The history of terrorism is a history of well-known and historically significant individuals, groups, 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. The article covers a diverse array of groups, whose political roots range from religion to nationalism to anarchism.

Definition

There is no consensus definition of terrorism.^[1][2] Proposed language and enacted but non-universal definitions have included the following:

• League of Nations convention language (1937): "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."
• A proposed academic consensus definition (1988): "Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring 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."^[3]
• United States (1989): premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.^[4]
• A definition proposed by Alex P. Schmid to the United Nations Crime Branch (1992): Act of Terrorism = Peacetime Equivalent of War Crime.
• European Union (2002): ". . . 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."^[5]
• India (2003): Referencing Schmid's proposed definition, the Supreme Court of India described terrorist acts as the "peacetime equivalents of war crimes."^[6]

Ancient and medieval roots

Scholars dispute whether the roots of terrorism date back to the first century and the Sicarii Zealots, to the eleventh century and the Al-Hashshashin, to the 19th century and Narodnaya Volya, or to other eras.^[7][8] The Sicarii and Hashshashin are described below, while the Narodnaya Volya is discussed in the 19th Century sub-section.

In the 1st century CE, the Jewish Zealots used "propaganda of the deed" by publicly murdering Jews who collaborated with Roman rule.^[7][9][10] They were a primarily political group which rebelled against Roman rule in the Iudaea Province. According to the contemporary historian Josephus, in 6 C.E. Judas of Galilee led a small, more extreme group of Zealots to found an offshoot which would later be known as the Sicarii, meaning "dagger men."^[11] Their efforts were mainly directed not against the Romans, but against Jewish "collaborators" such as priests of the temple, Sadducees, Herodians, and other wealthy elites who profited from working with the Romans.^[12] 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 crowd during the ensuing panic. Their most successful assassination was of the high priest Jonathan.^[11]

In the 11th century CE, the Hashshashin (a.k.a. the Assassins) appeared, as an offshoot of the Ismā'īlī sect of Shia Muslims.^[13] Led by Hassan-i Sabbah and opposed to Fatimid rule, the Hashshashin militia seized Alamut and other fortress strongholds across Persia in the late eleventh century.^[14] The Hashshashin did not have a large enough army to challenge their enemies directly, so they assassinated city governors and military commanders in order to create alliances with more militarily powerful neighbors: for example, they killed Janah al-Dawla, ruler of Homs, to please Ridwan of Aleppo, and assassinatedMawdud, Seljuk emir of Mosul, as a favor to the regent of Damascus.^[15] The Hashshashin also carried out assassinations as retribution.^[16] The assassination of military and political leaders that the Al-Hashshashin specialized in differs from "propaganda of the deed", because killing a political leader does not intimidate one's political enemies or inspire revolt but instead directly enacts political change.^[7][11][17]

Modern events and groups

The Gunpowder Plot and the Sons of Liberty

On November 5, 1605, a group of conspirators led by Guy Fawkes attempted to destroy the English Parliament on the State Opening, by detonating a large quantity of gunpowder placed beneath the building. The group tried to bring about a coup by killing King James I and the members of both houses of Parliament. The conspirators planned to make one of the king's children a puppet crown and then restore the Catholic faith to England. The plan was betrayed and thwarted. The violent attempted coup, which may not be an act of terrorism,^[18] has become known as the Gunpowder Plot and is commemorated in Britain every November 5 with fireworks displays and large bonfires.^[19]

While there is no consensus regarding whether it was a terrorist group,^[20] the Sons of Liberty were a group of American colonists opposed to the Stamp Act and later to British rule who committed several attacks on British property and persons, most famous of which was the Boston Tea Party.^[20] The group was a secret organization of American patriots which emerged prior to the American Revolution. Patriots attacked the apparatus and symbols of British authority and power, such as the property of the gentry, customs officers, East India Company tea, and, as the war approached, vocal supporters of the Crown.^[20]

The Reign of Terror (1793-1794)

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.^[21] The number killed totaled approximately 40,000.^[22] The Jacobins sometimes referred to themselves as "terrorists," and the word originated at that time.^[23]. 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.^[24][25]

19th century events and groups

Prior to the mid-19th century terrorism had been associated with the Reign of Terror in France.^[23]. During the 19th century a new meaning came into use, and terrorism came to be associated with non-governmental groups.^[26] Anarchists were the most prominent group to be associated with terrorism during the 19th century,^[27] with the emergence of militancy within nationalist groups, developing over the course of the century. The disjointed attacks of various anarchist groups led to the assassination of Russian Tsars and US Presidents but had little real political impact.^[28]. In mid-19th century Russia, the intelligentsia grew impatient with the slow pace of Tsarist reforms and anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin maintained that progress was impossible without destruction.^[29] With the development of sufficiently powerful, stable, and affordable explosives, the gap closed between the firepower of the state and the means available to dissidents.^[30][31] Dynamite, in particular, inspired American and French anarchists, and it was central to their strategic thinking.^[32] Inspired by Bakunin and others, Narodnaya Volya was founded in 1878, and used dynamite-packed bombs to kill state officials in an effort to incite state retribution and mobilize the populace against the government.^[33] Inspired by Narodnaya Volya, several nationalist groups in the ailing Ottoman Empire began using propaganda of the deed and violence against public figures in the 1890s, including the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).^[34]

