History of terrorism

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Terrorism

Definitions

History
Incidents
By ideology[show]
Structure[show]

Methods
Tactics
[show]

Terrorist groups[show]
Adherents[show]
Fighting terrorism[show]

The history of terrorism is a history of well-known and historically significant individuals, entities, and incidents
associated, whether rightly or wrongly, with terrorism. Scholars agree that terrorism is a disputed term, and very
few of those labelled terrorists describe themselves as such. It is common for opponents in a violent conflict to
describe the other side as terrorists or as practicing terrorism.[1]
Depending on how broadly the term is defined, the roots and practice of terrorism can be traced at least to the
1st-century AD Sicarii Zealots, though some dispute whether the group, which assassinated collaborators with
Roman rule in the province of Judea, was in fact terrorist. The first use in English of the term 'terrorism' occurred
during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, when the Jacobins, who ruled the revolutionary state, employed
violence, including mass executions by guillotine, to compel obedience to the state and intimidate regime
enemies.[2] The association of the term only with state violence and intimidation lasted until the mid-19th century,
when it began to be associated with non-governmental groups. Anarchism, often in league with
rising nationalism and anti-monarchism, was the most prominent ideology linked with terrorism. Near the end of
the 19th century, anarchist groups or individuals committed assassinations of a Russian Tsar and a U.S.
President.

The deadliest terrorist strike by time, number of fatalities

In the 20th century terrorism continued to be associated with a vast array of anarchist, socialist, fascist and
nationalist groups, many of them engaged in 'third world' anti-colonial struggles. Some scholars also labeled as
terrorist the systematic internal violence and intimidation practiced by states such as Stalinist Russia and Nazi
Germany.[3][4]
Contents
[hide]

1 Definition

2 Early terrorism

3 The Reign of Terror (17931794)

4 Emergence of modern terrorism

4.1 Ireland

4.2 Anarchism and "propaganda of the deed"

4.3 The United States

4.4 The Ottoman Empire

5 Early 20th century

o

5.1 Irish independence

5.2 Mandatory Palestine

5.3 Resistance during WWII

6 Anti-colonial struggles (Cold War)

o

6.1 Middle East

6.2 Europe

6.3 The Americas

6.4 Asia

6.5 Africa

7 Late 20th century

o

7.1 The Americas

7.2 Middle East

7.3 Asia

7.4 Europe

8 21st century
o

8.1 Europe

8.2 Middle East

8.3 Asia

8.4 Americas

9 Table of non-state groups accused of terrorism

10 Notes

11 References

Definition[edit]
This article should include a summary of or be summarized in another article.See Wikipedia:Summary
style for information on how to incorporate it into this article's main text, or the main text of another
article. (February 2014)
It has been suggested that this section be merged into Definition of terrorism. (Discuss) Proposed since
November 2014.

See also: Definition of terrorism

Though many have been proposed, there is no consensus definition of the term "terrorism."[5][6] This in part derives
from the fact that the term is politically and emotionally charged, a word with intrinsically negative connotations
that is generally applied to one's enemies and opponents.[7] Listed below are some of the historically important
understandings of terror and terrorism, and enacted but non-universal definitions of the term:

1795. "Government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France." The

general sense of "systematic use of terror as a policy" was first recorded in
English in 1798.[8]

1916. Gustave LeBon: Terrorization has always been employed by

revolutionaries no less than by kings, as a means of impressing their
enemies, and as an example to those who were doubtful about submitting
to them...." [9]

1937. League of Nations convention language: "All criminal acts directed

against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the
minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public."[10]

1987. A definition proposed by Iran at an international Islamic conference

on terrorism: Terrorism is an act carried out to achieve an inhuman and
corrupt (mufsid) objective, and involving [a] threat to security of any kind,
and violation of rights acknowledged by religion and mankind. [11]

1988. A proposed academic consensus definition: "Terrorism is an anxietyinspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-)
clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or
political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets
of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of
violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or

selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population,

and serve as message generators."[12]

Early terrorism[edit]

1989. United States: premeditated, politically motivated violence

perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or
clandestine agents.[13]

1992. A definition proposed by Alex P. Schmid to the United Nations Crime

Branch: "Act of Terrorism = Peacetime Equivalent of War Crime."[14]

2002. European Union: ". . . given their nature or context, [acts which] may
seriously damage a country or an international organisation where
committed with the aim of seriously intimidating a population."[15]

2003. India: Referencing Schmid's 1992 proposal, the Supreme Court of

India described terrorist acts as the "peacetime equivalents of war
crimes."[16]

2005. United Nations General Assembly's statement with relation to

terrorism: "Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror
in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political
purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations
of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other
nature that may be invoked to justify them." [1]

2008. Carsten Bockstette, a German military officer serving at the George

C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies, proposed the following
definition: political violence in an asymmetrical conflict that is designed to
induce terror and psychic fear (sometimes indiscriminate) through the
violentvictimization and destruction of noncombatant targets (sometimes
iconic symbols)."[17]

2014. Contained in a Saudi Arabia terrorism law taking effect 1 February

2014, the following definition has been criticized by Amnesty
International andHuman Rights Watch for being overly broad: "Any act
carried out by an offender in furtherance of an individual or collective
project, directly or indirectly, intended to disturb the public order of the state,
or to shake the security of society, or the stability of the state, or to expose
its national unity to danger, or to suspend the basic law of governance or
some of its articles, or to insult the reputation of the state or its position, or
to inflict damage upon one of its public utilities or its natural resources, or to
attempt to force a governmental authority to carry out or prevent it from
carrying out an action, or to threaten to carry out acts that lead to the
named purposes or incite [these acts]."[18][19]

Artistic rendering of Hassan-i Sabbah.

Scholars dispute whether the roots of terrorism date back to the 1st century and the Sicarii Zealots, to the 11th
century and the Al-Hashshashin, to the 19th century and the Fenian Brotherhood and Narodnaya Volya, or to
other eras.[20][21] The Sicarii and Hashshashin are described below, while the Fenian Brotherhood and Narodnaya
Volya are discussed in the 19th Century sub-section. Other pre-Reign of Terror historical events sometimes
associated with terrorism are the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to destroy the English Parliament in 1605,[22] and
the Boston Tea Party, an attack on British property by the Sons of Liberty in 1773, three years prior to
theAmerican Revolution.[dubious discuss][citation needed]
There has been recent debate following the release of the film Exodus: Gods and Kings on whether the actions
ofMoses depicted in the Bible and the plagues visited on the Egyptian people including the mass murder of
children could be considered terrorism.[23][24]
During the 1st century CE, the Jewish Zealots in Judaea Province rebelled, killing prominent collaborators with
Roman rule.[20][25][26] In 6 CE, according to contemporary historian Josephus, Judas of Galilee formed a small and
more extreme offshoot of the Zealots, the Sicarii ("dagger men").[27] Their efforts were also directed against Jewish
"collaborators," including temple priests, Sadducees, Herodians, and other wealthy elites.[28] According to
Josephus, the Sicarii would hide short daggers under their cloaks, mingle with crowds at large festivals, murder
their victims, and then disappear into the panicked crowds. Their most successful assassination was of the high
priest Jonathan.[27]
In the late 11th century, the Hashshashin (a.k.a. the Assassins) arose, an offshoot of the Isma'ili sect
of Shia Muslims.[29] Led by Hassan-i Sabbah and opposed to Fatimid rule, the Hashshashin militia seized Alamut
and other fortress strongholds across Persia.[30] Hashshashin forces were too small to challenge enemies militarily,
so they assassinated city governors and military commanders in order to create alliances with militarily powerful
neighbors. For example, they killed Janah al-Dawla, ruler of Homs, to please Ridwan of Aleppo, and
assassinated Mawdud, Seljuk emir of Mosul, as a favor to the regent of Damascus.[31] The Hashshashin also
carried out assassinations as retribution.[32] Under some definitions of terrorism, such assassinations do not qualify
as terrorism, since killing a political leader does not intimidate political enemies or inspire revolt.[20][27][33] This
organization inspired the popular games franchise Assassin's Creed and also featured in one episode
of Netflix's Marco Polo.

