Troubles]].
* Palestinian writer [[Ghassan Kanafani]] was assassinated by a car bomb on 8 July 1972 with his 17-year-old niece Lamees Najim in [[Beirut]] by the Israeli [[Mossad]].
* Former [[Chile]]an General [[Carlos Prats]] was killed by a car bomb on September 30, 1974, along with his wife.
* Freelance terrorist [[Carlos the Jackal]] claimed responsibility for three car bomb attacks on French newspapers accused of pro-Israeli bias during the 1970s.
* [[Cleveland]] mobster [[Danny Greene]] frequently used car bombs against his enemies, beginning in 1968. Afterwards, they also began to be used against Greene and his associates. The use of car bombs in Cleveland peaked in 1976, when 36 bombs exploded in the city, most of them car bombs, causing it to be nicknamed "Bomb City." Several people, including innocent bystanders, were killed or wounded. Greene himself was finally killed in a car bomb explosion himself, on October 6, 1977.
* Agents of the Chilean intelligence agency [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|DINA]] were convicted of using car bombs to assassinate [[Orlando Letelier]] in 1976 and [[Carlos Prats]] in 1974, who were exiled opponents of dictator [[Augusto Pinochet]]. Letelier was killed in [[Sheridan Circle]], in the heart of [[Embassy Row]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="Lettieri 2007">{{cite journal|last1=Lettieri|first1=Mike|title=Posada Carriles, Bush's Child of Scorn|journal=Washington Report on the Hemisphere|date=1 June 2007|volume=27|issue=7/8}}</ref>
* The [[Tamil Tigers]] of [[Sri Lanka]] frequently made use of car bombs during that country's [[Civil war in Sri Lanka|civil war]] in a campaign which lasted from 1976 until the group's defeat in 2009.
* From 1979 to early 1983, under the guise of the [[Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners]], [[Israel Defense Forces]] commanders [[Rafael Eitan]], Avigdor Ben-Gal and Meir Dagan launched a campaign of bombings, including car, bicycle, and even donkey bombs. Initially conducted as a response to [[1979 Nahariya attack|the killing of Israeli civilians at Nahariya]]. Largely indiscriminate in its targeting of those associated with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in south, Lebanon, the FLLF attacks killed hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese, mainly in [[Tyre, Lebanon]], [[Sidon]] and the surrounding PLO run refugee camps. After 1981, as part of Ariel Sharon's policy of goading the PLO into committing more acts of terror, justifying a military response, FLLF attacks escalated in intensity and scope, spreading to Beirut and northern Lebanon by September. The FLLF even took credit for fictional attacks on the IDF to maintain its cover as a Lebanese organisation.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bergmen |first1=Ronan |title=How Arafat Eluded Israel's Assassination Machine |newspaper=The New York Times |date=23 January 2018 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/magazine/how-arafat-eluded-israels-assassination-machine.html |agency=New York Times Magazine}}</ref> Its most prominent attack on October 1, 1981, in West Beirut killed at least 50 and injured over 250 people. Seven other similar bombs were found and defused before they could explode.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John |title=BOMB AT P.L.O. OFFICE KILLS AT LEAST 50 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/02/world/bomb-at-plo-office-kills-at-least-50.html |agency=New York Times |date=October 2, 1981}}</ref>
* The German [[Red Army Faction]] occasionally used car bombs, such as in an unsuccessful attempt to attack a [[NATO]] school for officers in 1984.
* The Basque separatist group {{lang|eu|[[Euskadi Ta Askatasuna]]|italic=no}} (ETA) attempted their first car bomb assassination in September 1985 and carried out at least 80 massive car bomb attacks in Spain during the last decade before putting its activities on hold in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/eta/atentados/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817150624/http://www.elmundo.es/eta/atentados/index.html|url-status=live|title=elmundo.es &#124; Especial ETA: la dictadura del terror|archive-date=August 17, 2009|website=www.elmundo.es}}</ref>
* Constable Angela Taylor died on her way to collect lunch, the sole fatality of the [[Russell Street bombing]] in Melbourne, Australia on 27 March 1986. 22 others were injured.
* On 23 November 1986, two members of the [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation]] carried out the [[Melbourne Turkish consulate bombing]] using a car bomb, which resulted in the death of one of the attackers.
