U.S. State Department: Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Abu Nidal organization [ANO]
Description: Split from the PLO in 1974.
Activities: Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985 and a day-excursion ship in Greece in July 1988. Has not attacked Western targets since the late 1980s.
Location: Relocated to Iraq in 1998. Has demonstrated ability to operate in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
Abu Sayyaf Group [ASG]
Description: Most violent of the Islamic separatist groups operating in the southern Philippines.
Activities: Claims that its motivation is to promote an independent Islamic state in areas of the southern Philippines heavily populated by Muslims, but it appears to use terror mainly for financial profit.
Location: Operates in the southern Philippines and occasional Malaysia.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Description: Its aim is to drive the Israeli military and settlers from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem in order to establish a Palestinian state.
Activities: Has carried out shootings and suicide operations against Israeli military personnel and civilians.
Location: Operates mainly in the West Bank and has claimed attacks inside Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Armed Islamic Group [GIA]
Description: Islamic extremist aiming to overthrow the secular Algerian regime.
Activities: The GIA hijacked an Air France flight to Algiers in 1994 and conducted a series of bombings in France in 1995.
Location: Algeria.
Asbat al-Ansar
Description: A Lebanon-based extremist group, composed primarily of Palestinians, which is associated with Usama Bin Ladin.
Activities: The group has assassinated Lebanese religious leaders, bombed nightclubs and theaters and in 2000 carried out a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut.
Location: A Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Aum Supreme Truth [Aum]
Description: A religious cult aimed to take over Japan and then the world.
Activities: Simultaneously released the chemical nerve gas sarin on several Tokyo subway trains in 1995, killing 12 persons and injuring 6,000.
Location: Principal membership is in Japan, though followers have surfaced in Russia.
Basque Fatherland and Liberty [ETA]
Description: Founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an independent homeland based on Marxist principles in parts of northern Spain.
Activities: Tied to the bombings and assassinations of Spanish government officials, security and military forces, politicians and judicial figures.
Location: Operates primarily in the Basque regions of northern Spain and southwestern France.
Al-Gamma’a al-Islamiyya [Islamic Group, IG]
Description: Egypt’s largest militant group, with supporters in several countries.
Activities: Claimed responsibility for the attempt in 1995 to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. Has never attacked a U.S. citizen or facility, but has threatened U.S. interests.
Location: Operated mainly in southern Egypt, but has a presence in the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Yemen and Austria.
HAMAS [Islamic Resistance Movement]
Description: Various elements have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pusue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel.
Activities: Continues to confine its attacks to Israelis, including large-scale suicide bombings in Israel.
Location: Primarily the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel.
Harakat ul-Mujahidin [HUM, Movement of Holy Warriors]
Description: Islamic militant group based in Pakistan that has called for attacks on U.S. and Western interests. Operated terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan until Coalition air strikes destroyed them last year.
Activities: Linked to the kidnapping of five Western tourists in Kasmir in 1995 and the hijacking of an Indian airliner in 1999.
Location: Based in Pakistan, but terrorist activities conducted primarily in Kashmir.
Hizballah [Party of God]
Description: Formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The group takes its ideological inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Activities: Suspects in numerous anti-U.S. terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.
Location: Based in southern Lebanon, with cells in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and North America.
Islamic Movement Uzbekistan [IMU]
Description: Coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states.
Activities: Responsible for taking foreigners hostage in 1999 and 2000, including four U.S. citizens who were mountain climbing, four Japense geologists and eight Kyrgyzstani soldiers.
Location: Areas of operation include Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Jaish-e-Mohammed [JEM, Army of Mohammed]
Description: An Islamic extremist group whose aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan.
Activities: Implicated in the attack last December on the Indian Parliament that killed nine and injured 18.
Location: Conducts terrorist activities mainly in Kashmir, and maintained training camps in Afghanistan until last year.
Al-Jihad [Egyptian Islamic, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad]
Description: Egyptian Islamic extremists who merged with Bin Ladin’s al-Qaida organization last year.
Activities: Responsible for Egyptian Embassy bombing in Islamabad in 1995 and a thwarted 1998 attack against the U.S. Embassy in Albania.
Location: Operated in Cairo, though most of its network is in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and the United Kingdom.
Kahane Chai [Kach]
Description: Stated goal is to restore the biblical state of Israel.
Activities: Threatened to attack Arabs, Palestinians and Israeli government officials.
Location: Israel and West Bank settlements.
Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK]
Description: Founded as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group with the goal to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Activities: Bombed Turkish tourist sites and hotels through the mid-1990s.
Location: Operates in Turkey, Europe and the Middle East.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba [LT, Army of the Righteous]
Description: An armed wing of a Pakistan-based religious organization.
Activities: The LT claimed responsibility in 2001 for numerous attacks, including an attack on Srinagar airport that killed five Indians and an attack on a police station that killed eight officers.
Location: Trains militants in camps across Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE]
Description: A group in Sri Lanka that uses overt and illegal methods to raise funds, acquire weapons and publicize its cause of establishing an independent Tamil state.