The Reign of Terror (17931794)[edit]

Main article: The Reign of Terror

"Enemies of the people" headed for the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.

The Reign of Terror (September 5, 1793 July 28, 1794) or simply The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of
eleven months during the French Revolution when the ruling Jacobins employed violence, including mass
executions by guillotine, in order to intimidate the regime's enemies and compel obedience to the state.[34] The
number killed totaled approximately 40,000, and among the guillotined were Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
[35]
Putting an end to the Terror, on July 28, 1794 its most well known leader, Maximilien Robespierre, was
guillotined by other members of France's ruling National Convention.[36]
The Jacobins, most famously Robespierre, sometimes referred to themselves as "terrorists," and the word
originated at that time.[2] Some modern scholars, however, do not consider the Reign of Terror a form of terrorism,
in part because it was carried out by the French state.[37][38]

Emergence of modern terrorism[edit]

Terrorism was associated with state terror and the Reign of Terror in France until the mid-19th century,[2] when the
term also began to be associated with non-governmental groups.[39] Anarchism, often in league with
rising nationalism, was the most prominent ideology linked with terrorism.[40] Attacks by various anarchist groups
led to the assassination of a Russian Tsar and a U.S. President.[41]
In the 19th century, powerful, stable, and affordable explosives were developed, global integration reached
unprecedented levels and often radical political movements became widely influential.[42][43] The use of dynamite, in
particular, inspired anarchists and was central to their strategic thinking.[44]

Ireland[edit]

"The Fenian Guy Fawkes" by John Tenniel, published in Punch magazine, on 28 December 1867.

One of the earliest groups to utilize modern terrorist techniques was arguably the Fenian Brotherhood and its
offshoot the Irish Republican Brotherhood.[45] They were both founded in 1858 as revolutionary and militant
nationalist groups, both in Ireland and amongst the emigre community in the United States.[46][47]
After centuries of continued British rule, and influenced most recently from the devastating effects of the
1840s Irish potato famine, these revolutionary fraternal organisations were founded with the aim of establishing
an independent republic in Ireland, and began carrying out frequent acts of violence in metropolitan Britain to
achieve their aims through intimidation.[48]
In 1867, members of the movement's leadership were arrested and convicted for organizing an armed uprising.
While being transferred to prison, the police van in which they were being transported was intercepted and
a police sergeant was shot in the rescue. A bolder rescue attempt of another Irish radical incarcerated
in Clerkenwell Prison, was made in the same year: an explosion to demolish the prison wall killed 12 people and
caused many injuries. The bombing enraged the British public, causing a panic over the Fenian threat.

Although the Irish Republican Brotherhood condemned the Clerkenwell Outrage as a "dreadful and deplorable
event", the organisation returned to bombings in Britain in 1881 to 1885, with the Fenian dynamite campaign,
beginning one of the first modern terror campaigns.[49] Instead of earlier forms of terrorism based on political
assassination, this campaign used modern, timed explosives with the express aim of sowing fear in the very heart
of metropolitan Britain, in order to achieve political gains[50] - (Prime minister William Ewart Gladstonewas partly
influenced to disestablish the Anglican Church in Ireland as a gesture by the Clerkenwell bombing). The
campaign also took advantage of the greater global integration of the times, and the bombing was largely funded
and organised by the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States.
The first police unit to combat terrorism was established in 1883 by the Metropolitan Police, initially as a small
section of the Criminal Investigation Department. It was known as the Special Irish Branch, and was trained in
counter terrorism techniques to combat the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The name became Special Branch as
the unit's remit steadily widened over the years.[51]

Anarchism and "propaganda of the deed"[edit]

Ignacy Hryniewiecki, a terrorist who assassinated Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

The concept of "propaganda of the deed" (or "propaganda by the deed", from the French propagande par le fait)
advocated physical violence or other provocative public acts against political enemies in order to inspire mass
rebellion orrevolution. One of the first individuals associated with this concept, the Italian revolutionary Carlo
Pisacane (18181857), wrote in his "Political Testament" (1857) that "ideas spring from deeds and not the other
way around". Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin (18141876), in his "Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis"
(1870) stated that "we must spread our principles, not with words but with deeds, for this is the most popular, the
most potent, and the most irresistible form of propaganda".[52][53] The French anarchist Paul Brousse (18441912)
popularized the phrase "propaganda of the deed"; in 1877 he cited as examples the 1871 Paris Commune and a
workers' demonstration in Berne provocatively using the socialist red flag.[54] By the 1880s, the slogan had begun
to be used[by whom?] to refer to bombings, regicides andtyrannicides. Reflecting this new understanding of the term, in
1895 Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta described "propaganda by the deed" (which he opposed the use of) as
violent communal insurrections meant to ignite an imminent revolution.[55]
Founded in Russia in 1878, Narodnaya Volya ( in Russian; People's Will in English) was a
revolutionary anarchist group inspired by Sergei Nechayev and by "propaganda by the deed" theorist Pisacane.[20]
[56]
The group developed ideassuch as targeted killing of the "leaders of oppression"that would become the
hallmark of subsequent violence by small non-state groups, and they were convinced that the developing
technologies of the agesuch as the invention of dynamite, which they were the first anarchist group to make
widespread use of[57]enabled them to strike directly and with discrimination.[43] Attempting to spark a popular
revolt against Russian Tsardom, the group killed prominent political figures by gun and bomb, and on March 13,
1881, assassinated Russia's Tsar Alexander II.[20][56] The assassination, by a bomb that also killed the Tsar's
attacker, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, failed to spark the expected revolution, and an ensuing crackdown brought the
group to an end.[58]
Individual Europeans also engaged in politically motivated violence. For example, in 1893, Auguste Vaillant, a
French anarchist, threw a bomb in the French Chamber of Deputies in which one person was injured.[59] In
reaction to Vaillant's bombing and other bombings and assassination attempts, theFrench government
restricted freedom of the press by passing a set of laws that became pejoratively known as the lois
sclrates ("villainous laws"). In the years 1894 to 1896 anarchists killed President of France Marie Francois
Carnot, Prime Minister of Spain Antonio Cnovas del Castillo, and the Empress of Austria-Hungary, Elisabeth of
Bavaria.

