Terrorists in general tend to target civilians for a number of reasons. First, they're an easy target. No serious security means you can get in close without too much trouble. Second, it's guaranteed media exposure. That ties in with intimidating the population, which is often a goal to create a neutral operations space or to undermine will and morale. And of course there's always the point that (in my view, and especially with the top-end terrorist groups) killing becomes in its own way addictive. Once most groups start down that spiral they don't come back. The action becomes more important than the message, or becomes the message itself. Once that happens, they look for easy targets that will make a big splash. Civilians are "easy" for them and an automatic run on CNN or wherever.
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