History of terrorism

The history of terrorism involves significant individuals, entities, and incidents associated with terrorism. Scholars often agree that terrorism is a disputed term, and very few of those who are labeled terrorists describe themselves as such. It is common for opponents in a violent conflict to describe the opposing 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

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 '

There is no scholarly consensus over the 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]

The term "terrorist" is believed to have originated during the Reign of Terror (September 5, 1793 – July 28, 1794) in France. It 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.^[8] The Jacobins, most famously Robespierre, sometimes referred to themselves as "terrorists".^[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.^[9][10] French historian Sophie Wahnich distinguishes between the revolutionary terror of the French Revolution and the terrorists of the September 11 attacks:

Revolutionary terror is not terrorism. To make a moral equivalence between the Revolution's year II and September 2001 is historical and philosophical nonsense ... The violence exercised on 11 September 2001 aimed neither at equality nor liberty. Nor did the preventive war announced by the president of the United States.^[11][12]

The French Revolution also influenced conceptions of non-state terrorism in the 19th century. Although the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars ended with the victory of autocracies opposed to France and with the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, European conservative rulers feared revolutionaries who would overthrow their governments or carry out similar forms of psychological violence. The late 18th and early 19th centuries did see the growth of secret societies dedicated to beginning similar liberal revolutions to the French Revolution, causing conservative autocratic governments to become paranoid of radical terrorist conspiracies.^[13]

Early terrorism

Scholars disagree about whether the roots of terrorism date back to the 1st century and the

The Sons of Liberty was a clandestine group that was formed in Boston and New York City in the 1770s. It had a political agenda of independence of Britain's American colonies. The groups engaged in several acts that could be considered terroristic and used the deeds for propaganda purposes.^[34]

Gunpowder Plot

After Queen Elizabeth I restored the Church of England as the state church after years of persecution of Protestants under her sister Mary I, Pope Pius V excommunicated her and called on English Catholics to depose her. His successor Sixtus V and King Philip II of Spain sponsored numerous plots against her which continued after she was succeeded by her cousin James VI and I.^[35]

On November 5, 1605, a group of conspirators led by Robert Catesby attempted to destroy the English Parliament on its State Opening by King James I. They planned in secret to detonate a large quantity of gunpowder placed beneath the Palace of Westminster. The gunpowder was procured and placed by Guy Fawkes. The group intended to enact a coup by killing King James I and the members of both houses of Parliament. The conspirators planned to start a rebellion in the English Midlands,^[35] make one of the king's children a puppet monarch, and then restore the Catholic faith to England.

The conspirator leased a coal cellar beneath the

In the 19th century, powerful, stable, and affordable explosives were developed, global integration reached unprecedented levels and often radical political movements became widely influential.[40]^[44] The use of dynamite, in particular, inspired anarchists and was central to their strategic thinking.^[45]

Ireland

One of the earliest groups to utilize modern terrorist techniques was arguably the Fenian Brotherhood and its offshoot the Irish Republican Brotherhood.^[46] They were both founded in 1858 as revolutionary, militant nationalist and Catholic groups, both in Ireland and amongst the émigré community in the United States.^[47][48]

After centuries of continued British rule in Ireland, and being influenced most recently from the devastating effects of the 1840s Great 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.^[49]

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.^[50] 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.^[51] (Prime minister William Ewart Gladstone was 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

From the 1860s onwards dissident elements of the Russian Empire's intelligentsia became increasingly open to the idea of using political violence and terrorism to overthrow the Tsarist autocracy of the Romanov dynasty. The Narodniks called for a violent revolution to redistribute land to the peasant communes. Nikolay Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? proved influential among the Narodniks, and his character Rakhmetov became a role model for Russian dissidents who resorted to terrorism.^[53]

The Narodniks drifted to

Prior to the American Civil War, abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) advocated and practiced armed opposition to slavery, launching several attacks between 1856 and 1859, his most famous attack was launched against the armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Local forces soon recaptured the fort and Brown was tried and executed for treason.^[66] A biographer of Brown has written that Brown's purpose was "to force the nation into a new political pattern by creating terror."^[67] In 2009, the 150th anniversary of Brown's death, prominent news publications debated over whether or not Brown should be considered a terrorist.^[68][69][70]

During the Civil War, pro-Confederate Bushwhackers and pro-Union Jayhawkers in Missouri and Kansas respectively engaged in cross border raids, committed acts of violence against civilians and soldiers, stole goods and burned down farms. The most infamous event occurred in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, when Quantrill's Raiders led by William Quantrill ransacked the town and murdered about 190 civilians because of the town's anti-slavery sentiment.^[71]