The United States[edit]

Prior to the U.S. Civil War, abolitionist John Brown (18001859) advocated and practiced armed opposition
to slavery, leading several attacks between 1856 and 1859, the most famous in 1859 against
the armory at Harpers Ferry. Local forces soon recaptured the fort and Brown was tried and executed for treason.
[60]
A biographer of Brown has written that Brown's purpose was "to force the nation into a new political pattern by
creating terror."[61] In 2009, the 150th anniversary of Brown's death, prominent news publications debated over
whether or not Brown should be considered a terrorist.[62][63][64]

A cartoon threatening that the KKK will lynch carpetbaggers, in theIndependent Monitor, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1868.

After the Civil War, on December 24, 1865, six Confederate veterans created the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).[65] The KKK
used violence, lynching, murder and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress in particular African
Americans, and created a sensation with its masked forays' dramatic nature.[66][67]
The group's politics are generally perceived as white supremacist, anti-Semitic, racist, anti-Catholic, and nativist.
[66]
A KKK founder boasted that it was a nationwide organization of 550,000 men and that it could muster 40,000
Klansmen within five days' notice, but as a secret or "invisible" group with no membership rosters, it was difficult
to judge the Klan's actual size. The KKK has at times been politically powerful, and at various times controlled the
governments of Tennessee, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, in addition to several legislatures in the South.[citation
needed]

The Ottoman Empire[edit]

Several nationalist groups used violence against an Ottoman Empire in apparent decline. One was the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (in Armenian Dashnaktsuthium, or "The Federation"), a revolutionary movement
founded in Tiflis (Russian Transcaucasia) in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian. Many members had been part
of Narodnaya Volya or the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party.[68] The group published newsletters, smuggled arms,
and hijacked buildings as it sought to bring in European intervention that would force the Ottoman Empire to
surrender control of its Armenian territories.[69] On August 24, 1896, 17-year-old Babken Suni led twenty-six
members in capturing the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. The group demanded European intervention
to stop the Hamidian Massacres and the creation of an Armenian state, but backed down on a threat to blow up
the bank. An ensuing security crackdown destroyed the group.[70]
Also inspired by Narodnaya Volya, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was a
revolutionary movement founded in 1893 by Hristo Tatarchev in the Ottoman-controlled Macedonian territories.[71]
[72][73]
Through assassinations and by provoking uprisings, the group sought to coerce the Ottoman government into
creating a Macedonian nation.[74] On July 20, 1903, the group incited the Ilinden uprising in the Ottoman villayet of
Monastir. The IMRO declared the town's independence and sent demands to the European Powers that all of
Macedonia be freed.[75] The demands were ignored and Turkish troops crushed the 27,000 rebels in the town two
months later.[76]

Early 20th century[edit]

The assassination of the heir to theAustro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, precipitated a global war."

Revolutionary nationalism continued to motivate political violence in the 20th century, much of it directed against
western colonial powers. The Irish Republican Army campaigned against the British in the 1910s and inspired

theZionist groups Hagannah, Irgun and Lehi to fight the British throughout the 1930s in the Palestine mandate.[77]
[78]
Like the IRA and the Zionist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood used bombings and assassinations to try to free
Egypt from British control.[79]
The women's suffrage movement in the UK also committed terrorist attacks prior to the First World War. There
were 3 phases of WSPU militancy in 1905, 1908, 1913 this included Civil Disobedience, Destruction of Public
Property and Arson/Bombings. Most notably David Lloyd George's house was burned down by WSPU[80] (despite
his support for women's suffrage).
Political assassinations continued into the 20th century, its first victim Umberto I of Italy, killed in July 1900.
Political violence became especially widespread in Imperial Russia, and several ministers were killed in the
opening years of the century. The highest-ranking was prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, killed in 1911 by a leftist
radical.
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his
wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot and killed in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins. The assassinations produced widespread shock across
Europe, setting in motion a series of events which led to World War I.
In the 1930s, the Nazi regime in Germany and Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union practiced state
terror systematically and on a massive and unprecedented scale.[81]

Irish independence[edit]
In an action called the Easter Rising or Easter Rebellion, on April 24, 1916, members of the Irish
Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army seized the Dublin General Post Office and several other buildings, proclaiming
an independent Irish Republic.[82] The rebellion failed militarily but was a success for physical force Irish
republicanism, leaders of the uprising becoming Irish heroes after their eventual execution by the British
government.[83]

Rubble in the streets of Dublin after the failed Easter Rising in 1916 against British rule.

Shortly after the rebellion, Michael Collins and others founded the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which from 1916
to 1923[citation needed] carried out numerous attacks against symbols of British power. For example, it attacked over 300
police stations simultaneously just before Easter 1920,[84] and, in November 1920, publicly killed a dozen police
officers and burned down the Liverpool docks and warehouses, an action that came to be known as Bloody
Sunday.[85]
After years of warfare, London agreed to the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty creating a free Irish state encompassing 26
of the island's 32 counties.[86] IRA tactics were an inspiration to other groups, including the Palestine
Mandate'sZionists,[87] and to British special operations during World War II.[88][89]

Mandatory Palestine[edit]
See also: Jewish insurgency in Palestine, 193639 Arab revolt in Palestine and List of killings and massacres in
Mandatory Palestine
Following the 1929 Hebron massacre of 67 Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine,
the Zionist militia Haganah transformed itself into a paramilitary force. In 1931, however, the more
militant Irgun broke away from Haganah, objecting to Haganah's policy of restraint.[90] Founded by Avraham
Tehomi,[91][92]Irgun sought to aggressively defend Jews from Arab attacks. Its tactic of attacking Arab communities,
including the bombing a crowded Arab market, is considered among the first examples of terrorism directed
against civilians.[93] After the British, in the White Paper of 1939, placed severe restrictions on Jewish immigration
into Palestine and set forth a vision of a single state with an Arab majority,[94] the Irgun began a campaign against
British rule by assassinating police, capturing British government buildings and arms, and sabotaging British
railways.[95] Irgun's best known attack was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, parts of which
housed the headquarters of the British civil and military administrations. Ninety-one people were killed and fortysix injured in what was the most deadly attack during the Mandate era. This attack was sharply condemned by the
organized leadership of the Yishuv, and further widened the gulf between David Ben-Gurion's Hagana and
Begin's Irgun. Following the bombing, Ben-Gurion called Irgun an enemy of the Jewish people.[96][97] After the
creation of Israel in 1948, Menachem Begin (Irgun leader from 1943 to 1948) transformed the group into the

political party Herut, which later became part of Likud in an alliance with the center-right Gahal, Liberal
Party, Free Centre, National List, and Movement for Greater Israel.[98][99]

The King David Hotel, Mandatory Palestine, after the 1946 bombing.