John Brown, abolitionist

John Brown (1800–1859) was an abolitionist who advocated armed opposition to slavery. He committed several attacks between 1856 and 1859, and was also involved in the illegal smuggling of slaves. His most famous attack was in 1859 on the armory at Harpers Ferry. Local forces soon recaptured the fort and Brown, trying and executing him for treason^[35]. His death made him a martyr to the abolitionist cause, one of the origins of the American Civil War, and a hero to the Union forces that fought in it.

Ku Klux Klan

In 1865, The original Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated, middle-class Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee.^[36] Although a founder of the group boasted that the Klan was a nationwide organization of 550,000 men and that he could muster 40,000 Klansmen within five days' notice, as a secret or "invisible" group, it had no membership rosters, no chapters, and no local officers. It was difficult for observers to judge its actual membership. It had created a sensation by the dramatic nature of its masked forays and because of its many murders. The Klan has advocated what is generally perceived as white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism^[37]. The group has often used violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups.,^[37][38] From its creation to the present day, it has at times wielded much political influence and has also generated great fear among African Americans and their supporters.^{[citation needed]} At one time the KKK controlled the governments of Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon, in addition to some of the Southern U.S. legislatures.^{[citation needed]}

Irish Republican Brotherhood

In 1867 the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a revolutionary Irish nationalist group,^[39] carried out attacks in England^[40]. Writer Richard English has referred to such attacks as the first acts of "republican terrorism", which would became a recurrent feature of British and Irish history. The group is considered a precursor to the Irish Republican Army^[41].

Narodnaya Volya

From 1878 to 1883, Narodnaya Volya (Народная Воля in Russian, known as People's Will in English) was a revolutionary anarchist group founded in Russia in 1878.^[33] Inspired by Sergei Nechayev and by Italian revolutionary Carlo Pisacane (author of the "propaganda of the deed" theory),^[7] the group assassinated prominent political figures with shootings and bombings in an effort to spark a popular overthrow of Russia's Tsarist regime.^[7] Narodnaya was the first anarchist group to make wide scale use of dynamite in its bombings.^[42] On March 13, 1881, the group assassinated Russia's Tsar Alexander II. The assassination of the Tsar failed to spark the expected revolution and the ensuing crackdown by Russian authorities brought the group to an end.^[43] Narodnaya Volya developed certain ideas that were to become the hallmark of subsequent violence by small non-state groups in many countries: they believed in the targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression' and they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age - symbolized by bombs and bullets - enabled them to strike directly and discriminately.^[31]

Armenian Revolutionary Federation

1890–1897

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (in Armenian Dashnaktsuthium, or "The Federation") was a nationalist revolutionary movement founded in Tiflis (Russian Transcaucasia) in 1890. It was founded by Christopher Mikaelian, and many of its members had been part of Narodnaya Volya or the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party.^[44] The group published newsletters, smuggled arms, and hijacked buildings because it sought—like the Hunchacks—to bring about the European intervention that could force the Ottoman Empire to surrender control of the Armenian territories.^[45] On August 24, 1896, 17-year old group member Babken Suni led twenty-six Dashnaks in capturing the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. They demanded that an Armenian state be created and threatened to blow the bank up. The ensuing crackdown by the Ottoman government destroyed the group.^[46]

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization

From 1893 to 1903, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was a nationalist revolutionary movement founded in the Ottoman-controlled Macedonian territories in 1893.^[47] It was founded by Hristo Tatarchev, who was inspired by Narodnaya Volya.^[48] The group sought to coerce the Ottoman government into creating a Macedonian nation. To do this, the IMRO assassinated prominent political figures (as Narodnaya Volya had) and tried to provoke uprisings (just like the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party).^[49] On July 20, 1903, the group incited the Ilinden uprising in the Ottoman villayet of Monastir. As part of the uprising, the IMRO declared the town's independence and sent demands to the European Powers that Macedonia be freed.^[50] The demands were ignored and the 27,000 rebels in the town were crushed by Turkish troops two months later. The group then split into two factions: one in favor of uniting the future nation of Macedonia to Bulgaria and one against such a plan. The pro-Bulgaria faction had effectively turned into a tool of the Bulgarian government by 1912.^[51]

Parisian anarchists in the 1890s

In 1893, Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist, threw a bomb in the French Chamber of Deputies. No one was seriously hurt, but he was executed.^[52] In 1894, a struggling intellectual called Émile Henry sought to avenge Vaillant's death, by throwing his own bomb into a Paris cafe. He was caught and guillotined.^[53] + In 1893, Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist, threw a bomb in the French Chamber of Deputies. No one was seriously hurt, but he was executed.^[54] In 1894, a struggling intellectual called Émile Henry sought to avenge Vaillant's death, by throwing his own bomb into a Paris cafe. He was caught and guillotined.^[55]

