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Dr. John Lewis
Updated: May 27, 2007
The Evidence: Chronology of Islamist Attacks
Investigation of the war against Islamic Totalitarians--meaning, all those who wish to impose Islamic Law by force, or who pursue a political agenda that includes such a goal--may begin with a list of the major attacks made by various Islamist groups since the 1970’s. A list of every terrorist attack in the twentieth century would fill a volume. The chronology here is ruthlessly select; it includes a few events needed to understand the sequence, such as the formation of selected top-rank Islamist groups, formal declared wars, [and includes, in brackets, certain non-Muslim terrorist acts]. A series of one hijacker / one day hijackings without casualties have been omitted—although the facts suggest connections between the motivations of lone hijackers and the teachings of radical Islam.
No attempt has been made to document the hundreds of Palestinian bombings in Israel, and Israeli retaliations, unless they had international affects or involved the deaths of Americans. This list does not adequately demonstrate the state of siege in which Israel has lived for over fifty years, nor does it convey the depths of Arab rage that has led to such attacks. There is no attempt to provide a blow-by-blow account of the war in Iraq. This list focuses on violence against civilians by Islamic fundamentalists, for political purposes, which has taken place in an international context.
Airline Hijackings have been a major way that Palestinian militants have expanded the conflict into the international arena. For a description of various forms of airline attacks, see South Asia Analysis Group, 1/2/00, “Plane Hijacking: In Perspective” at http://www.saag.org/papers2/paper103.html. See the Aviation Safety Network database for information, by year, about hijackings and other airline events: http://aviation-safety.net/database/. See Jewish Virtual Library, “Middle East Terrorist Incidents (1968-1973)” for a list of terror attacks against Israel over 5 years: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html. One incident sums up the difference between the Palestinian and Israeli approaches to the war. On May 1, 2004 a Palestinian militant killed a pregnant woman and her four children in the Gaza strip; she was on her way to a demonstration against the PM of Israel’s plane to pull back from the Gaza. In other words, she was exercising her rights in a constitutional republic to protest her government’s plans. International condemnation followed Israel’s response, against militant members of the terrorist group behind such attacks, under a government in which the PM is selected by a dictator and dissent is squashed.
Other exclusions from this chronology: After 9/11/01, a slew of attacks in Pakistan (following President Mushareef’s assistance to the US); India: Sikhs vs. Muslims and Hindus (killings of Indira Gandhi on 10/31/1984, and Rajiv Gandhi, 5/21/1991, by a suicide bomber); India’s conflicts with Pakistan; Spain: ETA Basque separatists; Greece and the November 17 group (murdered CIA official Richard Welch on 12/23/75); Peru and the Shining Pat; The Irish Republican Army; The National Liberation Front and other political and drug gangs in Columbia; the North Koreans (bombed a South Korean delegation Burma, killing 21, on 10/9/83; bombed Seoul’s Kimbo airport, on 9/14/86; bombed Korean Air Lines Flight 858, on 11/29/87). Excluded also is non-Muslim so-called “domestic terrorism,” such as environmental terrorism (e.g., the letter-bombing of 10 Downing Street in Britain in 11/1982 by the Animal Rights Militia). Political oppression within authoritarian governments is also outside the scope--including the brutal repression, by Palestinians, of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israelis.
This is a work in progress. Comments / corrections / additions are welcome
This list is copyright protected 2005 John David Lewis.
1917 Russian Revolution leads to nationalizations of private property.
1919 Turkey: Mustafa Kemel begins takeover
British and French Protectorates in Syria and Lebanon.
1921 Rheza Khan rules Iran.
1926 Saudi Arabia: Ibn Saud becomes King of Hijaz, Sultan of Najd.
1928 Muslim Brotherhood formed in Egypt.
1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, Italian colonies, united into Libya.
1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty signed in Montreux; Egyptian sovereignty recognized. British troops to leave Egypt (except those guarding the Suez Canal) while Britain would train Egyptian forces. The Sudan would remain under British control. The Treaty was opposed by Muslim groups, and abrogated by Egypt in 1951.
1941 Iran: British / Soviet forces invade; son Muhammed Reza Khan Pahlavi installed.
1943 Baath Party (“Movement of Arab Renaissance”) formed in Damascus by Michel Aflaq and Sala al-Din Bitar. They supported the Rashid Ali pro-German regime in Iraq, which established a fascist background to the party.
5/14/48 State of Israel proclaimed following UN partition resolution. Arabs reject the resolution and attack Israel.
12/28/48 A Muslim Brother assassinated Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi of Egypt.
3/22/51 Iran nationalizes oil industry.
1/52 Egypt: 20 Brits killed in Anti-British Cairo riots. Nasser seizes power in a coup.