On December 7, 1863, pro-Confederate British subjects from the

On October 19, 1864, Confederate agents operating from Canada raided the border town of St. Albans, Vermont, robbing $208,000 from three banks, holding hostages, killing a civilian and wounding two others, attempting to burn the entire town with Greek fire, then escaping back to Canada.^[73] The raiders were then arrested by British authorities under an extradition request from the U.S. government, but were later freed by a Canadian court on the grounds that they were considered combatants rather than criminals.^[74][75]

After the Civil War, on December 24, 1865, six Confederate veterans founded the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).^[76] The KKK used violence, lynching, murder and acts of intimidation to oppress African Americans in particular, and it created a sensation with its masked forays' dramatic nature.^[77][78] Under President Ulysses Grant the federal government suppressed the Klan in the early 1870s, and it disappeared by the mid-1870s.^[79]

The Second KKK of the 1920s was an entirely new organization that used the old costumes and keywords. It added

Several nationalist groups used violence against an

Political assassinations continued, resulting in the assassination of King Umberto I of Italy in July 1900. The Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz was inspired to by the killing to carry out the assassination of US President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York, September 1901. Despite the fact that Czolgosz had been a native-born citizen, the United States Congress responded by passing a law banning anarchists from immigrating to the United States. Despite the ban the Galleanist anarchists mostly consisting of Italian Americans continued to be active in the United States. In 1914 three Galleanists were found to be collaborating with Alexander Berkman in plotting an assassination of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in retaliation for the Ludlow Massacre. Berkman had previously tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for the Homestead strike. After the American entry into World War I Congress additionally passed the Immigration Act of 1917 allowing for the deportation of resident aliens who promoted assassinations. Despite this Galleanists successfully sent letter bombs to industrialists and politicians while paranoia over left-wing political radicalism escalated when the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian Revolution. After a letter bomb detonated at the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, it caused the First Red Scare. The United States Department of Justice destroyed left-wing and radical political movements, including Marxism, anarchism, and the Industrial Workers of the World, through the Palmer Raids led by J. Edgar Hoover.^[99]

After several decades of stability, political violence in the Russian Empire resumed in the 1890s due to the repressive policies of Alexander III and

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins, shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo, the capital of the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassinations produced widespread shock across Europe,^[103] setting in motion the July Crisis which led to World War I.^[104]

In the 1930s and 1940s,

The campaign in part provided the inspiration for later bombing and terrorist campaigns in Britain, such as those conducted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).^[110] The S-Plan of 1939 to 1940 utilised the tactic of undertaking incendiary attacks on pillar boxes, and also saw the planting of explosive devices.^[110] The tactic of packing nuts and bolts into bombs to act as shrapnel, often regarded as a later twentieth-century IRA invention, was also first employed by the suffragettes.^[111] Several suffragette bombings, such as the attempted bombing of Liverpool Street station in 1913, saw the use of this method.^[111] The combination of high explosive bombs, incendiary devices and letter bombs used by suffragettes also provided the pattern for the IRA campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s.^[112] Unknown to many, the first terrorist bomb to explode in Northern Ireland in the twentieth century was not detonated by the IRA but by the suffragettes at Lisburn Cathedral in August 1914.^[112] Suffragette tactics also provided a template for more contemporary attacks in Britain.^[113]

Irish independence

In an action called the

Shortly after the rebellion, Michael Collins and others founded the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which from 1916 to 1923 ^[116] carried out numerous attacks against the British authorities. For example, it attacked over 300 police stations simultaneously just before Easter 1920,^[117] and, in November 1920, publicly killed a dozen police officers and burned down the Liverpool docks and warehouses, an action that became known as Bloody Sunday.^[118]

After years of warfare, London agreed to the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty creating an Irish Free State encompassing 26 of the island's 32 counties.^[119] IRA tactics were an inspiration to other groups, including the Palestine Mandate's Zionists,^[120] and to British special operations during World War II.^[121][122]

The IRA are considered by some the innovators of modern insurgency tactics as the British would replicate and build upon the tactics used against them in World War II against the Germans and Italians. Tony Geraghty in The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence wrote:

The Irish [thanks to the example set by Collins and followed by the SOE] can thus claim that their resistance provide the originating impulse for resistance to tyrannies worse than any they had to endure themselves. And the Irish resistance as Collins led it, showed the rest of the world an economical way to fight wars the only sane way they can be fought in the age of the Nuclear bomb.^[123]