20th century events and groups

Following the example of the Irish Republican Army's campaign against the British in the 1910s, the Zionist groups Hagannah, Irgun and Lehi fought the British throughout the 1930s in the then mandate of Palestine, with the aim of creating an Israeli state.^[56][57] Like the IRA and the Zionist groups, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood used bombings and assassinations in an attempt to free its country from British control.^[58]

Early 20th century events and groups

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

On June 28 of 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 murders produced widespread shock across Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire presented to Serbia a list of demands which became known as the July Ultimatum. Included were demands aimed at ending the funding and operation of organizations which arguably had provided support for the assassination, and demands that Serbia suppress "propaganda" against Austria-Hungary in Serbia, even by private persons. Some have claimed that the ultimatum was designed to create a casus belli to enable Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia.^[59] After receiving a telegram of support from Russia, Serbia mobilized its army and replied that it would agree to and partially accept some of the demands but that it would reject the rest. Austria-Hungary rejected Serbia's conditional acceptance and broke off diplomatic relations. Austria-Hungary soon declared war and this set into motion a series of events which led to World War I.

The Easter Rising and the Irish Republican Army

On April 24, 1916, members of the Irish Volunteers, led by Patrick Pearse joined the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly to seize the Dublin General Post Office and several other buildings and proclaim an Irish Republic independent of Britain.^[60] The action, which came to be known as the Easter Rising or Easter Rebellion, was a failure militarily, but it turned into a success for physical force Irish republicanism after the British government had the leaders of the uprising executed by firing squad, thereby making them into celebrated Irish heroes.^[61]

From 1916 to 1923, the Irish Volunteers joined forces with the Irish Citizen Army to form the beginnings of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Michael Collins helped found the IRA in Dublin shortly after the Easter Rising. They carried out coordinated attacks on over 300 police stations in a single day, as part of their campaign to establish an independent Irish state.^[62] On November 21, 1920, the IRA carried out an attack which came to be known as Bloody Sunday, publicly killing a dozen police officers and simultaneously burning down the Liverpool docks and warehouses.^[63] After two years of street fighting between the IRA, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Black and Tans and the British Auxiliaries, London agreed to a 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty that gave Dublin authority over an independent Irish nation which encompassed 26 of the island's 32 counties.^[64]

Collins and the IRA's tactics were an inspiration to other groups, such as those in Israel.^[65] The IRA also served as an inspiration for the British^[66] who emulated and improved upon the IRA's tactics during the Second World War.^[67][68].

Irgun

From 1931 to 1948, Irgun was a clandestine militant Zionist group. They splintered off from Hagannah in 1931 and operated in Palestine until 1948.^[69] The group was founded by Avraham Tehomi (Irgun leader from 1931 to 1937), who was inspired by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his theory that only Jewish armed force would ensure the establishment of a Jewish state.^[70] The group was a non-socialist, more aggressive alternative to Hagannah.^[71] It sought to reduce the threat of Arab attacks on Jewish settlements by launching retaliatory attacks.^{[neutrality is disputed][citation needed]} These tactics, including bombing a crowded Arab market, are considered some of the first examples of terrorism against civilians.^[72] The Irgun also sought to bring to an end the British mandatory rule^[73] by assassinating police and capturing British government buildings and arms. Like the Hagannah, the Irgun also sabotaged British railways in Palestine, in addition to smuggling Jews into Palestine^{[citation needed]}. This occurred mainly between 1945 and 1947. Their goal was to force the British to relax policies restricting Jewish immigration and, ultimately, to force them to withdraw, creating the opportunity to create a Jewish state in Palestine as quickly as possible.^[74] Their most famous attack was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel, the British Military headquarters in Jerusalem. Ninety-one people, both soldiers and civilians, were killed.^[75] After the creation of Israel two years later, Menachem Begin (Irgun leader from 1943 to 1948) transformed the group into the political party Herut, which later became part of Likud.^[76]

Lehi

From 1940 to 1948, Lehi (Lohameni Herut Yisrael, a.k.a. "Freedom Fighters for Israel," a.k.a. Stern Gang) was a revisionist Zionist group. They splintered off from the Irgun in 1940.^[72] When the Irgun made a truce with the British in 1940, Abraham Stern led disaffected Irgun members to break off and form Lehi.^[73] Like People's Will, Lehi used the tactics of assassinating prominent politicians. On November 6, 1944, Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State for the Middle East.^[77]

The assassination caused a massive stir among the Hagannah, Irgun, and Lehi, with Hagannah sympathizing with the British and launching a massive man-hunt against the other two splinter groups. After the founding of the Israeli state in 1948, Lehi was formally dissolved and its members were integrated into the newly formed Israeli Defense Forces.^[78] Yitzhak Shamir and his fellow underground fighters greatly admired the Irish Republicans and sought to emulate their anti-British struggle. Shamir himself took the nickname "Michael" after Michael Collins.^[65]

Muslim Brotherhood

In 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood was founded as a nationalist group in British-controlled Egypt. Its leader, Hassan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood as both a social-welfare organization and a political-activist movement.^[79] In the late 1940s the Muslim Brotherhood began carrying out attacks on British soldiers and police stations, and assassinations of prominent politicians.^[80] In 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Nuqrashi.^[81] Egypt's British-friendly government was overthrown in the military coup of 1952, but shortly thereafter the Muslim Brotherhood had to go underground in the face of a massive crackdown.^[82] IN the contemporary era, the Muslim Brotherhood is still operating in modern day Egypt.