7/26/56 Suez Canal nationalized; Egypt blockades Straits of Tiran. France, Britain and Israel take the canal. US pressures them to withdraw (November).
8/29/60 Jordan: Prime Minister, 11 others killed by bomb in the foreign ministry building in Amman. 2 attackers fled, 11 sentenced to death. CDISS.
1964 Palestinian Liberation Front formed.
9/1/65 South Arabia (Yemen): British speaker of state council murdered by Arab nationalists. Follows an assassination attempt against a British police superintendent in August. Two weeks later 7 British children injured in a grenade attack at the Aden airport terminal. CDISS.
11/22/66 South Arabia (Yemen). DC-3 aircraft blown up in mid-air by luggage bomb. 28 killed. CDISS.
1967 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine founded by George Habash, from the PLO.
6/10/67 Six Day War begins; Israel defends against two-front aggression; takes Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights.
10/12/67 Greece: British European Airways airliner destroyed over Rhodes, by a bomb in the passenger cabin 60 dead. CDISS.
6/5/68 US: Robert Kennedy murdered by Jordanian terrorist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, in Los Angeles. The killer became the cause of further terrorist attacks, as Arab terrorist groups demanded his release. CDISS.
7/23/68 El Al Airliner, Rome to Tel Aviv, hijacked to Algiers. Hostages held 5 weeks, then released in return for the 2 Palestinian and 1 Syrian hijacker, and 16 prisoners. The first and last successful El Al hijacking.
12/26/68 Greece: Gunfire attack on El Al airliner in Athens. 1 killed, 1 wounded. In response, Israeli commandos destroyed 14 Lebanese aircraft at Beirut International Airport. Two Palestinian hijackers were freed after 7/22/70 attack (below). ASN, 12/28/68, http://aviation-safety.net/database/1968/681228-1.htm.
2/18/69 Switzerland: Gunfire attack on El Al airliner at Zurich. 1 killed. 1 hijacker killed; 4 imprisoned. 3 freed after 9/6/70 attacks (below).
5/22/69 Denmark: Assassination attempt against Israeli PM Ben-Gurion foiled. Would-be assassins freed.
8/1969 TWA Flight 840, Rome to Athens, hijacked to Damascus, destroyed after hostages freed. http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte861m/twa.html.
8/23/69 Attack on Israeli Commercial Fair in Izmir. 1 bomber killed, 1 wounded from the bomb.
8/29/69 TWA airliner from LA hijacked to Damascus. 2 Palestinians not brought to trial.
9/8/69 Grenade attack on El Al office, Brussels. 2 young boys recruited by al-Fatah. Iraqi embassy helped 1 escape.
11/27/69 Greece: Grenade attack on El Al office in Athens. 1 child killed. 13 wounded. 2 Jordanians imprisoned; freed after 7/22/70 hijacking.
12/5/69 Britain: Attack on airliner in London anticipated; 4 militants arrested.
12/17/69 Britain: London hijacking foiled.
12/21/69 Greece: Foiled hijacking in Athens; 3 Lebanese freed after 7/22/70 hijacking (below).
1/9/70 Lebanon: TWA airliner hijacked to Paris. Single hijacker freed.
2/10/70 Germany: Munich Airport. 3 terrorists attacked El Al passengers in a bus with guns and grenades. 1 passenger killed, 11 injured. All 3 terrorists captured. Responsibility: The Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Freed after 9/6/70 attacks.
2/17/70 Germany: Foiled hijack attempt against El Al airliner. 3 would-be hijackers freed in under 2 months.
2/21/70 Switzerland: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine blow up a Swissair Convair airliner leaving Zurich for Tel Aviv. 47 dead. On the same day, a bomb exploded aboard a Frankfurt to Vienna flight; it landed safely in Frankfurt.(CDISS, ASN http://aviation-safety.net/database/1970/700221-1.htm)
2/23/70 Israel: Palestinian Liberation Organization fires on a bus, killing American Barbara Ertle.
3/28, 29/70 Lebanon: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fires 7 rockets at the US Embassy, the JFK Library, and 2 businesses in Beirut. (JVL)
5/4/70 Paraguay: attack on Israeli embassy at Asuncion. Wife of diplomat killed. 2 Palestinians serve 3 years in prison.
7/22/70 Greece: Olympic Airlines plane hijacked from Athens to Beirut. Palestinian Popular Struggle Front responsible. The hijackers and 7 other attackers freed (see 12/21/69, 11/27/69, 12/26/68 above).
9/6/1970 Four airliners hijacked over the Atlantic Ocean. On 9/11. a fifth was hijacked.