— M. R. D. Foot, who wrote several official histories of SOE

From January 1939 to March 1940, the

Operating in the

Resistance during World War II

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2017)

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.^[140][141] Colin Gubbins, a key leader within the Special Operations Executive (SOE), made sure the organization drew much of its inspiration from the IRA.^[121][122]

On the eve of D-Day, the SOE organised with the French Resistance the complete destruction of the rail^[142] and communication infrastructure of western France^[143] the largest coordinated attack of its kind in history^[144] Allied supreme commander Dwight D. 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".^[145] The SOE also conducted operations in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.^[144]

The SOE working with Norwegian resistance was vital in ending Germany's nuclear weapons programme. After repeated attacks on heavy water production facilities in Norway Germany sought to ship the last of the heavy water back to Germany in 1944. It would initial cross Lake Tinn by civilian ferry SF Hydro. The ferry was to carry railway cars with heavy water drums from the Vemork hydroelectric plant, where they were produced, across Lake Tinn so they could be shipped to Germany. The operatives planted explosives on the ferry the night before, and timed the explosives to sink and the deepest part of the lake. Despite the intention to minimize casualties, 18 people were killed. Twenty-nine survived. The dead comprised 14 Norwegian civilians and four German soldiers. Its sinking effectively ended Nazi nuclear ambitions.^{[146][147][148][149][150][151]}

The work of the SOE received recognition in 2009 with a memorial in London, however there are differing views on the morality of the SOE's actions; the British military historian John Keegan writing:

We must recognise that our response to the scourge of terrorism is compromised by what we did through SOE. The justification ... That we had no other means of striking back at the enemy ... is exactly the argument used by the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhoff gang, the PFLP, the IRA and every other half-articulate terrorist organisation on Earth. Futile to argue that we were a democracy and Hitler a tyrant. Means besmirch ends. SOE besmirched Britain.^[152]

Post-war period and Cold War proxies

In the

The National Liberation Front (FLN) was an Algerian nationalist group founded in French-controlled Algeria in 1954.^[166] The group became a large-scale resistance movement against French rule, with terrorism only part of its operations. The FLN leadership took inspiration from the Viet Minh rebels who had made French Far East Expeditionary Corps troops withdraw from Vietnam in the First Indochina War.^[167] 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.^[153] 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 Armed Forces installations and the homes of Algerian loyalists.^[168] 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.^[169] The FLN eventually secured Algerian independence from France in 1962, and transformed itself into Algeria's ruling party.^[170]

In the 1974 Ma'alot massacre, 22 Israeli high-school students, aged 14 to 16 from Safed were killed by three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.^[178] 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.^[179]

In the 1960s and 1970s, various Middle Eastern terrorist groups sent their members to the

Founded in 1959

The

The

In Colombia

Fernando Belaúnde Terry of Peru described 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."^{[citation needed]} 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 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 left wing revolutionary groups and the AUC was originally a right-wing paramilitary, all have conducted numerous attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and engaged in the drug trade. The U.S. and some European governments consider them terrorist organizations.^[214][215]

The

Kach, which was banned from elections in Israel on the ground of racism.^[219] The JDL's present-day website condemns all forms of terrorism.^[220]

The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación 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.^[221] The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has classified the FALN as a terrorist organization.^[222]

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.^[223]

Asia

Main article:

Terrorism in Asia

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, Kōzō 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.^[224]

Founded in 1976, the

secessionist resistance campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka.^[226] The conflict originated in measures the majority Sinhalese took that were perceived as attempts to marginalize the Tamil minority.^[227] The resistance campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, one of the longest-running armed conflicts in Asia.^[228] The group carried out many bombings, including an April 21, 1987, car bomb attack at a Colombo bus terminal that killed 110 people.^[229]

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

In Kenya, because of the seeming ongoing failure of the

Mau Mau Uprising a key step towards Kenya's eventual independence in the 1960s.^[231][232] Many Mau Mau members provided reports of torture and abuse suffered by them to foreign journalists,^[233] though the British forces did have strict orders not to mistreat Mau Mau terrorists.^[234]

Founded in 1961,

apartheid regime and was responsible for many bombings.^[235] MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. The South African government 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.^[236] With the end of apartheid in South Africa, Umkhonto we Sizwe was incorporated into the South African National Defence Force

.

Late 20th century

In the 1980s and 1990s,

Anti-abortion terrorism and Environmental terrorism

.

The Americas

Violetta Chamorro in 1990.^[240]

The April 19, 1995,

Waco and Ruby Ridge.^[243]

Pyroterrorism is an emerging threat for many areas of dry woodlands.