* Suicide car bombs were a regular feature against Israel in the [[1982 Lebanon War]] which lasted from 1982 until Israel's withdrawal in 2000. The bombing campaign was waged by several groups, most prominently [[Hezbollah]].
* In the 1980s, the Colombian drug lord [[Pablo Escobar]] used vehicle bombs extensively against government forces and population centers in [[Colombia]] and [[Latin America]]. The most notable car bombing attack was the 1989 [[DAS Building bombing]], which killed 63 and injured about 1,000. Also, on July 4, 1989, a car bomb killed governor of Antioquia [[Antonio Roldán Betancur]] and five others; a prominent member of Escobar's Medellin Cartel later confessed to the crime.
* During the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] of the 1980s, at a variety of training camps in the tribal areas of [[Pakistan]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Mike |chapter=Car-Bomb University |pages= |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WG7nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74 |title=Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb |date=2017 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78478-664-9}}</ref> the Pakistani [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI), with the aid of the US [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), trained [[mujahideen]] in the preparation of car bombs. Car bombs became a regular occurrence during the war, the Afghan civil conflicts which followed, and then during the [[United States invasion of Afghanistan|U.S. invasion of Afghanistan]] from 2001 and the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|war in Afghanistan]] ending in 2021.
* On 26 February 1993, ([[1993 World Trade Center bombing|World Trade Center bombing]]) Islamist terrorists led by [[Ramzi Yousef]] detonated a Ryder van filled with explosives in the parking garage of the [[World Trade Center (1973-2001)|World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]]. Yousef's plan had been to cause one of the towers to collapse into the other, destroying both and killing thousands of people. Although this was not achieved, six people were killed, 1,042 others injured, and extensive damage was caused.
* On 18 April 1993, a tanker containing 500 kilograms of explosives exploded near the mosque in [[Vitez]], destroying the offices of the Bosnian War Presidency, killing at least six people and injuring 50 others. The [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|ICTY]] accepted that this action was a piece of pure [[terrorism]] committed by elements within the [[Croats|Croat]] forces, as an attack on the Bosniak population of Stari Vitez - [[Vitez]] old town.  [[Croatian Defence Council|HVO]] members tied a [[Bosniaks|Bosniak]] male civilian from a concentration camp to the steering wheel and set the truck in motion towards the old town.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kordic and Cerkez - Judgement - Part three: IV|url=https://www.icty.org/x/cases/kordic_cerkez/tjug/en/kor-tj010226e-5.htm|access-date=2020-10-13|website=www.icty.org}}</ref>
* On 20 October 1994, [[Hamas]]-led bus bombing in [[Tel Aviv]], [[Israel]] lead to the death of 22 civilians and the injury of 50. At that time, it was the deadliest [[suicide bombing]] in [[History of the State of Israel|Israeli history]], and the [[Dizengoff Street bus bombing|first successful attack]] in Tel Aviv.
* The [[Quebec Biker War]] that lasted from 1994 to 2002 involved the use of car bombings, including one that killed a drug dealer and an 11-year-old boy on 9 August 1995.
* On 19 April 1995, [[Timothy McVeigh]] detonated a Ryder [[box truck]] filled with an explosive mixture of [[ANFO|ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil]] (ANFO) in front of the [[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] in [[Oklahoma City]] during the [[Oklahoma City bombing]], killing 168 people, including 19 children who were in the daycare.
* On 25 June 1996, a truck bomb [[Khobar Towers bombing|destroyed the Khobar Towers military complex]] in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 [[United States Air Force]] (USAF) personnel and injuring 372 persons of all nationalities.
* In the late 1990s and early 2000s, vehicular explosives were used by [[Chechen people|Chechen]] nationalists against targets in Russia.
* On 20 April 1999, [[Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold]] planned to use two car bombs as the last act of the [[Columbine High School massacre]], apparently to murder first responders. Both failed to explode.