Operating in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1930s, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam organized and established
the Black Hand, a Palestinian nationalist militia. He recruited and arranged military training for peasants, and by
1935 had enlisted between 200 and 800 men. Al-Qassam obtained a fatwa from Shaykh Badr al-Din al-Taji alHasani, the Mufti ofDamascus, authorizing armed resistance against the British and Jews of Palestine. Black
Hand cells were equipped with bombs and firearms, which they used to kill Jews.[100][101] Although al-Qassam's
revolt was unsuccessful in his lifetime, many organizations gained inspiration from his example.[100] He became a
popular hero and an inspiration to subsequent Arab militants, who in the 193639 Arab revolt, called themselves
Qassamiyun, followers of al-Qassam. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, as well as
the rockets they developed, are named after Qassam.
Lehi (Lohamei Herut Yisrael, a.k.a. "Freedom Fighters for Israel", a.k.a. Stern Gang) was a revisionist
Zionist group that splintered off from Irgun in 1940.[93] Abraham Stern formed Lehi from disaffected Irgun members
after Irgun agreed to a truce with Britain in 1940.[95] Lehi assassinated prominent politicians as a strategy. For
example, on November 6, 1944,Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State for the Middle East, was assassinated.
[102]
The act was controversial among Zionist militant groups, Hagannah sympathizing with the British and
launching a massive man-hunt against members of Lehi and Irgun. After Israel's 1948 founding, Lehi was formally
dissolved and its members integrated into the Israeli Defense Forces.[103]

Resistance during WWII[edit]

Some of the tactics of the guerrilla, partisan, and resistance movements organised and supplied by the Allies
during World War II, according to historian M. R. D. Foot, can be considered terrorist.[104][105] Colin Gubbins, a key
leader within the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), made sure the organization drew much of its
inspiration from the IRA.[88][89]
On the eve of D-Day, the SOE organised with the French resistance the complete destruction of the rail[106] and
communication infrastructure of western France[107] the largest coordinated attack of its kind in history [108] Allied
supreme commander Dwight Eisenhower later wrote that "the disruption of enemy rail communications, the
harassing of German road moves and the continual and increasing strain placed on German security services
throughout occupied Europe by the organised forces of Resistance, played a very considerable part in our
complete and final victory".[109]
The SOE also conducted operations in Africa, Middle East and Far East.[110]

Anti-colonial struggles (Cold War)[edit]

After World War II, largely successful anti-colonial campaigns were launched against the collapsing European
empires, as many World War II resistance groups became militantly anti-colonial. Viet Minh, for example, which
had fought against the Japanese, now fought the returning French colonists. In the Middle East, the Muslim
Brotherhood used bombings and assassinations against British rule in Egypt.[79] Also during the 1950s,
the National Liberation Front (FLN) in French-controlled Algeria and the EOKA in British-controlled Cyprus
waged guerrilla and open war against colonial powers.[111]

Aftermath of the 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing in Vietnam.

In the 1960s, inspired by Mao's Chinese revolution of 1949 and Castro's Cuban revolution of 1959, national
independence movements often fused nationalist and socialist impulses. This was the case with Spain's ETA,
theFront de libration du Qubec, and the Palestine Liberation Organization[clarification needed].[112]
In the late 1960s and 1970s violent leftist groups were on the rise, sympathizing with Third World guerrilla
movements and seeking to spark anti-capitalist revolt. Such groups included the PKK in Turkey, Armenia'sASALA,
[112]
the Japanese Red Army, the German Red Army Faction, the Italian Red Brigades, and, in the United States,
the Weather Underground.[113] Nationalist groups such as the Provisional IRA and the Tamil tigers also began
operations at this time.
Throughout the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union made extensive use of violent nationalist
organizations to carry on a war by proxy. For example, Soviet and Chinese military advisers provided training and
support to the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War,.[114] Russia also provided military support the PLO during
theIsraeli-Palestinian Conflict,[115] and Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution.[116] The United States funded
groups such as the Contras in Nicaragua.[117]Many violent Islamic militants of the late 20th and early 21st century
had been funded in the 1980s by the United States and the UK because they were fighting the USSR
in Afghanistan.[118][119]

Middle East[edit]
Founded in 1928 as a nationalist social-welfare and political movement in British-controlled Egypt, the Muslim
Brotherhood in the late 1940s began to attack British soldiers and police stations.[120] Founded and led by Hassan
al-Banna, it also assassinated politicians seen as collaborating with British rule,[121] most prominently Egyptian
Prime Minister Nuqrashi in 1948.[122] British rule was overthrown in a 1952 military coup, and shortly thereafter the
Muslim Brotherhood went underground in the face of a massive crackdown.[123] Though sometimes banned or
otherwise oppressed, the group continues to exist in present-day Egypt.
The National Liberation Front (FLN) was a nationalist group founded in French-controlled Algeria in 1954.[124] The
group was a large-scale resistance movement against French rule, with terrorism only part of its operations. The
FLN leadership was inspired by the Viet Minh rebels who had made French troops withdraw from Vietnam.[125] The
FLN was one of the first anti-colonial groups to use large scale compliance violence. The FLN would establish
control over a rural village and coerce its peasants to execute any French loyalists among them.[111] On the night of
October 31, 1954, in a coordinated wave of seventy bombings and shootings known as the Toussaint attacks, the
FLN attacked French military installations and the homes of Algerian loyalists.[126] In the following year, the group
gained significant support for an uprising against loyalists in Philippeville. This uprising, and the heavy-handed
response by the French, convinced many Algerians to support the FLN and the independence movement.[citation
needed]
The FLN eventually secured Algerian independence from France in 1962, and transformed itself into Algeria's
ruling party.[127]

Plaque commemorating the eleven Israeli athletes killed during the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

Fatah was organized as a Palestinian nationalist group in 1954, and exists today as a political party in Palestine.
In 1967 it joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella organization for secular Palestinian

nationalist groups formed in 1964. The PLO began its own armed operations in 1965.[128] The PLO's membership
is made up of separate and possibly contending paramilitary and political factions, the largest of which
are Fatah,Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine(DFLP).[129][130] Factions of the PLO have advocated or carried out acts of terrorism.[130] Abu Iyad organized
the Fatah splinter group Black September in 1970; the group is best known for seizing eleven Israeli athletes as
hostages at the September 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. All the athletes and five Black September
operatives died during a gun battle with the West German police, in what was later known as the Munich
massacre.[131] The PFLP was founded in 1967 by George Habash,[132][year missing] and on September 6, 1970, the
group hijacked three international passenger planes, landing two of them in Jordan and blowing up the third.
[133]
Fatah leader and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat publicly renounced terrorism in December 1988 on behalf of the
PLO, but Israel has stated it has proof that Arafat continued to sponsor terrorism until his death in 2004.[130][134]
In the 1974 Ma'alot massacre 22 Israeli high school students, aged 1416, from Safed were killed by three
members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[135] Before reaching the school, the trio shot and
killed two Arab women, a Jewish man, his pregnant wife, and their 4 year old son, and wounded several others.[136]
The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) or Mujahedin-e Khalq, is a socialist Islamic group that has fought Iran's
government since the Khomeini revolution. The group was originally founded to oppose capitalism and what it
perceived as western exploitation of Iran under the Shah.[citation needed] The group would go on to play an important role
in the Shah's overthrow but was unable to capitalize on this in the following power vacuum. The group is
suspected of having a membership of between 10,000 and 30,000. The group renounced violence in 2001 but
remains a proscribed terror organization in Iran and the United States. The EU, however, has removed the group
from its terror list. The PMOI is accused of supporting other groups such as theJundallah.[citation needed]
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was founded in 1975 in Beirut during
the Lebanese Civil War by Hagop Tarakchian andHagop Hagopian with the help of sympathetic Palestinians. At
the time, Turkey was in political turmoil, and Hagopian believed that the time was right to avenge the Armenians
who died during the Armenian Genocide and to force the Turkish government to cede the territory of Wilsonian
Armenia to establish a nation state also incorporating the Armenian SSR. In its Esenboga airport attack, on 7
August 1982, two ASALA rebels opened fire on civilians in a waiting room at the Esenboga International
Airport in Ankara. Nine people died and 82 were injured. By 1986, the ASALA had virtually ceased all attacks.[137]
The "Partiya Karkern Kurdistan" (Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK) was established in Turkey in 1978 as a
Kurdish nationalist party. Founder Abdullah Ocalan was inspired by the Maoist theory of people's war, and like
Algeria's FLN he advocated the use of compliance terror.[citation needed] The group seeks to create an independent
Kurdish state consisting of parts of south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Iraq, north-eastern Syria and northwestern Iran. In 1984, the PKK transformed itself into a paramilitary organisation and launched conventional
attacks as well as bombings against Turkish governmental installations. In 1999, Turkish authorities captured
calan. He was tried in Turkey and sentenced to life imprisonment. The PKK has since gone through a series of
name changes.[138]