Middle East

Further information: Lebanese Civil War, Terrorism in Egypt, and Israeli–Palestinian conflict

659 people died in Lebanon between 1982 and 1986 in 36 suicide attacks directed against American, French and Israeli forces, by 41 individuals with predominantly leftist political beliefs who were adherents of both the Christian and Muslim religions.

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 targets.^[249]

Deir el-Bahri); six men dressed as police officers machine-gunned 58 Japanese and European vacationers and four Egyptians.^[250]

On December 21, 1988,

Heathrow International Airport to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, was destroyed mid flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, including 11 on the ground. 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 Government due to his terminal cancer.^[251]

The first Palestinian

US State Department in the 1990s.^[275]

On February 25, 1994,

Bentzi Gopstein, is politically active inside Israel and its occupied territories.^[282]

Asia

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.

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.^[285] The incident was the deadliest act of air terrorism before 9/11, and the first bombing of a Boeing 747 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

The

Operation Nimrod—to rescue the remaining hostages. This response set the tone for how Western governments would respond to terrorism. Replacing an era of negotiation with one of military intervention.^[286][287]

Chechen separatists, led by Shamil Basayev, carried out several attacks on Russian targets between 1994 and 2006.^[288] 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.^[289]

21st century

Major events - most deadly (300 deaths or more) or most covered - after the

2023 Hamas attack on Israel

.

In the 21st century, most victims of terrorist attacks have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan,^[290] Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan, India, Somalia or Yemen.

Europe

Main article: Islamic terrorism in Europe

The

3-methylfentanyl), into the building's ventilation system and raided it.^[291] 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,^[292][293] and many condemned the use of the gas as heavy handed.^[294]

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 at Beslan'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.^{[295][clarification needed}

].

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11-M) were nearly simultaneous, coordinated bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004‍—‌three days before Spain's general elections and two and a half years after the September 11 attacks in the United States. The explosions killed 191 people and wounded 1,800. It was concluded that the bombs were carried on the trains hidden in backpacks, While many went off three were found later that did not detonate.^[296] The official investigation by the Spanish judiciary found that the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell. ETA and al Qaeda were the original suspects cited by the Spanish government.^[297]

The

Islamist extremists separately detonated three bombs in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city and, later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two civilians were killed and over 700 more were injured in the attacks. Later a dozen unexploded bombs were found in a car located in North London. 3 out of the 4 suspects were identified Mohammed Silique Khan, Germaine Morris Lindsay, Shahzad Tawnier where they are found to be in cohorts with Osama Bin Laden and eventually documents are leaked showing that Osama bin laden and Rashid Ruff planned the London bombings.^[298]

In Norway in 2011 two sequential lone wolf terrorist attacks by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik were carried out against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF)-run summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011. The attacks claimed a total of 77 lives. The first part of the attack was a van bomb in Oslo. The van was placed in front of the office block housing the office of Prime Minister and other government buildings. The explosion killed eight people and injured at least 209 people, twelve of them seriously. He followed this attack by impersonating a police officer to access the island on which the AUF summer camp was being held and proceeded to go on a shooting spree that killed 69 people.^[299]

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.^[300] 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.

From 7 January to 9 January 2015, a series of five terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. The attacks killed a total of 17 people, in addition to the three perpetrators of the attack,^[301][302] and wounded 22 others, some of whom are in critical condition as of 16 January 2015^[update]. 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.^[303]

On 7 January 2015, two

Islamist gunmen^[304] forced their way into and opened fire in the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo shooting, killing twelve: staff cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Philippe Honoré, Tignous and Georges Wolinski,^[305] economist Bernard Maris, editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, guest Michel Renaud, maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau and police officers Brinsolaro and Merabet, and wounding eleven, four of them seriously.^{[306][307][308][309][310][311]}

During the attack, the gunmen shouted "

Chérif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian descent.^{[314][315][316][317][318]}

On 9 January, police tracked the assailants to an industrial estate 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.^{[320][321][322]}

On 13 November, 28 hours after the Beirut attack, three groups of ISIS terrorists performed mass killings in various places in Paris' Xe and XIe arrondissements. They killed a total of more than 130 citizens. Hostages were taken in the concert hall "Le Bataclan" for three hours, and ninety were killed before the special police entered.^[323] President François Hollande immediately started the emergency threat procedure, for the first time on the entire French territory since the Algeria events in 1960.

On the morning of 22 March 2016, three coordinated

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.^[325]

On 22 May 2017 a suicide bomber attacked Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert. Twenty-three people died, including the attacker, and 139 were wounded, more than half of them children.

