Christchurch shooting is latest of the worst terror attacks against civilians since 2015

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Security officials walk outside Al Noor Mosque after a shooting incident in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.

PHOTO: AFP

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HONG KONG (AFP) - Bloody assaults at two New Zealand mosques that left at least 49 people dead are the latest in a series of attacks on civilians by extremists around the world.
Here is a rundown of some of the most serious since 2015.
JANUARY 2019 - A terror attack on a luxury hotel in the Kenyan capital Nairobi claims 14 lives. The attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali group Al-Shabaab.
OCTOBER - A gunman opens fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in the north-eastern city of Pittsburgh on Oct 27, 2018, killing 11 people. He reportedly yelled "All Jews must die!" during the attack.
DECEMBER 2017 - An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group gunman kills nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb.
NOVEMBER - A gunman opens fire with an assault rifle during a Sunday morning church service in the rural Texan community of Sutherland Springs on Nov 5, 2017, killing 26 people and wounding 20.
OCTOBER - A heavily armed "lone wolf" gunman opens fire from a 32-floor hotel room on an open-air concert on the Las Vegas Strip. He kills 58 people before turning the gun on himself. Around 500 are wounded. The ISIS group claims the gunman but the FBI says it finds no such connection.
AUGUST - A 22-year-old Moroccan man mows down pedestrians with a van on Barcelona's most famous street, Las Ramblas, killing 14 people. The ISIS group says its "soldiers" carried out the attack.
JUNE - A van rams into a crowd on London Bridge in the British capital and three assailants attack passers-by. Eight people are killed and around 50 wounded.
MAY - A bombing at a pop concert by US star Ariana Grande in the British city of Manchester kills 22 people, including children. Islamist extremists again claim responsibility.
- Two churches are bombed on Palm Sunday in Egypt, killing 45 people. The ISIS group claims responsibility and says both were suicide attacks.
MARCH - Five people die when a man rams his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London and then fatally stabs a police officer outside Parliament.
JULY - On France's July 14 national holiday, a man rams a truck into a crowd in the Mediterranean resort of Nice, killing 86 people. The ISIS group claims responsibility.
JUNE - A 29-year-old gunman opens fire inside a gay nightclub in the Florida city of Orlando and kills 49 people. The shooter pledges allegiance to the ISIS group in a 911 call during the attack.
APRIL - Nearly 150 people are killed at Garissa University in north-eastern Kenya in an attack claimed by Al-Shabaab insurgents.
- At least 14 civilians are killed when gunmen storm the Ivorian beach resort of Grand-Bassam. Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claims responsibility.
JANUARY - Thirty people are killed in an attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel and a nearby restaurant in the capital Ouagadougou. AQIM claims the assault.
- Gunmen take guests and staff hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, in a siege that leaves at least 20 dead. The attack is later claimed by AQIM.
MARCH - Gunmen kill 21 tourists and a policeman at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, in another attack claimed by ISIS.
JANUARY - In France's first Islamist attack, two brothers who vowed allegiance to Al-Qaeda gun down 12 people at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The next day, a man linked to ISIS kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb. He takes hostages at a Jewish supermarket the following day, killing four more.
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