Alleged state terror in 1930s Germany and Soviet Union

The 1930s saw the rise of the totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union and Germany of Stalin and Hitler, both of which employed terror on an enormous scale.^[83] However, and unlike some of the Jacobins who ruled France during its Reign of Terror, the regimes never applied the words ‘terror’ or 'terrorist' to the police and NKVD (in the Communist Soviet Union) and Gestapo (in Nazi Germany) agents who enforced state repression, but only to those who opposed the two dictatorships. Historian R. J. Overy writes, "What is now defined as ruthless state terror was viewed by Hitler and Stalin as state protection against the enemies of the people."^[84] Effectively establishing and reinforcing obedience to regime and national ideology, both regimes used surveillance, imprisonment (often in Soviet gulags or German labor or concentration camps), torture, and executions against enemies of the state real and imagined.^[85]

World War II events and groups

The vast array of guerilla, partisan, and resistance movements that were organised and supplied by the Allies during World War II used tactics that, according to historian M.R.D. Foot, can be considered terrorist in nature^[86]. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE)^[87] successfully conducted operations in every theatre of the war, providing a "very considerable" contribution to allied victory.^[88]. On the eve of D-Day it organised with the French resistance the complete destruction of the rail^[89] and communication infrastructure of western France^[90] perhaps the largest coordinated attack of its kind in history^{[citation needed]}. The SOE drew its inspiration from the IRA;^[66][67] Colin Gubbins, a key leader within the SOE, put to use the lessons he'd learned first hand in Ireland, first to establish a resistance army in waiting, and then at the SOE.

Alleged terror bombing

Some scholars consider the deliberate bombardment of civilian populations a form of state terror,^{[91][92][93][94][95]} and, during the military conflicts leading up to World War II and the war itself, terror bombing of enemy civilian populations in order to break morale was first put into action.^[96][97] Beginning early in the 1930s and with greatest intensity between 1938 and 1943, the Japanese used incendiary bombs against Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan and Chonging.^[97][98] Lord Cranborne, the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs, commented on a 1937 bombing: "The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians..." ^[99] In Europe in 1937, the bombardment of Guernica (April 26, 1937), carried out by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, caused widespread destruction and civilian deaths in the Basque town. According to the BBC, the goal of General Francisco Franco, commander of the nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, was "to terrorize the people in the Basque region. . ."

In May 1940, during World War II itself, the Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam in an effort to force Dutch capitulation,^[100] and the threat to bomb Utrecht in the same fashion forced Netherlands’ surrender.^{[101][102][103]} In a bombing campaign against Britain called "the Blitz" (September, 1940, to May, 1941), Germany carried out intensive bombardment of British cities such as London and war industry centers such as Coventry. Britain, perhaps in response, adopted a bombing policy against German cities euphemistically called area bombardment whose objective was in part to ‘de-house’ and demoralize the German civilian population.^[104] The Dresden bombing (February 13–15, 1945) was an instance of area bombardment that left the city in ruins and claimed between 25,000 and 40,000 lives.^[105] Late in the war, in its air attacks on Japan, U.S. forces used a mix of incendiaries and high explosives to burn large sections of Japanese cities to the ground.^[106] A military aide to General Douglas MacArthur called an incendiary attack on Tokyo "one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of non-combatants in all history."^[107]

Mid 20th century events and groups

After the end of World War II, there was a rise in nationalist and anti-colonial campaigns, and the European empires collapsed. Many of the resistance groups of World War II became nationalist groups. The Viet Minh which had previously fought against the Japanese now fought against the returning French (and later the Americans), and elements of the Malayan resistance turned on their former British allies and fought against them during the Malayan Emergency. In the 1950s, for example, the National Liberation Front (FLN) in French-controlled Algeria, the EOKA in British-controlled Cyprus, and the ETA in Spain waged guerilla and open war against what they considered occupying forces.^[108]

In the 1960s, inspired by Mao's Chinese revolution of 1949 and Castro's Cuban revolution of 1959, national independence movements in formerly colonized countries often fused nationalist and socialist impulses in the 1960s. This was the case with Spain's ETA], the Front de Liberation du Quebec, and the Palestine Liberation Organization^{[clarification needed]}.^[109]

In the 1970s, leftist groups on the rise in the 1970s Turkey's PKK, and Armenian's ASALA.^[109] In Japan, Europe, and the U.S., leftist student groups such as the Japanese Red Army, the German Red Army Faction, the Italian Red Brigade, and the American Weather Underground sympathized with the Third World and sought to spark anti-capitalist revolutions with bombings and assassinations.^[110] Nationalist groups such as the Provisional IRA and the Tamil tigers also began operations during this decade.