Middle East

Main article: War on terror

Osama bin Laden, closely advised by Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in 1988 founded Al-Qaeda (Arabic: القاعدة, meaning "The Base"), an Islamic jihadist movement to replace Western-controlled or dominated Muslim countries with Islamic fundamentalist regimes.^[326] In pursuit of that goal, bin Laden issued a 1996 manifesto that vowed violent jihad against U.S. Armed Forces based in Saudi Arabia.^[327] 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.^[328] 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.^[329]

On

the White House or the U.S. Capitol) into an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after a revolt by the plane's passengers.^[330][331] As a result of the attacks, 2,996 people (including the 19 hijackers) perished and more than 6,000 others were injured.^[330]

The United States responded to the attacks by launching the

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.^[332] Within Israel, the 1993–2008 Second Intifada involved in part a series of suicide bombings against civilian and non-civilian targets. 1100 Israelis were killed in the Second Intifada, the majority being civilians.^[333][334] 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.^[334][335] 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.^{[336][337][338]} Formed in 2003,

Iranian Balochistan 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.^[339] 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.^[340][341]

As the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant increases in size and power their attacks are affecting all parts of the world even in their own back yard of Turkey. Taking place in Istanbul a suicide bomber once again detonated a car bomb killing 4 people and injuring 31. No extremist group took responsibility for the attack but the attacker Mehmet Ozturk was linked to have ties with ISIS. This was just days after the car bomb attack in Turkey's capital of Ankara killing 37 people. The United States National Security Council asked for the repeated terror attacks on Turkey to stop, and that the War on Terror will just become stronger due actions like these killing innocent people. Since the attacks Israel has requested that its citizens not travel to Turkey unless its necessary.^[342]

Asia

On December 27, 2007, two time elected Pakistani Prime Minister

Jihadist groups and extremist groups gaining power. The responsibility of her death falls on the president of the time Pervez Musharraf who also was the former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Pakistan Armed Forces. She had several conversations with Musharraf about upping her security due to the increase of death threats she was receiving and he denied her request. Although Al-Qaeda took responsibility for her death it is seen in the eye of the people as Musharraf's fault for not taking her concerns seriously. However, during his trial he denies that no conversation happened between him and Bhutto about the security of her life.^[344]

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. The six main targets were

1. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus – formerly known as Victoria Station
2. The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel – six explosions were reported in the hotel,200 hostages were rescued from the burning building. A group of European Parliament committee members were staying at the hotel at the time but none were injured. Two attackers held hostages in the hotel.
3. Leopold Café – a popular cafe and bar on the Causeway that was one of the first places to be attacked resulting in the death of 10 people
4. The Trident-Oberoi Hotel – one explosion was heard here where the President of Madrid was eating, he was not injured
5. Nariman House, a Jewish community center – had a hostage situation by two attackers eventually the hostages became freed when an aerial view of the building was displayed and NSG's stormed the building eventually killing the two attackers.
6. Cama Hospital – the attacks were carried out by 10 gunman that arrived on speed boats boat from Pakistan, separating going building to building grabbing hostages, setting bombs up and mass murdering with guns. Eventually 9 out of the 10 gunman were killed. Pakistan denied that the men were a part of their country but eventually released documents that 3 of the men were from Pakistan and that cases would be opened against them^[345]

^{[346][347][348]} 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.^{[349][350][351]}

On January 14, 2016, a

Jakarta, Indonesia resulting in 8 dead. The responsibility of these attacks were claimed by ISIS. Counter terrorism has named this type of attack 'Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attack' because of the fast reaction needed by local policemen to stop the gunfire attack from the terrorists.^[352] The attack on Jakarta is linked to a bigger picture of terror in the Indonesian country for those of ISIS. Indonesia is home of the "largest regional terror groups" housing seven Islamist extremist groups. Leaving the thoughts that ISIS is trying to establish a satellite city in Indonesia, due to the fact that it has the largest Muslim population. Although ISIS branches have not yet reached the land of Southeast Asia in big masses, there is the fear that it is only a matter of time until Indonesias small extremist groups grow in masses once direct contact with ISIS is made. Once contact is established local terror groups will quickly mobilize to carry out the tasks that ISIS asks of them. ISIS will turn to Southeast Asia because it is only evident that they will lose control of the middle east.^[353]

Americas

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 two Democratic Party politicians. This resulted in several of the first fatalities attributed to a bioterror attack.