Activities: Political assassinations and bombings are commonplace, though they have refrained from targeting foreign diplomatic and commercial establishments.
Location: Northern and eastern coastal areas of Sri Lanka.
Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization [MEK, MKO]
Description: Expelled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support now is from Saddam Hussein.
Activities: Assisted the government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in northern and southern Iraq in 1991, and has since performed internal security for the government of Iraq.
Location: Forced to flee Iran for France in the 1980s and have since settled in Iraq.
National Liberation Army [ELN]
Description: Marxist insurgent group formed by urban intellectuals inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
Activities: Annually conduct hundreds of kidnappings for ransom, often targeting foreign employees of large corporations. Have also inflicted major damage on pipelines and electrical distribution networks.
Location: Mostly in the mountainous areas of Colombia.
The Palestine Islamic Jihad [PIJ]
Description: Committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war. The group has not targeted U.S. interests and has confined attacks to Israelis within Israel and the territories.
Activities: PIJ activists have conducted large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets.
Location: Primarily Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, along with Lebanon and Syria.
Palestine Liberation Front [PLF]
Description: Pro-PLO faction led by Muhammad Abbas is known for aerial attacks against Israel.
Activities: Responsible for the 1985 attack on the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer.
Location: Based in Iraq.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP]
Description: Took part in meetings with Arafat and PLO representatives to discuss national unity and the reinvigoration of the PLO, but continues to oppose current negotiations with Israel.
Activities: Shot to death Israel tourism minister last year in retaliation for Israel’s killing of PFLP leader.
Location: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command [PFLP-GC]
Description: Opposed to Arafat’s PLO, and led by former Syrian Army captain Ahmad Jabril. Closely tied to Syria and Iran.
Activities: Primary focus now on guerrilla operations in southern Lebanon, small-scale attacks in Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
Location: Headquartered in Damascus with bases in Lebanon.
Al-Qaida
Description: Established by Usama Bin Ladin in the late 1980s to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Current goal is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems “non-Islamic and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslin countries.
Activities: Al-Qaida suicide attackers hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners last September 11, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Pentagon. Also directed attacks against the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, along with 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Location: Al-Qaida has cells worldwide and is reinforced by its ties to Sunni extremist networks.
Real IRA [RIRA]
Description: Formed in 1998 as a clandestine armed wing of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, a political pressure group dedicated to removing British forces from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland.
Activities: Responsible for a car bombing in Northern Ireland that killed 29 and injured 220 persons.
Location: Northern Ireland, Irish Republic and Great Britain.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC]
Description: Established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party.
Activities: In 1999, executed three U.S. Indian rights activists on Venezuelan territory after kidnapping them in Colombia. Well-documented ties to narcotics traffickers, principally through the provision of armed protection.
Location: Based in Colombia, with some activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador.
Revolutionary Nuclei [Revolutionary Cells]
Description: Emerged from a broad range of anti-establishment and anti-U.S./NATO/European Union leftists groups active in Greece in the late 1990s.
Activities: RN last attacked U.S. interests in Greece in November 2000 with two separate bombings against the Athens office of Citigroup and the studio of a Greek-American sculptor. The group also detonated an explosive device outside the Athens offices of Texaco in late 1999.
Location: Primary area of operation is in Athens.
Revolutionary Organization 17 November [17 November]
Description: Radical leftist group named for the 1973 student uprising in Greece protesting the military regime. Anti-Greek establishment, anti-U.S., anti-Turkey, anti-NATO.
Activities: Initial attacks were assassinations of senior U.S. officials and Greek public figures. Most recent attack was the 2000 murder of British Defense Attache` Stephen Saunders.
Location: Athens.
Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party [DHKP/C]
Description: Espouses a Marxist ideology and is virulently anti-U.S. and anti-NATO.
Activities: Assassinated prominent Turkish businessman and two others in 1996. Targeted Turkish police in suicide bombings last year.
Location: Conducts attacks primarily in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Salafist Group for Call and Combat [GSPC]
Description: The most effective armed group in Algeria, having gained popular support through its pledge to avoid civilian attacks inside the country.
Activities: Conducts operations aimed at government and military targets, primarily in rural areas. Some members in Europe maintain contacts with other North African extremists sympathetic to al-Qaida.
Location: Based in Algeria.
Sendero Luminoso [Shining Path, SL]
Description: Stated goal is to destroy existing Peruvian institutions and replace them with a communist peasant revolutionary regime. The most ruthless terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere, responsible for killing approximately 30,000 since 1980.
Activities: Detonated explosives at the diplomatic missions of several countries in Peru, including an attempt to car bomb the U.S. Embassy.
Location: Mostly in the rural areas of Peru.
United Self-Defense Forces/Group of Colombia [AUC-Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia]
Description: Supported by economic elites, drug traffickers and local communities, claiming its primary objective is to protect its sponsors from insurgents.
Activities: Operations range from assassinating suspected insurgent supporters to engaging guerrilla combat units.
Location: Colombia