Europe[edit]
Founded in 1959 and still active, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and
Freedom", pronounced [eta])) is an armedBasque nationalist separatist organization.[139] Formed in response to
General Francisco Franco's suppression of the Basque language and culture, ETA evolved from an advocacy
group for traditional Basque culture into an armed Marxist group demanding Basque independence.[140] Many ETA
victims are government officials, the group's first known victim a police chief killed in 1968. In 1973 ETA
operatives killed Franco's apparent successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, by planting an underground bomb
under his habitual parking spot outside a Madrid church.[141] In 1995, an ETA car bomb nearly killed Jose Maria
Aznar, then the leader of the conservative Popular Party, and the same year investigators disrupted a plot to
assassinate King Juan Carlos.[142] Efforts by Spanish governments to negotiate with the ETA have failed, and in
2003 the Spanish Supreme Court banned the Batasuna political party, which was determined to be the political
arm of ETA.[143]
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was an Irish nationalist movement founded in December 1969 when
several militants including Sen Mac Stofin broke off from the Official IRA and formed a new organization.
[144]
Led by Mac Stofin in the early 1970s and by a group around Gerry Adamssince the late 1970s, the
Provisional IRA sought to create an all-island Irish state. Between 1969 and 1997, during a period known as the
Troubles, the group conducted an armed campaign, including bombings, gun attacks, assassinations and even
a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street.[145] On July 21, 1972, in an attack later known as Bloody Friday, the group
set off twenty-two bombs, killing nine and injuring 130. On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council
announced an end to its armed campaign.[146][147] The IRA is believed to have been a major exporter of arms to and
provided military training to groups such as the FARC in Colombia[148] and the PLO.[149] In the case of the latter
there has been a long held solidarity movement, which is evident by the many murals around Belfast.[150]

Ulrike Meinhof

The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a New Leftist group founded in 1968 by Andreas Baader and Ulrike
Meinhof in West Germany. Inspired by Che Guevara, Maoist socialism, and the Vietcong, the group sought to
raise awareness of the Vietnamese and Palestinian independence movements through kidnappings, taking
embassies hostage, bank robberies, assassinations, bombings, and attacks on U.S. air bases. The group is best
known for 1977's "German Autumn". The buildup leading to German Autumn began on April 7, when the RAF shot
Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback. On July 30, it shotJurgen Ponto, then head of the Dresdner Bank, in a
failed kidnapping attempt; on September 5, the group kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer (a former SS officer and
an important West German industrialist), executing him on October 19.[151][152] The hijacking of the Lufthansa jetliner
"Landshut" by the PFLP, a Palestinian group, is also considered to be part of German Autumn.[153]
The Red Brigades were a New Leftist group founded by Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini in 1970 that
sought to create a revolutionary state. The group carried out a series of bombings and kidnappings until Curcio
and Franceschini were arrested in the mid-1970s. Their successor as leader, Mario Moretti, led the group toward
more militarized and violent actions, including the kidnapping of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro on March 16,
1978. Moro was killed 56 days later. This led to an all-out assault on the group by Italian law enforcement and
security forces and condemnation from Italian left-wing radicals and even imprisoned ex-leaders of the Brigades.
The group lost most of its social support and public opinion turned strongly against it. In 1984, the group split, the
majority faction becoming the Communist Combatant Party (Red Brigades-PCC) and the minority faction
reconstituting itself as the Union of Combatant Communists (Red Brigades-UCC). Members of these groups
carried out a handful of assassinations before almost all were arrested in 1989.[154]

The Americas[edit]
The Front de libration du Qubec (FLQ) was a Marxist nationalist group that sought to create an independent,
socialist Quebec.[155] Georges Schoetersfounded the group in 1963 and was inspired by Che Guevara and
Algeria's FLN.[156] The group was accused of bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations of politicians, soldiers,
and civilians.[157] On October 5, 1970, the FLQ kidnapped James Richard Cross, the British Trade Commissioner,
and on October 10, the Minister of Labor and Vice-Premier of Quebec, Pierre Laporte. Laporte was killed a week
later. After these events support for violence in order to attain Quebec independence declined, and support
increased for the Parti Qubcois, which took power in Quebec in 1976.[158]
In Colombia several paramilitary and guerrilla groups formed during the 1960s and afterwards. In 1983,
President Fernando Belande Terry of Perudescribed armed attacks on his nation's anti-narcotics police as
"narcoterrorism", i.e., which refers to "violence waged by drug producers to extract political concessions from the
government."[159] Pablo Escobar's ruthless violence in his dealings with the Colombian and Peruvian governments
has been probably two of the best known and best documented examples of narcoterrorism.[citation needed] Paramilitary
groups associated with narcoterrorism include the Ejrcito de Liberacin Nacional (ELN), the Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), and the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). While the ELN and
FARC were originally leftist revolutionary groups and the AUC was originally a right-wing paramilitary, all have
conducted numerous attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the U.S. and some European
governments consider them terrorist organizations.[160][161]
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) was founded in 1969 by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City, with its declared
purpose the protection of Jews from harassment and antisemitism.[162] Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics
state that, from 1980 to 1985, 15 attacks the FBI classified as acts of terrorism were attempted in the U.S. by
members of the JDL.[163] The National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that,
during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization.". [162][164] Kahane later founded
the far-right Israeli political party Kach, which was banned from elections in Israel on the ground of racism.[165] The
JDL's present-day website condemns all forms of terrorism.[166]

The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacin Nacional (FALN, "Armed Forces of National Liberation") is a nationalist
group founded in Puerto Rico in 1974. Over the decade that followed the group used bombings and targeted
killings of civilians and police in pursuit of an independent Puerto Rico. The FALN in 1975 took responsibility for
four nearly simultaneous bombings in New York City.[167] The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
has classified the FALN as a terrorist organization.[168]
The Weather Underground (a.k.a. the Weathermen) began as a militant faction of the leftist Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS) organization, and in 1969 took over the organization. Weathermen leaders, inspired by
China's Maoists, the Black Panthers, and the 1968 student revolts in France, sought to raise awareness of its
revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-Vietnam War platform by destroying symbols of government power. From
1969 to 1974 the Weathermen bombed corporate offices, police stations, and Washington government sites such
as the Pentagon. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, most of the group disbanded.[169]

Asia[edit]
The Japanese Red Army was founded by Fusako Shigenobu in Japan in 1971 and attempted to overthrow the
Japanese government and start a world revolution. Allied with the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP), the group committed assassinations, hijacked a commercial Japanese aircraft, and sabotaged
a Shell oil refinery in Singapore. On May 30, 1972, Kz Okamoto and other group members launched a machine
gun and grenade attack at Israel's Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, killing 26 people and injuring 80 others. Two of the three
attackers then killed themselves with grenades.[170]
Founded in 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (also called "LTTE" or Tamil Tigers) was a
militant Tamil nationalist political and paramilitary organization based in northern Sri Lanka.[171] From its founding
by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a secessionist resistance campaign that sought to create an independent
Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka.[172] The conflict originated in measures the
majority Sinhalese took that were perceived as attempts to marginalize the Tamil minority.[173] The resistance
campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, one of the longest-running armed conflicts in Asia.[174] The group
carried out many bombings, including an April 21, 1987, car bomb attack at a Colombo bus terminal that killed 110
people.[175] In 2009 the Sri Lankan military launched a major military offensive against the secessionist movement
and claimed that it had effectively destroyed the LTTE.