Throughout the Cold War, both sides 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.^[111] The US funded groups such as the Contras in Nicaragua^[112], while the Soviet Union provided aid to Nicaragua's Sandinistas. Ironically, many violent Islamic militants of the 21st century were trained in the 1980s by the US and the UK to fight against the USSR in Afghanistan.^[113][114] Also during the Cold War, NATO ran a Europe-wide network called Operation Gladio which committed false flag violence and would have launched insurgent attacks in the event of a Soviet invasion of Europe.^[115]

Front de Liberation National

From 1954 to 1962, the Front de Liberation National (FLN) was a nationalist group founded in French-controlled Algeria in 1954.^[116] The group was actually a large scale resistance movement against French occupation, and terrorism was only one facet of its operations. The FLN leaders, inspired by the Indochinese rebels who had made French troops withdraw from their country, started out with support from Egypt's President Nasser.^[117] The FLN was one of the first ideological groups to use compliance terror on a grand scale. The FLN would establish control over a rural Algerian village and coerce the peasants of that village to execute the loyalists among them.^[108] On the night of October 31, 1954 the FLN attacked French military installations and the homes of Algerian loyalists when it set off a coordinated wave of seventy bombings and shootings that is now known as the Toussaint attacks.^[118] Through the tactics of coercive violence,^{[citation needed]} the FLN gained significant support for a 1955 uprising against loyalists in Philipville. This uprising—and the heavy-handed response of the French government—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.^[119]

Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston

From 1955 to 1959, the Greek National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, or EOKA) was a nationalist group founded in British-controlled Cyprus in 1955.^[120] Its founder, George Grivas, was covertly supported by the Greek government.^[121] The group sought the expulsion of British troops from the island, self-determination, and union with Greece.^[122] To achieve these ends, EOKA carried out a four year spree of IRA style shootings of British soldiers and police.^[108] EOKA also organized Hagannah style attacks on civilians.^[123] In December 1958 a cease-fire was declared and in 1960 Cyprus achieved independence from the United Kingdom; however, the settlement explicitly denied the possibility of a union between Cyprus and Greece.^[124]

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna

From 1959 to the present, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom" IPA: [ˈɛːta])) is an armed Basque nationalist separatist organization.^[125] Founded in 1959 in response to General Francisco Franco's suppression of the Basque language and culture, ETA evolved from an advocate of traditional cultural ways into an armed revolutionary Marxist group demanding Basque independence.^[126] Many of ETA's victims are government officials. The group's first known victim was a police chief who was killed in 1968. In 1973, ETA operatives killed Franco's apparent successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, by planting an underground bomb below his habitual parking spot outside a Madrid church.^[127] In 1995, an ETA car bomb almost killed Jose Maria Aznar, then the leader of the conservative Popular Party, who later served as Spain's prime minister. The same year, investigators disrupted a plot to assassinate King Juan Carlos.^[128] More recently, in March 2008, ETA killed a former city councilman in northern Spain two days before an election. In 2003, the Spanish Supreme Court banned the Batasuna political party, which was considered the political arm of ETA, and successive efforts by Spanish governments to negotiate with ETA have failed.^[129]

Palestine Liberation Organization and factions

From 1959 to the present, Fatah was organized as a Palestinian nationalist group in 1959. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was organized as an umbrella organization for secular Palestinian nationalist groups in 1964, and began armed operations in 1965.^[130] The PLO's membership is made up of separate and possibly contending paramilitary and political factions, the largest of which are Fatah, PFLP, and DFLP.^[131][132] Factions of the PLO have advocated or carried out acts of terrorism.^[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.^[134][135]

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 later died during a gun battle with the West German police, in what was later known as the Munich massacre.^{[136][137][138]} The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was founded in 1967 by George Habash.^[139] On September 6, 1970 the group hijacked three international passenger planes, landing two of them in Jordan and blowing up the third.^[140] Founded in 1968, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) is presently led by Abu Nidal al-Ashqar.^[141] The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) was founded in 1969. The PFLP, DFLP, and PFLP-GC lost influence and resources with the rise of Hamas in the 1990s.^[142]

Front de Liberation du Quebec

From 1963 to 1971, the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) was a Marxist nationalist group that sought to create an independent, socialist Québec.^[143] Georges Schoeters, who founded the group in 1963, had been inspired by Che Guevara and the FLN.^[144] The group sought the overthrow of the Quebec government, the independence of Quebec from Canada, and the establishment of a French-Canadian workers society. It organized bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations against politicians, soldiers, and civilians.^[145] On October 5, 1970, the FLQ kidnapped James Richard Cross, the British Trade Commissioner. Shortly afterwards, on October 10, group members kidnapped the Minister of Labor and Vice-Premier of Québec, Pierre Laporte, and killed him a week later. The events of October 1970 contributed to the loss of support for violent means to attain Québec independence, and increased support for the political party, the Parti Québécois, which took power in 1976.^[146]