=== 21st century ===
*On 2 December 2001, a [[Hamas]] assailant boarded a bus in [[Haifa, Israel]], and then detonated himself, leading to [[Haifa bus 16 suicide bombing|the death of 15 civilians]].
*Southeast Asia-based militant Islamist group [[Jemaah Islamiyah]] utilized car bombs in their campaigns during the early 2000s, the most prominent being the [[2002 Bali bombings]], which killed 202 people.
*Former [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] Prime Minister [[Rafic Hariri]] was assassinated by a car bomb during [[Assassination of Rafic Hariri|Valentine's Day of 2005.]] 21 others were also killed.
*[[2010 Times Square car bombing attempt|A car bomb which had misfired]] was discovered in [[Times Square]], [[New York City]] on May 1, 2010. The bomb had been planted by [[Faisal Shahzad]]. Evidence suggests that the bombing was planned by the [[Pakistani Taliban]].
*On [[2010 Stockholm bombings|11 December 2010]], a car bomb exploded in central [[Stockholm]] in [[Sweden]], slightly injuring two bystanders. Twelve minutes later, an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen accidentally detonated six pipe bombs he was carrying, but only one exploded.<ref name="Gardham-1">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8198043/Sweden-suicide-bomber-Taimur-Abdulwahab-al-Abdaly-was-living-in-Britain.html|title=Sweden suicide bomber: Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly was living in Britain|last=Gardham|first=Duncan|author2=Oscarsson, Marcus  |author3=Hutchison, Peter|date=12 December 2010|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=12 December 2010|location=London| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110121205611/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8198043/Sweden-suicide-bomber-Taimur-Abdulwahab-al-Abdaly-was-living-in-Britain.html| archive-date= 21 January 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref> The bomber was killed but there were no other casualties. It is believed that the attacks were the work of homegrown terrorists who were protesting Sweden's involvement in the war in Afghanistan and the publication in Sweden of cartoons depicting [[Muhammad]].
*On 22 July 2011, in the [[2011 Norway attacks|Norway massacre]], far-right extremist [[Anders Behring Breivik]] detonated a car bomb within the [[Regjeringskvartalet|executive government quarter]] of [[Oslo]], [[Norway]], killing 8 and injuring 210+ people <ref>{{cite web |last=Smith‑Spark |first=Laura |title=A far‑right extremist killed 77 people in Norway. A decade on, ‘the hatred is still out there’ |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/europe/anders-breivik-july-22-attacks-norway-anniversary-cmd-intl |website=CNN |date=22 July 2021 |access-date=18 November 2025}}</ref>. It remains the deadliest bombing in Norway commited by a terrorist.
*In 2013, Afghan security forces intercepted a truck bomb deployed by the [[Haqqani network|Haqqanis]]. It was the largest truck bomb ever built, with some 61,500 lbs of explosives.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HAQQANI NETWORK |url=https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/haqqani_network.html |access-date=2023-09-18 |website=www.dni.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-11-13 |title='Block-Buster' Truck Bomb One of the Biggest Ever |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/afghanistan-block-buster-truck-bomb-biggest/story?id=20863072 |access-date=2023-09-18 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> It was ultimately defused. The bomb was over 10 times the size of the car bomb used on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. While the bomb was not detonated, it caused security changes throughout the region and the closure of the US Army base FOB Goode near Gardez.<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Kemper |first1=Bart |date=January 2019 |title=Blast Modeling for Facility Security Management |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330741964 |conference=ISEE 45th Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Techniques |page=6}}</ref>
*During June 2015, in [[Ramadi]], [[Iraq]], a vehicle-borne [[Improvised explosive device|IED]] resulted in the collapse of an 8-story tall building during battle between the [[Iraqi Army|Iraqi military]] and [[Islamic State|Daesh (ISIS)]]. The Daesh truck bomb was fired upon by a [[rocket-propelled grenade]] to detonate it.{{sfn|Kaaman|2019|page=5}}
*On 30 August 2016, Kurdish female soldier from YPJ, [[Asia Ramazan Antar]], was killed in [[Manbij offensive (2016)|Manbij offensive]], when ISIS suicide bombers drove cars filled with explosives towards the Kurdish front. 
*On 16 October 2017, Maltese journalist and blogger [[Daphne Caruana Galizia]] died in a car bomb attack.<ref name="tom2017-10-16">{{cite news|title=Daphne Caruana Galizia killed in Bidnija car blast|url=https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171016/local/car-goes-up-in-flames-in-bidnija.660575|work=[[Times of Malta]]|date=16 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016160502/https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171016/local/car-goes-up-in-flames-in-bidnija.660575|archive-date=16 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*On 25 December 2020, a [[2020 Nashville bombing|car bomb was detonated]] in downtown [[Nashville, Tennessee]], injuring at least 8 and killing the perpetrator, Anthony Quinn Warner.
* On 14 November 2021, a [[Liverpool Women's Hospital bombing|car bomb exploded]] outside of a women's hospital in [[Liverpool]] after a man detonated an IED suicide vest inside a taxi, killing him and severely injuring the driver.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/08/21/daughter-putins-rasputin-alexander-dugin-killed-mystery-moscow/ |title=Liverpool explosion: Three arrested under Terrorism Act after car blast at hospital |newspaper=BBC News |date=15 November 2021}}</ref>
* During the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], [[Ukrainian resistance during the Russian invasion of Ukraine|Ukrainian partisans]] have made extensive use of vehicular bomb attacks on Russian and collaborative officials in occupied areas, such as in the [[2022 Crimean Bridge explosion]]