Africa[edit]
Founded in 1961, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was the military wing of the African National Congress; it waged a
guerrilla campaign against the South African apartheid regime and was responsible for many bombings.[176] MK
launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. South Africa
subsequently banned the group after classifying it as a terrorist organization. MK's first leader was Nelson
Mandela, who was tried and imprisoned for the group's acts.[177] With the end of apartheid in South Africa,
Umkhonto we Sizwe was incorporated into the South African armed forces.

Late 20th century[edit]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Islamic militancy in pursuit of religious and political goals increased,[citation needed] many
militants drawing inspiration from Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.[178] In the 1990s, well-known violent acts that
targeted civilians were the World Trade Center bombing by Islamic terrorists on February 27, 1993, the Sarin gas
attack on the Tokyo subway by Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995, and the bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah
Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh a month later that same year. This period also saw the rise of what is
sometimes categorized as Single issue terrorism. If terrorism is the extension of domestic politics by other means,
just as war is for diplomacy, then this represents the extension of pressure groups into violent action. Notable
examples that grow in this period are Eco-terrorism and Anti-abortion terrorism.

The Americas[edit]
The Contras were a counter-revolutionary militia formed in 1979 to oppose Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
The Catholic Institute for International Relations asserted the following about contra operating procedures in
1987: "The record of the contras in the field... is one of consistent and bloody abuse of human rights, of murder,
torture, mutilation, rape, arson, destruction and kidnapping."[179] Americas Watch - subsequently folded into Human
Rights Watch - accused the Contras of targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination;
kidnapping civilians, torturing civilians; executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat;
raping women; indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses; seizing civilian property; and burning
civilian houses in captured towns.[180] The contras disbanded after the election of Violetta Chamorro in 1990.[181]
The April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing was directed at the U.S. government, according to the prosecutor at
the murder trial of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of carrying out the crime.[182] The bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured.[183] McVeigh, who
was convicted of first degree murder and executed, said his motivation was revenge for U.S. government actions
atWaco and Ruby Ridge.[184]

Middle East[edit]

Explosion at U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, 1983

659 people died in Lebanon between 1982 and 1986 in 36 suicide attacks directed against American, French and
Israelis forces, by 41 individuals with predominantly leftist political beliefs and of both the Christian and Muslim
religions.[185] The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization), which killed more than 200
U.S. marines at their barracks in Beirut, was particularly deadly.[186][187][188][189] Hezbollah ("Party of God") is
an Islamist movement and political party officially founded in Lebanon in 1985, ten years after the outbreak of that
country's civil war. Inspired by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiniand the Iranian revolution, the group originally sought
an Islamic revolution in Lebanon[citation needed] and has long fought for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
Led by Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah since 1992, the group has captured Israeli soldiers and carried out
missile attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli military and civilian targets.[190]
Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a.k.a. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya) is a militant Egyptian Islamist movement dedicated to the
establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt. The group formed in 1980 as an umbrella organization for militant
student groups formed after the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence. It is led by Omar
Abdel-Rahman, who has been accused of participation in the World Trade Center 1993 bombings. In 1981, the
group assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. On November 17, 1997, in what became known as
the Luxor massacre, it attacked tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri); six men dressed as police
machine-gunned 58 Japanese and European vacationers and four Egyptians.[191]

Nose section of Pan Am Flight 103

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, a Pan American World Airways flight from London's Heathrow
International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, was destroyed mid flight over
theScottish town of Lockerbie. On January 31, 2001, Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted by a panel of
three Scottish judges of bombing the flight, and was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment. In 2002 Libya offered
financial compensation to victims' families in exchange for lifting of UN and U.S. sanctions. In 2007 Megrahi was
granted leave to appeal against his conviction, and in August 2009 was released on compassionate grounds by
the Scottish executive due to his terminal cancer.[192]
The first Palestinian suicide attack took place in 1989 when a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ignited a
bomb onboard Tel Aviv bus, killing 16 people.[193] In the early 1990s another group, Hamas, also became well
known for suicide bombings. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha of the
Palestinian wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had created Hamas in 1987, at the beginning of the First Intifada,
an uprising against Israeli rule in the Palestinian Territories which mostly consisted of civil disobedience but
sometimes escalated into violence.[194] Hamas's militia, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, began its own suicide
bombings against Israel in 1993, eventually accounting for about 40% of them.[195] Palestinian militant
organizations have been responsible for rocket attacks on Israel, IED attacks, shootings, and stabbings.[196] After
winning legislative elections, Hamas since June 2007 has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian
Territories. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union,[197][198] Canada,[199]Israel, Japan,
[200][201][202][203][204]
and the United States.[205] Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of

Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.[206][207] The organization is banned
in Jordan.[208] It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran,Russia,[209] Norway,[210] Switzerland,[211] Brazil,
[212]
Turkey,[213] China,[214][215][216][217] and Qatar.[218] As well as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Palestine Liberation Front, PFLP-General Command, and the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade were all listed as terrorist organizations by the US State Department in the 1990s.[219]
February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the Cave of the Patriarchs
massacre in the city of Hebron, Goldstein shot and killed between 30 and 54 Muslim worshippers inside
the Ibrahimi Mosque (within the Cave of the Patriarchs), and wounded another 125 to 150.[220] Goldstein, who was
lynched and killed in the mosque,[220] was a supporter of Kach, an Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Meir
Kahanethat advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories.[221] In the aftermath of the
Goldstein attack and Kach statements praising it, Kach was outlawed in Israel.[221] Today, Kach and a breakaway
group, Kahane Chai, are considered terrorist organisations by Israel,[222] Canada,[223]the European Union,[224] and the
United States.[225]