Colombian and Peruvian paramilitary groups and 'narcoterrorism'

Several paramilitary groups formed in Colombia in the 1960s and afterwards. In 1983, President Fernando Belaúnde Terry of Peru described armed attacks on his nation's anti-narcotics police as "narcoterrorism", i.e., which now commonly refers to "violence waged by drug producers to extract political concessions from the government."^[147] Pablo Escobar's ruthless violence in his dealings with the Colombian and Peruvian governments has been probably one of the best known and best documented examples of narcoterrorism.^{[citation needed]} Paramilitary groups associated with narcoterrorism include the Ejército de Liberación 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.^[148][149]

Provisional IRA

From 1969 to 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish nationalist movement founded in December 1969 when several militants including Seán Mac Stíofáin broke off from the Official IRA and formed a new organization.^[150] Led by Mac Stíofáin in the early 1970s and by a group around Gerry Adams since 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.^[151] 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.^[152][153] 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^[154] and the PLO ^[155]. In the case of the latter there has been a long held solidarity movement, which is evident by the many murals around Belfast.^[156]

The Jewish Defense League

From 1969 to the present, 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.^[157] 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.^[158] 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."^[157][159]. Kahane later founded the far-right Israeli political party Kach, which was banned from elections in Israel on the ground of racism^[160]. The group's present-day website condemns all forms of terrorism.[11]

People's Mujahedin of Iran

The PMOI or Mujahedin-e Khalq, is a socialist islamic group that has actively resisted the theocratic rule of Iran since the revolution. The group was founded originally to oppose the capitalism and what they perceived as western exploitation of Iran under the Shah^{[citation needed]}. The group would go on to be a key part of his 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 USA, The EU however has removed the group from its terror list. The PMOI is accused of supporting other groups such as the Jundallah^{[citation needed]}.

Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional

From 1974 to the present, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN, "Armed Forces of National Liberation") was a nationalist group founded in Puerto Rico in 1974. Over the next decade, the group used bombings and targeted killings of civilians and police to try to create an independent Puerto Rico. On April 3, 1975, FALN took responsibility for four nearly simultaneous bombings in New York City, by leaving their Communique No. 4 for the Associated Press at a phone booth.^[161] The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies the FALN as a terrorist organization.^[162]

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

From 1975 to 1986, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was founded in 1975 in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War by Hagop Tarakchian and Hagop 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 to them the territory of Wilsonian Armenia for the purpose of unification with the existing Armenian SSR. In its most famous 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. Altogether, nine people died and 82 were injured. By 1986, the ASALA had virtually ceased all attacks.^[163]

Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan

From 1978 to the present, the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers Party) was a nationalist movement founded in Turkey by Abdullah Ocalan in 1978. Ocalan was inspired by the Maoist theory of people's war--like Mao, Ocalan had a little book outlining his views—and like the FLN he advocated the use of compliance terror^{[citation needed]}. The group seeks to create an independent Kurdish state that consists of parts of south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Iraq, north-eastern Syria and north-western Iran. Starting 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 Öcalan. He was tried in Turkey and sentenced to life imprisonment. The PKK has since gone through a series of name changes.^[164]

Red Army Faction

From 1968 to 1998, the Red Army Faction was a New Leftist group founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof in West Germany in 1968. 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 US air bases. The group is best known for the "German Autumn".

The buildup of events to German Autumn began on April 7, when the RAF shot Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback. This was followed on July 30, they shot Jurgen Ponto, then head of the Dresdner Bank in a failed kidnapping attempt; and on September 5, they kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer (former SS and one of the most powerful industrialists in West Germany) and executed him four weeks later, on October 19.^[165] The hijacking of Lufthansa aeroplane "Landshut" by the PFLP is also consider to be part of the German Autumn.

Weathermen

From 1969 to 1977, the American Weather Underground (a.k.a. the Weathermen) was an extremist faction of the leftist Students for a Democratic Society organization. In 1969, the Students for a Democratic Society organization collapsed and was taken over by the Weathermen group. The Weathermen leaders, inspired by the Maoist revolution, the Black Panthers, and the 1968 student revolts in France, sought to raise awareness of its revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-Vietnam War platform. It did this by destroying symbols of government power in Hunchakian style. On October 7, 1969, the group held an anti-war demonstration in downtown Chicago and blew up a statue dedicated to the police officers who died in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. Over the next five years, the Weathermen bombed corporate offices, police stations, and DC government sites such as the Pentagon. But after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, most of the group disbanded.^[166]