The more recent terrorist attack in the United States have included the

Boston Marathon Bombing, the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers, and the shooting of multiple black parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and car attack on anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, by right-wing extremists and white supremacists. There have been calls by some analysts to describe violence committed by incels as terrorism.^[355][356]

List of non-state groups accused of engaging in terrorism

Name	Location	Founded	Ceased attacks	Founder	Subsequent leaders	Ideology	Conflict	Tactics	Famous attack	Influenced by	Accused of terrorism by
Fenians	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1858		James Stephens John O'Mahony		Irish republicanism Irish nationalism	Fenian raids Fenian Rising		Young Ireland rebellion, 1848		Government of the United Kingdom
Ku Klux Klan	United States	1865		Nathan Bedford Forrest	William Joseph Simmons Hiram Wesley Evans James A. Colescott Samuel Green Roy Elonzo Davis	White supremacy White nationalism Nordicism Segregationism Christian fundamentalism Nativism Neo-Confederatism Anti-Catholicism Radical right Social conservatism	Reconstruction era Nadir of American race relations Mass racial violence in the United States	Lynchings, race riots, assassinations
Narodnaya Volya	Russian Empire	1878	1883			Populism Agrarian socialism		bombings, assassinations	Assassinated Tsar Alexander II , 1881
Hunchakian Revolutionary Party	Ottoman Empire	1887	1896	Avetis Nazarbekian		Armenian nationalism Democratic socialism Russophilia	Armenian national movement		Destroyed Ottoman coat of arms, 1890	Narodnaya Volya
Armenian Revolutionary Federation	Ottoman Empire	1890	1897	Christapor Mikaelian		Armenian nationalism Democratic socialism	Armenian national movement		Held hostages at Ottoman Bank, 1896	Hunchakian Revolutionary Party
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization	Ottoman Empire	1893	1903	Hristo Tatarchev		Macedonian nationalism	Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising Balkan Wars World War I		Led Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, 1903	Narodnaya Volya
Women's Social and Political Union	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1903	1914	Emmeline Pankhurst	Christabel Pankhurst	First-wave feminism Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom	Suffragette bombing and arson campaign	Letter bombing, bombing and arson	Burning of Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, 1913		Government of the United Kingdom
Irish Republican Army	United Kingdom  Ireland	1916	1950s	Éamon de Valera	Michael Collins	Irish republicanism Irish nationalism Irish irredentism Anti-British sentiment	Easter Rising Irish War of Independence Irish Civil War Northern Campaign (Irish Republican Army)		Kilmichael Ambush , 1920	Irish Republican Brotherhood; Women's Social and Political Union	Government of the United Kingdom
Irgun	Mandatory Palestine	1931	1948	Avraham Tehomi	Menachem Begin	Revisionist Zionism	Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine 1947–1949 Palestine war	bombings	King David Hotel bombing, 1946	Irish Republican Army	British Colonial Office
Lehi	Mandatory Palestine	1940	1948	Abraham Stern	Yitzhak Shamir	Revisionist Zionism	Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine 1947–1949 Palestine war	assassinations	Lord Moyne assassination, 1944	Irish Republican Army	British Colonial Office
Muslim Brotherhood	Egypt	1928		Hassan al-Banna		Islamism Neo-Sufism Religious conservatism		assassinations	Assassinated former PM Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi, 1948		British Colonial Office
Front de Liberation National	French Algeria	1954	1962	Ahmed Ben Bella Mohamed Boudiaf Hocine Aït Ahmed		Algerian nationalism Arab socialism Anti-imperialism	Algerian War		Toussaint Rouge attacks, 1954	Indochina rebels	French Government
EOKA	British Cyprus	1955	1959	George Grivas		Enosis Greek Cypriot nationalism Anti-imperialism	Cyprus Emergency
ETA	Spain	1959	2018		Josu Urrutikoetxea	Basque nationalism Revolutionary socialism Anti-Spanish sentiment	Basque conflict	bombings, assassinations	Assassinated "President" Blanco, 1978		Spanish Government
Fatah	Israel  Palestine	1959		Yasser Arafat	Mahmoud Abbas	Palestinian  nationalism Social democracy	Israeli–Palestinian conflict		Munich Olympics massacre , 1972	Algerian rebels	Israeli Government