Asia[edit]
Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, was a Japanese religious group founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984 as a
yogic meditation group. Later, in 1990, Asahara and 24 other members campaigned for election to the House of
Representatives under the banner of Shinri-t (Supreme Truth Party). None were voted in, and the group began
to militarize. Between 1990 and 1995, the group attempted several apparently unsuccessful violent attacks using
the methods of biological warfare, using botulin toxin and anthrax spores.[226] On June 28, 1994, Aum Shinrikyo
members released sarin gas from several sites in the Kaichi Heights neighborhood of Matsumoto, Japan, killing
eight and injuring 200 in what became known as the Matsumoto incident.[226] Seven months later, on March 20,
1995, Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas in a coordinated attack on five trains in the Tokyo subway
system, killing 12 commuters and damaging the health of about 5,000 others[227] in what became known as
the subway sarin incident (, chikatetsu sarin jiken). In May 1995, Asahara and other senior
leaders were arrested and the group's membership rapidly decreased.
In 1985, Air India Flight 182 flying from Canada was blown up by a bomb while in Irish airspace, killing 329
people, including 280 Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian birth or descent, and 22 Indians.[228] The incident was the
deadliest act of air terrorism before 9/11, and the first bombing of a 747 Jumbo Jet which would set a pattern for
future air terrorism plots. The crash occurred within an hour of the fatal Narita Airport Bombing which also
originated from Canada without the passenger for the bag that exploded on the ground. Evidence from the
explosions, witnesses and wiretaps of militants pointed to an attempt to actually blow up two airliners
simultaneously by members of the Babbar Khalsa Khalistan movement militant group based in Canada to punish
India for attacking the Golden Temple.

Europe[edit]

Hostage crisis victim photos, on the walls of the former School Number One

Chechnyan separatists, led by Shamil Basayev, carried out several attacks on Russian targets between 1994 and
2006.[229] In the June 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, Basayev-led separatists took over 1,000 civilians
hostage in a hospital in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk. When Russian special forces attempted to
free the hostages, 105 civilians and 25 Russian troops were killed.[230]

21st century[edit]
Major events after the September 11 attacks in 2001 include the Moscow Theatre Siege, the 2003 Istanbul
bombings, the Madrid train bombings, the Beslan school hostage crisis, the 2005 London bombings, the October
2005 New Delhi bombings, the 2008 Mumbai Hotel Siege, and the 2011 Norway attacks.

Europe[edit]
The Moscow theatre hostage crisis was the seizure of a crowded Moscow theatre on 23 October 2002 by some
40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They

took 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces fromChechnya and an end to the Second
Chechen War. The siege was officially led by Movsar Barayev. After a two-and-a-half day siege,
Russian Spetsnazforces pumped an unknown chemical agent (thought to be fentanyl, 3-methylfentanyl), into the
building's ventilation system and raided it.[231] Officially, 39 of the attackers were killed by Russian forces, along
with at least 129 and possibly many more of the hostages (including nine foreigners). All but a few of the hostages
who died were killed by the gas pumped into the theatre,[232][232][233] and many condemned the use of the gas as
heavy handed.[234]Roughly, 170 people died in all.
On September 1, 2004, in what became known as the Beslan school hostage crisis, 32 Chechen separatists took
1,300 children and adults hostage atBeslan's School Number One. When Russian authorities did not comply with
the rebel demands that Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya, 20 adult male hostages were shot. After two
days of stalled negotiations, Russian special forces stormed the building. In the ensuing melee, over 300
hostages died, along with 19 Russian servicemen and all but perhaps one of the rebels. Basayev is believed to
have participated in organizing the attack.[235][clarification needed].
In 2013 the British government branded the killing of a serviceman in a Woolwich street, a terrorist attack. One of
his attackers made political statements which were later broadcast with blood still on his hands from the attack.
[236]
The two men responsible for the attack remained on the scene until incapacitated by armed police. They were
later tried and found guilty of murder.

The Je suis Charlie ("I am Charlie") slogan became an endorsement of freedom of speech and press.

From 7 January to 9 January 2015, a series of five terrorist attacks occurred across the 2015 ile-de-France
attacksregion, particularly in Paris. The attacks killed a total of 17 people, in addition to the three perpetrators of
the attack,[237][238] and wounded 22 others, some of whom are in critical condition as of 16 January 2015. A fifth
shooting attack did not result in any fatalities. Numerous other smaller incidents of attacks on mosques have been
reported, but have not yet been directly linked to the attacks. The group that claims responsibility for the
attacks,Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed that the attack had been planned for years ahead.[239]
On 7 January 2015, two Islamist gunmen[240] forced their way into and opened fire in the Paris headquarters
ofCharlie Hebdo shooting, killing twelve: staff cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honor, Tignous and Wolinski,
[241]
economistBernard Maris, editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, guest Michel Renaud, maintenance
worker Frdric Boisseau and police officers Brinsolaro and Merabet, and wounding eleven, four of them
seriously.[242][243][244][245][246][247]
During the attack, the gunmen shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) and also "the Prophet is
avenged".[240][248] President Franois Hollande described it as a "terrorist attack of the most extreme barbarity".
[249]
The two gunmen were identified as Sad Kouachi and Chrif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian
descent.[250][251][252][253][254]
On 9 January, police tracked the assailants to an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Gole, where they took a
hostage. Another gunman also shot a police officer on 8 January and took hostages the next day, at
a kosher supermarket near the Porte de Vincennes.[255] GIGN (a special operations unit of theFrench Armed
Forces), combined with RAID and BRI (special operations units of the French Police), conducted simultaneous
raids in Dammartin and at Porte de Vincennes. Three terrorists were killed, along with four hostages who died in
the Vincennes supermarket before the intervention; some other hostages were injured.[256][257][258]

Middle East[edit]

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden, closely advised by Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in 1988 founded AlQaeda (Arabic: , meaning "The Base"), an Islamic jihadist movement to replace Western-controlled or
dominated Muslim countries with Islamic fundamentalist regimes.[259] In pursuit of that goal, bin Laden issued a
1996 manifesto that vowed violent jihad against U.S. military forces based in Saudi Arabia.[260] On August 7, 1998,
individuals associated with Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad carried out simultaneous bombings of two U.S.
embassies in Africa which resulted in 224 deaths.[261] On October 12, 2000, Al-Qaeda carried out the USS Cole
bombing, a suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. The
bombing killed seventeen U.S. sailors.[262] The group's best-known attack, however, took place on September 11,
2001.

September 11, 2001 - The towers of the World Trade Center burn.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners,
crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon.[263][264] As a result of
the attacks, the World Trade Center's twin towers completely collapsed, and 2,977 victims and the 19 hijackers
died.[265]
The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror. Specifically, on October 7, 2001, it
invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists. On October 26, 2001, the
U.S. enacted the Patriot Act, anti-terrorism legislation that expanded the powers of U.S. law enforcement and
intelligence agencies. Many countries followed with similar legislation. Under the Obama administration, the U.S.
changed tactics moving away from ground combat with large numbers of troops, to the use of drones and special
forces. This campaign eliminated much of Al Quaeda's most senior members, including a strike by Seal Team
Six that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
On Israel's northern border, after its unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May
2000, Hezbollah launched numerous Katyusha rocket attacks against non-civilian and civilian areas within
northern Israel.[266] Within Israel, the 19932008 Second Intifada involved in part a series of suicide
bombingsagainst civilian and non-civilian targets. 1100 Israelis were killed in the Second Intifada, the majority
being civilians.[267][268] A 2007 study of Palestinian suicide bombings from September 2000 through August 2005
found that 40% percent were carried out by Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and roughly 26% by
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah militias.[268][269] Also, between 2001 and January 2009, over
8,600 rocket attacks were launched from the Gaza Strip were launched into civilian areas and non-civilian areas
inside Israel, causing deaths, injuries, and psychological trauma.[270][271][272]
Formed in 2003, Jundallah is a Sunni insurgent group from the Baloch region of Iran and neighboring Pakistan. It
has committed numerous attacks within Iran, stating that it is fighting for the rights of the Sunni minority there. In
2005 the group attempted to assassinate Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[273] The group takes credit for
other bombings, including the 2007 Zahedan bombings. Iran and other sources accuse the group of being a front
for or supported by other nations, in particular the U.S. and Pakistan.[274][275]