TWA Boeing 707 from Frankfurt; Swissair DC8 from Zurich; El Al Boeing 707 from Amsterdam; Pan American Boeing 747 from Amsterdam. On 9/11. a fifth jet was hijacked: BOAC-VC-10, Bombay to Beirut. Responsibility: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The attempt against Israel’s El Al airliner was foiled. The crew was armed, one hijacker was shot, and a passenger and a crew member overpowered the other (armed with grenades). The plane landed safely at London Heathrow. The hijacker, a Palestinian woman named Leila Khaled, later said of the El Al flight: “We knew beforehand that on the plane there were armed security men - but we didn't know that the crew were armed too.” This is kind of surprise that saves lives. Precisely 31 years before 9/11/2001, El Al had demonstrated a hijacker’s worst nightmare: an armed crew and defiant passengers. Thirty-one years later, Todd Beamer—of the fourth airliner on 9/11/01, United Flight 93—had nothing to fight with.
On 9/30 Khaled and six other Palestinians, held in Germany and Switzerland, were released. They were responsible for the 12/26/68, 11/27/69 and 12/21/69 attacks (above).
Khaled had also hijacked TWA Flight 840 in 1969. She was a known enemy of Israel, who had plastic surgery to get past Israeli security and onto another flight. In a BBC interview on January 1, 2001, Khaled was asked about the importance of forcing the government of Britain to negotiate, and she answered: “The success in the tactics of hijacking and imposing our demands and succeeding in having our demands implemented, gave us the courage and the confidence to go ahead with our struggle. It made us continue the struggle because it showed us materially that we could achieve our goals by armed struggle." BBC Interview, http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/uk_confidential/1090986.stm. Also the source of the quotation above.
9/14/70 TWA airliner from Zurich, hijacked to Amman, Jordan. Four Americans injured. (JVL)
12/17/70 5 terrorists arrested in Munich for attempt to sabotage an El Al plane.3 months in prison.
5/28/71 Turkey: Israeli Consul Efraim Elrom assassinated in Istanbul. The Turkish Liberation Army, in alliance with Palestinians, claimed responsibility. (JVL, CDISS)
6/23/71 Attack on Jordanian target in Paris. 1 arrest.
10/4/71 Lebanon: attempt to hijack a Jordanian plane foiled. 2 Palestinians arrested.
11/28/71 Prime Minister Wasfi Tal of Jordan assassinated in Cairo. 4 “Black September” members arrested; freed in 1973.
9/28/70 Egypt: Death of Nasser.
Early 1970’s Iran: While building a revolutionary movement in Iran, the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini actively supports the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and the al-Fatah Brigades, by funding and training militant groups in Syria, with Syrian aid on Syrian soil. Shiite Muslims support the groups, dominated by Sunnis under the protection of a secular dictatorship. The dictator gets support from Islam; Khomeini gets a place to hide and train his troops, and the Palestinians get training for the war against Israel.
2/19/72 Egypt: hijacking of Jordanian plane foiled in Cairo. 1 arrested.
2/22/72 Hijacking of Lufthansa airliner, New Delhi to Athens, to Aden, Yemen. Hostages freed after money payment to 5 hijackers. Responsibility: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/23/newsid_2518000/2518731.stm. ASN: http://aviation-safety.net/database/1972/720222-1.htm
5/8/72 Sabena airliner hijacked from Brussels, forced to land at Tel Aviv. Israelis force release of plane and passengers by assault. 2 hijackers killed, 2 serving life in prison.
5/30/72 Israel: machine gun attack by 3 Japanese, under Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 27 killed, 80 wounded. 2 attackers killed, 1 serving life in prison.
8/16/72 El Al Flight, Rome to Tel Aviv, bombed in luggage compartment. 2 conspirators arrested in Rome, freed.
9/5/1972 Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. 8 Palestinian “Black September” terrorists stormed the Olympic village, taking 11 members of the Israeli wrestling team hostage. 9 hostages, and all but 3 of the terrorists, killed. Killed included an American – Israeli from Cleveland, David Berger. Israel responded with air strikes. After three terrorists were freed by the German government on 10/29/72, Israel began Operation Wrath of God, systematically hunting down and killing the attackers across the world. Highlights of reprisals include:
2/8/72 Mahmoud Hamshari killed by exploding telephone in Paris.
4/6/73 Basil al-Kubaisi shot in Paris.
4/10/73 "Operation Spring of Youth" Reprisal for Munich: “The Unit,” led by future PM Ehud Barak (in disguise as a woman), landed with inflatable boats in Beirut; kills Kamal Nasser, Mahmoud Yussuf Najjer, and Kemal Adwan, in their Beirut apartments. It was 30 minutes from the landing back to the sea.
6/28/73 Mohammed Boudia killed in car bomb in Paris.