Italian Red Brigade

From 1970 to 1989, the Italian Red Brigade was a New Leftist group founded by Renato Curcio in 1970. With PLO support, the group sought to create a revolutionary state and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance. On 16 March 1978, the Brigade kidnapped former Prime Minister Aldo Moro and murdered him 56 days later. The murder of Moro began an all-out assault against the Brigade by Italian law enforcement and security forces. The murder of a popular political figure also drew condemnation from Italian left-wing radicals and even from the imprisoned ex-leaders of the Brigade. The Brigade lost most of its social support and public opinion turned strongly against it. In 1984, the ailing Brigade split into two factions: the majority faction of the Communist Combatant Party (Red Brigades-PCC) and the minority of the Union of Combatant Communists (Red Brigades-UCC). The members of these groups carried out a handful of assassinations before almost all of them were arrested in 1989.^[167]

Japanese Red Army

From 1971 to 2001, the Japanese Red Army was a New Leftist group,. It was founded by Fusako Shigenobu in Japan in 1971. With support from the PFLP, the group murdered, hijacked a commercial Japanese aircraft, and sabotaged a Shell oil refinery in Singapore in an attempt to overthrow the Japanese government and start a world revolution. On May 30, 1972, Kōzō Okamoto and other group members launched a machine gun and grenade attack on Israel's Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, killing 26 people and injuring 80 others. Two of the three attackers then killed themselves with grenades.^[168]

Tamil Tigers

Active from 1976 to 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (also called "LTTE" or Tamil Tigers) is a militant Tamil nationalist political and paramilitary organization based in northern Sri Lanka.^[169] Since its founding in 1976, it has actively waged a secessionist resistance campaign that has sought to create an independent Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka. The conflict originated in measures the majority Sinhalese took that were perceived as attempts to marginalize the Tamil minority.^[170]. The resistance campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, one of the longest-running armed conflicts in Asia.^[171] Since its formation, the LTTE has been headed by its founder, Velupillai Prabhakaran.^[172] The group has carried out a number of bombings, including a car bomb attack carried out on April 21, 1987 at a bus terminal in Colombo which killed 110 people.^[173] In 2009 the Sri Lankan military launched a major military offensive against the guerrilla wing of the movement and claimed that it had been effectively destroyed upon completion of that operation, in which most of the leadership of the group was killed.

Umkhonto we Sizwe

From 1961 to 1990 in South Africa, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was the military wing of the African National Congress. It was opposed to the racist apartheid policies of the South African government^[174]. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. It was subsequently classified as a terrorist organization by the South African government and was banned. It waged a guerrilla campaign and was responsible for many bombings. Its first leader was Nelson Mandela and he was tried and imprisoned for his involvement in such acts^[175]. With the end of apartheid in South Africa, the Umkhonto we Sizwe was incorporated into the South African armed forces.

Contemporary era events and groups

In the contemporary era, the Ku Klux Klan, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Jewish Defense League, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, and the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan still exist and are active in the present. Other groups have also been formed and are presently conducting operations.

Late 20th century events and groups

In the 1980s, religious groups that committed violent acts in pursuit of their goals were increasing in number.^{[citation needed]} Many of them drew inspiration from Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, especially Hezbollah.^{[citation needed]} Other well-known Islamic groups include Hamas, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and Al-Qaeda.^[176]

In the 1990s, acts of violence were executed by Aum Shinrikyo and the bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building was committed by Christian extremists.^{[citation needed]} Secular nationalist groups also carried out attacks, most famously the Chechnyan separatists and the Tamil Tigers.^[176]

The Contras

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."^[177] 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.^[178]

Hezbollah

Hezbollah ("Party of God") is an Islamist revolutionary movement founded in Lebanon shortly after that country's 1982 civil war. Inspired by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution, the group originally sought an Islamic revolution in Lebanon and has long fought for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and dissolution of the nation of Israel. Led by Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah since 1992, the group has carried out kidnappings and suicide bombings against the Israeli military.^[179]

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Beginning in 1980, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a.k.a. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya) is a militant Egyptian Islamist movement dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and to the establishment of an Islamic state in its place. It is led by Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is accused of participating in the World Trade Center 1993 bombings. The group began as an umbrella organization for militant student groups and was formed after the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s. In 1981, the group assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. On, November 17, 1997, the group carried out an attack on tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri) in Luxor, in which a band of six men dressed in police uniforms machine-gunned 58 Japanese and European vacationers and four Egyptians, in what became known as the Luxor massacre.^[180]

Hamas

Beginning in 1987, Hamas (حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement") is an Islamic Palestinian group. Hamas was created in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha of the Palestinian wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood at the beginning of the First Intifada, an uprising against Israeli rule in the Palestinian Territories.^[181] Between February and April 1988, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin raised several million dollars from the Gulf states, which had withdrawn their funding from Fatah following its official support of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. Beginning in 1993, Hamas launched numerous suicide bombings against Israel and, on March 27, 2002, it bombed the Netanya hotel, killing 30 and wounding 140.^[182] Hamas ceased the suicide attacks in 2005 and renounced them in April, 2006.^[183] Hamas has also been responsible for Israel-targeted rocket attacks, IED attacks, and shootings, but it reduced most of those operations in 2005 and 2006.^[184] Since June 2007, Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories.^[185]