*On 20 August 2022, [[Aleksandr Dugin]]'s daughter, [[Darya Dugina]], was killed in [[Bolshiye Vyazyomy]], [[Moscow Oblast]] by a bomb placed on Dugin's car.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/08/21/daughter-putins-rasputin-alexander-dugin-killed-mystery-moscow/ |title=Daughter of 'Putin's Rasputin' Alexander Dugin killed in mystery Moscow car bomb |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=21 August 2022 |last1=Kilner |first1=James}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Roth |first1=Andrew |last2=Farrer |first2=Martin |date=2022-08-21 |title=Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed by car bomb in Moscow |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/daughter-of-putin-ally-alexander-dugin-killed-in-car-bomb-in-moscow-reports |access-date=2024-07-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
*In late February 2023, it was reported that the [[Russian Army]] attempted to use a [[MT-LB]] filled with [[OFAB-100-120]] aerial bombs and mine-clearing charges from the [[UR-77]] vehicle against Ukrainian positions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russia uses explosive-equipped armored vehicles to blow up Ukrainian positions |url=https://mil.in.ua/en/news/russia-uses-explosive-equipped-armored-vehicles-to-blow-up-ukrainian-positions/ |website=Militarnyi |access-date=3 September 2023}}</ref> 
*On 18 June 2023, the Russian Army was documented as using a [[T-55 tank]] filled with approximately 6 tons of high explosives against entrenched [[Ukrainian Ground Forces|Ukrainian Forces]] near [[Marinka, Ukraine|Marinka]], [[Donetsk Oblast]] with the intent of clearing the trenches.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Axe |first1=David |title=The Russians Packed A Robotic T-55 Tank With Explosives And Rolled It Toward Ukrainian Lines |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/06/18/the-russians-packed-a-robotic-t-55-tank-with-explosives-and-rolled-it-toward-ukrainian-lines/?sh=5a9a5c9e2f86 |website=Forbes |access-date=3 September 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Newdick |first1=Thomas |title=Ancient Russian T-54 Tank Turned Into Rolling Bomb Explodes In Massive Shockwave |url=https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ancient-russian-t-54-55-tank-turned-into-rolling-bomb-explodes-in-massive-shockwave |website=The Drive |access-date=3 September 2023 |language=en |date=19 June 2023}}</ref>
*On 10 September 2023, it was reported that Ukraine's [[128th Mountain Assault Brigade (Ukraine)|128th Mountain Assault Brigade]] converted a captured [[T-62 tank]] into a VBIED filled with 1.5 tons of explosives and drove it against Russian positions in the [[Zaporizhzhia Oblast|Zaporizhzhia region]]. The tank hit a mine and exploded before it could reach the enemy positions.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Sinéad |title=Ukraine hit Russia with one of its own prized tactics — turning an old, captured tank into a giant rolling bomb |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-uses-russia-tactic-turning-tank-rolling-bomb-against-it-2023-9?r=US&IR=T |access-date=15 September 2023 |work=Business Insider}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Sinéad |title=The guy who drove a rolling tank bomb at Russian soldiers jammed the accelerator down before jumping out of a hatch, Ukraine says |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-rolling-tank-bomb-driver-jammed-accelerator-jumped-out-hatch-2023-9 |access-date=15 September 2023 |work=Business Insider}}</ref>
*On 13 July 2024, [[Thomas Matthew Crooks]] [[Attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania|attempted to assassinate]] [[Donald Trump]], the former president of the United States, at a campaign rally near [[Butler, Pennsylvania]]. Crooks attempt was unsuccessful and he was killed in the process. Following his death, investigators found explosive devices in the trunk of his car, suggesting he planned to set off an explosion remotely as a possible distraction.<ref>{{cite news|date=15 July 2024|title=A shooting range, a gun store, and a ladder purchase: Tracking the Trump rally gunman's movements leading up to his attack|work=[[CNN]]|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/15/us/thomas-crooks-trump-rally-shooting-invs/index.html|access-date=16 July 2024}}</ref>
*On January 1, 2025, at approximately 8:39 a.m. PST, a [[2025 Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion|Tesla Cybertruck exploded]] outside the main entrance of the Trump International Hotel in [[Las Vegas]]. The driver, identified as 37-year-old U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger from Colorado Springs, Colorado, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound just before the explosion. Seven bystanders sustained minor injuries from the blast.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Danner |first=Chas |date=2025-01-06 |title=What We Know About the Cybertruck Explosion at Trump's Las Vegas Hotel |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/cybertruck-explosion-trump-las-vegas-hotel-what-we-know.html?utm_campaign=feed-part&utm_medium=social_acct&utm |access-date=2025-02-11 |website=Intelligencer |language=en}}</ref>
*On May 17, 2025, at approximately 10:52 a.m. PDT, a silver 2010 Ford Fusion sedan loaded with explosives [[2025 Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing|detonated]] outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in [[Palm Springs, California]], resulting in the death of the perpetrator and injuries to four others.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-17 |title=One person dead in Palm Springs explosion called an 'intentional act of terrorism' |url=https://www.desertsun.com/live-story/news/local/2025/05/17/loud-boom-rattles-palm-springs-area-desert-sun-seeking-information/83695784007/ |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=The Desert Sun |language=en-US}}</ref>
*On November 10, 2025, at approximately 6:52 p.m. a car [[Hyundai i20]] exploded near the [[Red Fort]] Metro Station in [[Delhi]], India, killing at least thirteen people and more than 20 people were injured.