Palestine Liberation Organization	Israel  Palestine	1964		Ahmad Shukeiri	Yasser Arafat Mahmoud Abbas	Palestinian  nationalism Secularism	Israeli–Palestinian conflict		1978 Coastal Road massacre		Israeli Government
PFLP	Israel  Palestine	1967		George Habash	Ahmad Sa'adat	Palestinian nationalism Marxism–Leninism Anti-Zionism Pan-Arab nationalism One-state solution	Israeli–Palestinian conflict		Black September skyjacking, 1970	Che Guevara	Israeli Government
PFLP-GC	Israel  Palestine	1968		Ahmed Jibril		Palestinian nationalism	Israeli–Palestinian conflict		Hangglider shooting, 1970		Israeli Government
DFLP	Israel  Palestine	1969		Nayef Hawatmeh		Palestinian nationalism Communism Anti-Zionism Left-wing nationalism	Israeli–Palestinian conflict		Avivim school bus massacre , 1970		Israeli Government
United Klans of America	United States	1960		Robert Shelton		White supremacy Radical right Nordicism Segregationism Christian fundamentalism	Mass racial violence in the United States		16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Azanian People's Liberation Army	South Africa	1961	1994	Potlako Leballo		Black nationalism Pan-Africanism African socialism Anti-racism	Internal resistance to apartheid				Government of South Africa
UMkhonto we Sizwe	South Africa	1961	1994	Nelson Mandela		African nationalism Anti-apartheid Anti-racism	Internal resistance to apartheid Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War				Government of South Africa
Front de libération du Québec	Canada	1963	1971	Georges Schoeters		Quebec separatism Quebec nationalism Marxism–Leninism Anti-Canadian sentiment	Quiet Revolution October Crisis	bombings, kidnappings, assassinations	October Crisis kidnappings, 1970	Che Guevara; the FLN	Canadian Government
Organisation armée secrète	France  French Algeria	1961	1962	Raoul Salan Edmond Jouhaud Yves Godard Jean-Jacques Susini		French nationalism Colonialism Far-right	Algerian War
Balochistan Liberation Army	Afghanistan  Pakistan	1964		Khair Bakhsh Marri		Baloch nationalism	Insurgency in Balochistan
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran	Iran	1965			Massoud and Maryam Rajavi						Government of Iran
Grey Wolves	Turkey	1968		Alparslan Türkeş		Turkish nationalism Neo-fascism Islamism	Political violence in Turkey (1976–1980)
Provisional IRA	United Kingdom  Ireland	1969	2005	Seán Mac Stíofáin		Irish republicanism Irish nationalism Irish irredentism Anti-British sentiment	Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign The Troubles	bombings, assassinations	Bloody Friday bombings, 1972		Government of the United Kingdom Government of Ireland
Shining Path	Peru	1969		Abimael Guzmán		Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Gonzalo Thought Anti-revisionism	Internal conflict in Peru
Ulster Defence Association (UDA)	United Kingdom  Ireland	1972		Billy Hull Jim Anderson	Johnny Adair	Ulster loyalism Ulster Protestantism Irish unionism Anti-Catholicism	The Troubles	assassinations, mass shootings	Castlerock killings, 1993 & Greysteel massacre , 1993	Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)	Government of the United Kingdom Government of Ireland
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)	United Kingdom  Ireland	1966		Gusty Spence		Ulster loyalism Ulster Protestantism Irish unionism Anti-Catholicism	The Troubles	assassinations, bombings	Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, 1974 & Loughinisland massacre , 1994	Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)	Government of the United Kingdom Government of Ireland
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña	United States  Puerto Rico	1974		Filiberto Ojeda Ríos		Puerto Rican nationalism Anti-Americanism Revolutionary socialism	Independence movement in Puerto Rico	bombings	Four NYC bombs, 1975		Government of the United States
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia	Turkey	1975	1986	Hagop Tarakchian		Armenian nationalism Anti-Turkish sentiment	Armenian–Turkish Conflict		Attack on Ankara airport, 1982		Turkish Government
Kurdistan Workers' Party	Turkey	1978		Abdullah Öcalan		Kurdish nationalism Democratic confederalism Jineology Socialism	Kurdish–Turkish conflict		Başbağlar massacre	Mao Zedong; FLN[citation needed]	Turkish Government