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda (Arabic: القاعدة‎, meaning "The Base") is an international Sunni Islamist extremist movement founded by Osama bin Laden around 1988 to rid Muslim countries of the influence of the West and replace their governments with fundamentalist Islamic regimes.^[186] On October 12, 2000, Al-Qaeda carried out the USS Cole bombing, suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole while it was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden and killed seventeen U.S. sailors.^[187] On September 11, 2001, nineteen men^[188] affiliated with al-Qaeda^[189] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon. As a result of the attacks, both of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers completely collapsed. Not including the hijackers, nearly 3,000 people died during the attacks.

Lockerbie bombing

In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was the Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On December 21, 1988 it was destroyed mid flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The bombing was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States. On January 31, 2001, Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was convicted by a panel of three Scottish judges of bombing the flight. He was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for the attack. In 2002 Libya offered financial compensation to the families in exchange for lifting of UN and U.S. sanctions. In 2007 al-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^[190].

East Turkestan Liberation Organization

The ETLO is a Uyghur secessionist movement which wants independence for the Chinese region of Xinjiang, and has engaged in both bombing campaigns and armed attacks to achieve this goal^{[citation needed]}.

Aum Shinrikyo

Between 1990 and 1995, Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, was a Japanese religious group founded by Shoko Asahara. Aum Shinrikyo started in 1984 as a yogic meditation group, but it later transformed into a very different organization. In 1990, Asahara and 24 other members stood for the General Elections for the House of Representatives under the banner of Shinri-tō (Supreme Truth Party). After none of them were voted in, 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.^[191] 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.^[191] in the Kaichi Heights neighborhood. 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 5000 others^[192] in what became known as the subway sarin incident (地下鉄サリン事件, chikatetsu sarin jiken). In May 1995, Asahara and other senior leaders were arrested and the group's membership rapidly decreased.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Beginning in 1991, Lashkar-e-Taiba (Urdu: لشکرطیبہ laškar-ĕ ṯayyiba; translated as Army of the Righteous) is a militant organization currently based near Lahore, Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Taiba members have carried out major attacks against India and its objective is to introduce an Islamic state in South Asia and to "liberate" Muslims residing in Indian administered Kashmir.^[193]

Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

In 1994, Baruch Goldstein (December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994), an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, in which he 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 victims.^[194] Goldstein was lynched and killed in the mosque.^[194] Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, an Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane that advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories.^[195] In the aftermath of the Goldstein attack and Kach statements praising it, Kach was outlawed in Israel.^[195] Today, Kach and a breakaway group, Kahane Chai, are considered terrorist organisations by Israel,^[196] Canada,^[197] the European Union,^[198] and the United States.^[199]

Chechnyan separatists

Beginning in 1994 and led by Shamil Basayev, Chechnyan separatists carried out several attacks from the 1994 until 2006.^[200] In the 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.^[201] In the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, 50 Chechnyan separatists took 850 hostages in a Moscow theater, demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War.^[202] On September 1, 2004, in what became known as the Beslan school hostage crisis, 32 Chechnyan separatists took 1,300 children and adults hostage at Beslan's School Number One. When Russian authorities did not comply with the rebels’ demands that Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya, 20 of the adult male hostages were shot. After two days of stalled negotiations, Russian special forces stormed the building. In the ensuing melee, approximately 300 hostages were killed, along with 19 Russian servicemen and all but one of the rebels. Shamil Basayev is believed to have participated in organizing the attack. Like Basayev's hospital and theater hijackings, the attack at the Beslan school was propaganda of the deed.^{[203][clarification needed]}

Oklahoma City bombing

The April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing was a violent act of terrorism 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.^[204] The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was bombed, claiming 168 lives and leaving over 800 injured.^[205] McVeigh, who was convicted of first degree murder and executed, indicated he was motivated by revenge, stating, "What the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge was dirty. And I gave dirty back to them at Oklahoma City,"^[206]

21st century events and groups

Major events after the September 11, 2001 Attacks 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, and the 2008 Mumbai Hotel Siege.

September 11 attacks

In 2001, the September 11 attacks, nineteen attackers^[207] affiliated with al-Qaeda^[208] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. As a result of the attacks, both of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers completely collapsed. 2,973 victims and the 19 hijackers died during the attacks.

The 9/11 attacks prompted drastic changes in United States foreign and domestic policy and security protocol, and placed national security at the forefront of American political dialogue. The War on Terrorism has been described as the ongoing US military response to the attack, and continues to be a major focus of American security and foreign policy.

Jundallah

Formed in 2003, the Jundallah is a Sunni insurgent group from the Baloch region of Iran and neighboring Pakistan that 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 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.^[209] The group is accused of and takes credit for many 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.^[210][211]

Table of non-state groups accused of terrorism

References