Asia[edit]

The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's
largest city, by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani Islamic terrorist organization with ties to ISI, Pakistan's secret service.
[276][277][278]
The attacks, which drew widespread condemnation across the world, began on 26 November 2008 and
lasted until 29 November, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308.[279][280][281]

Americas[edit]
2001 also saw the second acknowledged act of bioterrorism with the 2001 anthrax attacks (the first
being intentional food poisoning conducted in The Dalles, Oregon by Rajneeshee followers in 1984), when letters
carrying anthrax spores were posted to several major American media outlets and twoDemocratic
Party politicians. This resulted in several of the first fatalities attributed to a bioterror attack.

Table of non-state groups accused of terrorism[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations
to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2012)

CEASED
ATTACK
S

LOCATIO
N

FOUNDE
D

Fenians

Ireland

1798

Narodnaya
Volya

Russian
Empire

1878

1883

Hunchakian
Revolutionar
y Party

Ottoman
Empire

1887

1896

Avetis
Nazarbekian

Destroyed Ottoman
coat of arms, 1890

Narodnaya V

Armenian
Revolutionar
y Federation

Ottoman
Empire

1890

1897

Christopher
Mikaelian

Held hostages at
Ottoman Bank,
1896

Hunchakian
Revolutiona
Party

Internal
Macedonian
Revolutionar
y
Organization

Ottoman
Empire

1893

1903

Hristo Tatarchev

Led Ilinden
Preobrazhenie
Uprising, 1903

Narodnaya V

Irish
Republican
Army

Ireland

1916

1923

Eamon de
Valera

Michael Collins

Kilmichael Ambush,
1920

Irish Repub
Brotherhood

Irgun

British
Mandate
Palestine

1931

1948

Avraham
Tehomi

Menachem Begin

King David Hotel

bombing, 1946

Irish Repub
Army

NAME

FOUNDER

SUBSEQUEN
T LEADERS

TACTICS

FAMOUS
ATTACK

INFLUENC
D BY

young Irelanders
rebellion

bombings,
assassination
s

bombings

AssassinatedTsar
Alexander II, 1881

LOCATIO
N

FOUNDE
D

CEASED
ATTACK
S

FOUNDER

SUBSEQUEN
T LEADERS

Lehi

British
Mandate
Palestine

1940

1948

Abraham Stern

Yitzhak Shamir

Muslim
Brotherhood

Egypt

1928

Front de
Liberation
National

Algeria

1954

1962

EOKA

Cyprus

1955

1959

ETA

Spain

1959

Fatah

Palestine

1959

PLO

Palestine

1964

PFLP

Palestine

PFLP-GC

NAME

Hassan alBanna

TACTICS

FAMOUS
ATTACK

assassination
s

Lord
Moyneassassination,
1944

assassination
s

Assassinated former
PM Mahmud Fahmi
al-Nuqrashi, 1948

Toussaint Rouge
attacks, 1954

INFLUENC
D BY

Irish Repub
Army

Indochina re

George Grivas

bombings,
assassination
s

Assassinated
"President" Blanco,
1978

Munich Olympics
massacre, 1972

Algerian reb

1967

Black
Septemberskyjackin
g, 1970

Che Guevar

Palestine

1968

Hangglider
shooting, 1970

DFLP

Palestine

1969

Avivim school bus

massacre, 1970

Front de
libration du
Qubec

Canada

1963

1971

Ireland

1969

2005

Provisional
IRA

Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat

1978 Coastal
Road
massacre

Georges
Schoeters

bombings,
kidnappings,
assassination
s

October
Crisiskidnappings,
1970

Sen Mac
Stofin

bombings,
assassination

Bloody
Fridaybombings,

Che Guevar
theFLN

NAME

Ulster
Defence
Association
(UDA)

LOCATIO
N

Ireland

FOUNDE
D

CEASED
ATTACK
S

FOUNDER

1972

Ulster
Volunteer
Force (UVF)

Ireland

1966

FALN

Puerto Rico

1974

ASALA

Turkey

1975

PKK

Turkey

1978

SUBSEQUEN
T LEADERS

Johnny Adair

Gusty Spence

1986

TACTICS

FAMOUS
ATTACK

INFLUENC
D BY

1972

assassination
s, mass
shootings

Castlerock killings,
1993 & Greysteel
massacre, 1993

Ulster Unio
Party
(UUP),Dem
c Unionist P
(DUP)

assassination
s, bombings

Dublin and
Monaghan
Bombings, 1974
&Loughinisland
massacre, 1994

Ulster Unio
Party (UUP

bombings

Four NYC bombs,

1975

Hagop
Tarakchian

Attack on Ankara
airport, 1982

Abdullah
Ocalan

Babalar massacre

Andreas
Baader andUlrik
e Meinhof

German
Autumnkillings,
1977

Che
Guevara;Ma
Zedong;Vie

Chicago police
statue bombing,
1969

Mao
Zedong;Bla
Panthers

Mao
Zedong;FLN
needed]

Red Army
Faction

Germany

1968

1998

Weathermen

U.S.A.

1969

1977

Italian Red
Brigade

Italy

1970

1989

Renato Curcio

Assassinated former
Prime Minister Aldo
Moro, 1978

Japanese
Red Army

Japan

1971

2001

Fusako
Shigenobu

Lod
AirportMassacre,
1972

Tamil Tigers

Sri Lanka

1976

2009[282]

Columbus bus
terminal bombing,
1987

NAME

LOCATIO
N

FOUNDE
D

CEASED
ATTACK
S

FOUNDER

SUBSEQUEN
T LEADERS

TACTICS

FAMOUS
ATTACK

INFLUENC
D BY

Hezbollah

Lebanon

1982

Hassan Nasrallah

April 1983 U.S.

Embassy
bombing,1983
Beirut barracks
bombing

Egyptian
Islamic Jihad

Egypt

1980

Omar AbdelRahman

Luxor massacre,
1997

Hamas

Gaza

1987

SheikhAhmed
Yassin

Passover
massacre,Sbarro
restaurant suicide
bombing

Muslim
Brotherhood

Al-Qaeda

Saudi Arabia

1988

Osama bin
Laden

9/11 attacks, 2001

Mujahideen

East
Turkestan
Liberation
Organization

China

1990

Aum
Shinrikyo

Japan

1990

Shoko Asahara

Sarin gas attack on

the Tokyo subway,
1995

Lashkar-eTaiba

Pakistan

1991

Chechnyan
Separatists

Russia

1994

Shamil Basayev

Beslan school
hostage crisis, 2004

Jundallah

Iran

2003

Abdolmalek Rigi

Zahedan bombings,
2007

1995

Mumbai train
bombings, 2006
and2008 Mumbai
attacks.

Ayatollah
Ruhollah
Khomeini