英語ニュース 音読練習

なぜ学校はテロリストの標的になりやすいのか

出典：Newsy



A day after the attack on Kenya's Garissa University, rescuers were still removing bodies. In all, 147 people died Thursday.

It was a new tactic for the terrorists of Al-Shabab, but one we've seen increasingly used by other groups.

tactic … 戦法

In December, the Pakistani Taliban attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 145 people, most of whom were children.

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram gained worldwide notoriety last year when it kidnapped over 200 girls from a school in Borno state.

notoriety [nòutəráiəti] … 悪名、悪評

Terrorist attacks on schools have increased considerably since 2004. This, according to researchers at the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database who've studied attacks between 1970 and 2013.

considerably [kənsídərəbli] … かなり、大幅に

2004 was the year Chechen militants strapped with explosives took hostage a school in Beslan, Russia, for three days. 334 people died in the massacre, more than half of them children.

take (someone) hostage … （人）を人質に取る

For practical reasons, launching attacks on schools makes sense. Schools are soft targets. They have little security and a lot of people.

soft target … 格好の標的

Schools can also serve as symbolic targets. As this 2005 study notes, "deliberately targeting children (arguably society's most vulnerable sub-sector) can provide a powerful demonstration of 'governmental incompetence'."

arguably … ほぼ間違いなく
incompetence … 無能さ

In some cases, terrorists attacks schools because they're schools. Boko Haram is probably the best example. Its very name translates to "western education is a sin."

sin … 罪

The Taliban has waged its own war on education for girls.

wage war on … ～と戦う、～と戦争をする、～を攻撃する

"Education went from being a right to being a crime."

This study, published last year by a group of human rights advocates and U.N. agencies, found that between 2009 and 2013, the world saw nearly 10,000 attacks on schools.

advocate … 擁護者