== See also ==
* Category: [[:Category:Deaths by car bomb |Deaths by car bomb]]
* [[Improvised explosive device]] (IED)
* [[Insurgency]]
* ''[[Kamikaze]]''
* [[Japanese Special Attack Units]]

== Citations ==

{{reflist|30em| refs =

<ref name="comeheretome">{{Cite web |title=Archive for February, 2014: Incidents in Dublin during the Troubles (1969-1994) |date=February 2014 |url=https://comeheretome.com/2014/02/ |website=Come Here To Me!}}</ref>

<ref name="technology">{{cite book|title=Technology and terrorism|last=Wilkinson|first=Paul|author2=Christop Harman|publisher=Routledge|year=1993|isbn=0-7146-4552-4}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</ref>

<ref name="Davis The First Car Bomb">{{cite book |doi=10.1525/9780520949454-011 |chapter=The First Car Bomb |title=Transforming Terror |date=2019 |last1=Davis |first1=Mike |pages=32–33 |isbn=978-0-520-94945-4}}</ref>

<ref name="Inquest Page 326" >{{Citation|title=In the Matter of the Inquest as to the Cause of Death of Emery E. Huyck, Deceased ''(Transcript of the May 23–25, 1927 Clinton County, Michigan Coroner's Inquest)''|page=326|publisher=State of Michigan|date=May 23–25, 1927}}</ref>

<ref name="Inquest Page 352" >{{Citation|title=In the Matter of the Inquest as to the Cause of Death of Emery E. Huyck, Deceased ''(Transcript of the May 23–25, 1927 Clinton County, Michigan Coroner's Inquest)''|page=352|publisher=State of Michigan|date=May 23–25, 1927}}</ref>

<ref name="Inquest Winchester" >{{Citation|title=In the Matter of the Inquest as to the Cause of Death of Emery E. Huyck, Deceased ''(Transcript of the May 23–25, 1927 Clinton County, Michigan Coroner's Inquest)''|pages=107, 135, 326, 328|publisher=State of Michigan|date=May 23–25, 1927}}</ref>

<ref name="Jones PhD Dissertation Page 1" >{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Amie |title=The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927 (PhD Dissertation) |year=2019 |publisher=[[University of Georgia]] |page=1 |url=https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/jones_amie_m_201908_phd.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706215616/https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/jones_amie_m_201908_phd.pdf |archive-date=July 6, 2022}} Independently published in 2021: {{ISBN|9798496150736}}.</ref>

