Alternative History


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The 2003 Washington bombing was a terrorist attack executed on Saturday, February 22, 2003 in Washington, D.C. The American Fellowship Army (AFA) claimed credit for the attack. Five separate explosions rocked the city at 6:45 pm local time, during the evening dinner hour. Two bombs exploded in the Metro, one of which was in the Gallery Place station beneath the GTE Arena during the warmups of the Washington Capitals playing against the Halifax Whalers, one truck bomb exploded at the busy intersection of Independence and 1st in front of the House office building complexes near the Capitol and Library of Congress, another bomb exploded on the 14th Street Bridge, and the fifth exploded in front of the Department of Justice and FBI Headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. With 214 killed and 477 wounded, it was the worst terrorist attack on US soil to date.

The bombing resulted in a government-sanctioned crackdown on right-wing groups, which escalated over the course of the mid-2000s. The bombing is credited with turning national opinion towards the center-left Democrats in the 2004 elections, despite the crackdown on the extremist groups being carried out by a Nationalist government.

In 2009, the 2/22 Memorial was erected on the National Mall to commemorate the victims of the attacks.