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia	Colombia	1964	2017	Efraín Guzmán Jacobo Arenas	Manuel Marulanda Alfonso Cano Timoleón Jiménez	Guevarism Left-wing nationalism Bolivarianism Agrarian socialism Anti-imperialism	Colombian conflict				Government of Colombia
National Liberation Army	Colombia	1964		Antonio Garcia		Marxism–Leninism Liberation theology	Colombian conflict				Government of Colombia
Red Army Faction	West Germany	1968	1998	Andreas Baader Ulrike Meinhof		Marxism Anti-capitalism Anti-fascism	German Autumn		German Autumn killings, 1977	Vietcong	German Government
Weathermen	United States	1969	1977	Bill Ayers Bernardine Dohrn		New Left Opposition to the Vietnam War Black Power			Chicago police statue bombing, 1969	Black Panthers
Italian Red Brigade	Italy	1970	1989	Renato Curcio	Margherita Cagol Alberto Franceschini	Marxism–Leninism Anti-capitalism Anti-fascism	Years of Lead		Assassinated former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, 1978
Japanese Red Army	Japan	1971	2001	Fusako Shigenobu		Maoism Anti-imperialism Anti-fascism Anti-monarchism			Lod Airport Massacre, 1972
Tamil Tigers	Sri Lanka	1976	2009[357]	Velupillai Prabhakaran		Tamil nationalism Revolutionary socialism	Sri Lankan Civil War		Columbus bus terminal bombing, 1987		Government of Sri Lanka
Hezbollah	Lebanon	1982			Hassan Nasrallah	Lebanese nationalism Pan-Islamism Khomeinism Anti-Zionism Anti-Western sentiment	Lebanese Civil War Israeli–Lebanese conflict Syrian civil war		1983 Beirut barracks bombing	Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini	Israeli Government
Egyptian Islamic Jihad	Egypt	1980		Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj	Omar Abdel-Rahman	Qutbism			Assassination of Anwar Sadat, 1981 Luxor massacre, 1997		Government of Egypt
Jewish Defense League	Israel	1980		Meir Kahane		Kahanism Zionism Anti-Arabism
Hamas	Gaza Strip	1987		Sheikh Ahmed Yassin	Ismail Haniyeh	Palestinian nationalism Islamism Antisemitism Anti-Western sentiment	Gaza–Israel conflict Fatah–Hamas conflict		October 7 attacks , 2023 Passover massacre, 2002 Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing, 2001	Muslim Brotherhood	Israeli Government
al-Qaeda	Saudi Arabia	1988		Osama bin Laden	Ayman al-Zawahiri	Pan-Islamism Salafi jihadism Anti-Western sentiment	Afghan conflict Somali Civil War War on terror Iraqi conflict Yemeni crisis Libyan Crisis Syrian civil war Insurgency in the Maghreb Mali War		9/11 attacks , 2001	Mujahideen
East Turkestan Liberation Organization	China	1990				Uyghur nationalism East Turkestan separatism Turanism Islamism Anti-communism Anti-Chinese sentiment	Xinjiang conflict				Government of China
Aum Shinrikyo	Japan	1990	1995	Shoko Asahara		Japanese new religions Religious extremism Buddhism Millenarianism			Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway , 1995
Lashkar-e-Taiba	Pakistan	1991		Hafiz Saeed		Islamism Ahl-i Hadith Anti-Hindu sentiment	Indo-Pakistani wars Kashmir conflict		Mumbai train bombings, 2006 and 2008 Mumbai attacks .		Government of India
Chechnyan Separatists	Russia	1994		Dokka Umarov	Shamil Basayev	Salafi jihadism Pan-Islamism	Chechen–Russian conflict Insurgency in the North Caucasus		Beslan school hostage crisis , 2004		Government of Russia
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia	Colombia	1997	2006	Carlos Castaño Gil		Far-right Anti-labor Anti-communism	Colombian conflict
Jundallah	Iran	2003		Abdolmalek Rigi	Muhammad Dhahir Baluch	Salafi jihadism Baloch nationalism Anti-Iranian sentiment	Kurdish-Iranian conflict		Zahedan bombings, 2007		Government of Iran
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad Al-Qaeda in Iraq Islamic State of Iraq  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	Iraq  Syria  Afghanistan  Libya  Afghanistan  Nigeria  Somalia	1999		Abu Musab al-Zarqawi	Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi	Islamism Salafi jihadism Wahhabism Anti-Yazidi sentiment Anti-Christian sentiment Anti-Western sentiment Anti-Shia sentiment Antisemitism	Iraqi conflict Syrian civil war Libyan Crisis Yemeni crisis Afghanistan conflict Sinai insurgency War on terror Somali Civil War Boko Haram insurgency ISIL insurgency in Tunisia				United Nations
Boko Haram	Nigeria	2002		Mohammed Yusuf	Abubakar Shekau	Islamism Salafi jihadism Wahhabism Anti-Christian sentiment Anti-Western sentiment	Boko Haram insurgency				Government of Nigeria
Al-Shabaab	Somalia	2006		Ahmed Abdi Godane	Ahmad Umar	Islamism Salafi jihadism Wahhabism Anti-Christian sentiment	Somali Civil War

Notes