<ref name="ellsworth ch 2" >{{cite web|url=http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-t.htm#ChapterTwo|title=Chapter Two{{nbs}}– Writer's Experience|work=The Bath School Disaster|author=Ellsworth, Monty J.|year=1927|publisher=Bath School Museum Committee (1991 ed.)|format=online version|access-date=September 21, 2018|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024231535/http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-t.htm#ChapterTwo|archive-date=October 24, 2017}}</ref>

<ref name="Burcar" >{{cite book |last=Burcar|first=Colleen|title=It Happened in Michigan: Remarkable Events That Shaped History|year=2011|publisher=Globe Pequot|url={{GBurl|3xcjTa3sRisC|pg=PA87}}|access-date=January 15, 2013|pages=86–87|isbn=978-0-7627-6754-0}}</ref>

<ref name="Donkey human shield" >{{cite news| title = Donkey suicide bomb stopped by Israeli troops in Gaza | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10977818/Donkey-suicide-bomb-stopped-by-Israeli-troops-in-Gaza.html | work = [[The Telegraph (London)]] | date = 18 July 2014 |language=en| quote = Israeli military officials say Friday night's incident was a variant of what they say is Hamas' tactic of using "human shields" to carry out "terrorist" activity. "They used this donkey as a human shield…" said Major Arye Shalicar, an army spokesman … it is not the first recorded use of donkeys and other animals in the long-running [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]. Several attempted donkey-assisted attacks were reported in the [[West Bank]] and Gaza during the second Palestinian intifada [uprising] of 2000-2005. Other incidents have been recorded in recent years, including one in 2009 when [[Jund Ansar Allah |militants]] approached the [[Karni crossing]] between [[Gaza–Israel conflict |Gaza and Israel]] with horses carrying mines and explosives.}}</ref>

<ref name="MEMO 1937" >{{cite web| title = Notorious massacres of Palestinians between 1937 & 1948 | url = https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/factsheets/ZionistMassacres_1937-48.pdf | website = [[Middle East Monitor]] | quote = The Haifa Massacre - 25/7/1938 A car bomb was planted by the Irgun Zionist gang in an Arab market in Haifa which killed 35 Arab civilians and wounded 70.}}</ref>

<ref name="972 donkey">{{cite news | last1 = Persico | first1 = Tomer | title = Would pre-state Zionist militias be terrorists by today's standards? | url = https://www.972mag.com/would-pre-state-zionist-militias-be-terrorists-by-todays-standards/ | work= [[+972 Magazine]] | date= 10 April 2016 | quote = In July 1939 … a donkey mounted with explosives killed 21 Arabs and wounded 24 in the Haifa vegetable market.}}</ref>

<ref name="Haaretz Dare Compare">{{cite news| url = https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2016-05-02/ty-article/.premium/hamas-and-the-irgun-how-dare-i-compare-the-two/0000017f-f73b-d318-afff-f77bf9ca0000 | title = Hamas and the Irgun? How Dare I Compare the Two… For all those suffering from voluntary amnesia here are just a few of the Irgun's highlights of Hamas-worthy violence. | last1 = Michael | first1 = B. | newspaper = [[Haaretz]] | quote = (20 June 1939) A particularly successful shuk operation: 78 Arabs (and a donkey) are murdered in an explosion in a Haifa open-air market. The donkey was booby-trapped … (4 January 1948) A Lehi car bomb in Jaffa kills 70 Arabs.}}</ref>

<ref name="talks with IRA">{{Cite web |date=January 2004 | title = 1973 files reveal senior general's talks with IRA leader | url = https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jan/01/uk.northernireland |url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180730021256/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jan/01/uk.northernireland |archive-date=30 July 2018 |access-date=29 July 2018 |website=[[TheGuardian.com]]}}</ref>

<ref name="Atlas Group and Walid Raad">{{cite web |title=The Atlas Group and Walid Raad - Cornerhouse<!-- Bot generated title --> |url=http://www.cornerhouse.org/books/info.aspx?ID=1835&page=0 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071229221418/http://www.cornerhouse.org/books/info.aspx?ID=1835&page=0 |archive-date=29 December 2007 |access-date=12 December 2016}}</ref>

<ref name="Lewiston">{{Cite web |title=The Lewiston Daily Sun - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VQMgAAAAIBAJ&pg=6100,7970659 |website=news.google.com}}</ref>

<ref name="CAIN1969">{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1969 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch69.htm#261269 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref>

<ref name="CAIN1974">{{cite web |title=Chronology of the Conflict 1974 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch74.htm#May |website=CAIN |access-date=14 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250527231503/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch74.htm#May |archive-date=27 May 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Brief History">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Mike |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AT9bCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29 |title=Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb |date=2017-01-17 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78478-665-6 |language=en}}</ref>

<ref name="Dreams Deferred">{{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Cary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAAjDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT155 |title=Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict & the Movement to Boycott Israel |date=2016-07-11 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-02518-0 |language=en}}</ref>

<ref name="Toledo Blade">{{Cite web |title=Toledo Blade - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=75JKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zwMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6563,4859776 |access-date=2024-09-21 |website=news.google.com}}</ref>

<ref name="disap">{{cite web |url=https://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/remarkable-disappearing-terrorism/ |title=The remarkable disappearing act of Israel's car-bombing campaign in Lebanon or: What we (Do not) talk about when we talk about 'terrorism' |date=7 May 2018}}</ref>

<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library - Since Oslo">{{Cite web |date=2024-04-08 |title=Major Palestinian Terror Attacks Since Oslo |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/major-palestinian-terror-attacks-since-oslo |access-date=2024-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240408192513/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/major-palestinian-terror-attacks-since-oslo |archive-date=2024-04-08}} {{better source needed|date=June 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library - Comprehensive Listing">{{Cite web |date=2024-04-11 |title=Comprehensive Listing of Terrorism Victims in Israel |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/comprehensive-listing-of-terrorism-victims-in-israel |access-date=2024-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411061514/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/comprehensive-listing-of-terrorism-victims-in-israel |archive-date=2024-04-11}} {{better source needed|date=June 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="Revolutionary in Ireland">{{Cite book |last=McStiofáin |first=Seán |title=Revolutionary in Ireland |publisher=G. Cremonesi |year=1975 |pages=243}}</ref>

}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== Sources ==
*[[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]], ''Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb'' (Verso: New York, 2007).
*{{cite report |last1=Kaaman |first1=Hugo |title=Car Bombs as Weapons of War ISIS's Development of SVBIEDS, 2014-19 |date=April 2019 |publisher=Middle East Institute |location=Washington, DC |url=https://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/2019-04/Car_Bombs_as_Weapons_of_War_0.pdf |access-date=29 September 2023}}
*{{cite book |last1=Armistead |first1=Gene C. |title=Horses and Mules in the Civil War: A Complete History with a Roster of More Than 700 War Horses |date=28 August 2013 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0237-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DfRtAAAAQBAJ |language=en}}
*{{cite report |last1=Kaaman |first1=Hugo |title=Shifting Gears: HTS's Evolving Use of SVBIEDs During the Idlib Offensive of 2019-20 |date=28 October 2020 |publisher=Middle East Institute |location=Washington, DC |url=https://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/2020-10/Shifting%20Gears%20-%20HTS%E2%80%99s%20Evolving%20Use%20of%20SVBIEDs%20During%20the%20Idlib%20Offensive%20of%202019-20.pdf |access-date=29 September 2023 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Lepage |first1=Jean-Denis G. G. |title=German Military Vehicles of World War II: An Illustrated Guide to Cars, Trucks, Half-Tracks, Motorcycles, Amphibious Vehicles and Others |date=18 November 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6252-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbeYqc5DBFAC |language=en}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Car bombs}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180644/http://www.combatfilms.com/cfrtv_archive_0007.asp Video of a detected car bomb (VBIED) going off]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060413104148/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HD13Aa01.html A history of the car bomb] ([[Asia Times]])
*[https://www.ft.com/content/f141b23e-f86a-11db-a940-000b5df10621 "Explosive reading", review by Daniel Swift for the ''Financial Times'']

{{Authority control}}
{{Terrorism topics}}
{{Cold War}}

[[Category:Car bombs| ]]
[[Category:Car crime|bomb]]
[[Category:Improvised explosive devices]]
[[Category:Gangland warfare tactics]]
[[Category:Guerrilla warfare tactics]]
[[Category:Terrorism tactics]]