1/22/79 Ali Hassan Salame “The Red Prince” killed by Israeli car bomb in Beirut. He was Arafat’s #2 man.
8/1/81 Abu Daoud, mastermind of the Munich massacre, killed in a Warsaw café. In 1999 the Palestine Prize for Culture was granted to Daoud for his book, "Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich." It describes how he killed the athletes. (JVL; also, http://www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/page5.html; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/11/20/60II/main318655.shtml.
9/9/72 England: An Israeli diplomat is killed by a letter bomb in London. CDISS.
10/23/72 A Palestinian, with Algerian diplomatic passport, was arrested in Amsterdam carrying arms. Freed.
10/29/72 Lufthansa airliner, Beirut to Ankara, hijacked to Zagreb. Released after 3 of the 9/15/72 Munich Olympic terrorists were freed by the German government. The terrorists held a news conference. Israel vowed privately to get them.
12/24/72 Britain: A Palestinian, convicted of planning attacks in Scandanavia. Freed after 1 year.
1/20/73 Austria: 6 Arabs arrested in Vienna, and in Italy, planning attacks against Russian Jews in Austria. Given suspended prison sentences, freed, expelled from Austria and Italy.
3/1/73 Sudan: Black September group terrorists storm the Saudi Arabian embassy during a party for American Charges d'Affairs George C. Moore. They took Moore, US Ambassador Cleo A. Noel, Jr., Belgian Charges d'Affairs Guy Eid and two Arab diplomats hostage. They demanded the release from prison of PLO and Baader-Meinhof Gang killers, including Robert F. Kennedy's Palestinian assassin Sirhan Sirhan, and Black September commander Muhammed Awadh (Abu Daud), an architect of Munich (killed in August, 1981; see 3/1/73 above). The next day, Noel, Moore and Eid were killed, reportedly machine-gunned starting with their feet and moving up; on March 4 the others were released. Responsibility: Arafat, and the Fatah Organization. (JVL) The US State Department--and seven American administrations--denied Arafat's involvement for over thirty years; in May, 2006, a State Department historian released a memo confirming the fact of Arafat's specific involvement in every aspect of the attack, including the order to kill the American Ambassador.
3/12/73 Cyprus: Palestinian Black September terrorists murder an Israeli businessman. CDISS.
3/15/73 France: Planned attack on Jordanian, Israeli Embassies in Paris. 4 arrested; all released and expelled.
4/4/73 Attack on El Al plane at Rome foiled. 2 arrested, deported to Lebanon.
4/9/73 Cyprus: Plan to attack Israeli plane and Ambassador’s residence foiled. 4 Arabs imprisoned; set free after 11/25/73 attack (below).
4/27/73 Italy: civilian clerk murdered at El Al desk in Rome airport by Palestinian.
4/27/73 Lebanon: 3 arrested at Beirut for carrying explosives, bound for Nice, France.
5/20/73 Britain: Letter bombs sent to England, Holland. 2 Arabs arrested, expelled.
6/17/73 Italy: car bomb explodes near Rome El Al desk, 2 Arabs in it injured, freed without trial.
7/18/73 Washington, DC: Nation of Islam members shoot seven members of a family to death in cold blood, including four children. A defendant in the case is later murdered in prison on orders from Elijah Muhammad. 8 dead, 2 injured. (ROP)
7/19/73 Greece: attack on El Al office foiled. Hostages taken in hotel. Palestinian freed, expelled.
7/20/73 Japanese airliner, Tokyo to Amsterdam, hijacked to Libya. 1 hijacker killed by own grenade. Other not tried?
8/5/73 Greece: Athens airport, machine gun attack in Israeli lounge; 3 dead, 55 wounded. Sentenced to death; commuted after hijacking of a Greek freighter in Pakistan, 2/2/74.
9/5/73 Italy: planned missile attack at Rome airport foiled. 5 Palestinians arrested. 2 released on bail, no-show for trial.
9/5/73 France: Saudi Arabian Embassy attacked. 5 attackers allowed to fly to Kuwait with 6 hostages. Attackers handed over to Palestinian Liberation Organization on 10/11/73.
9/28/73 Austria: 3 hostages taken on train. Released after Austria agrees to close transit camp for Russian / Jewish immigrants at Schonau. 2 Palestinians arrested, freed, expelled.
10/6/73 A Coalition of Arab states launches two-front military attack on Israel, the Yom Kippur War during the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadam.
10/19/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists kidnap a couple, nearly decapitate the man, and rape the woman. (ROP)
10/29/73 Berkeley, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists shoot a woman in the face.
11/25/73 KLM airliner, flying to New Delhi, hijacked to Abu Dhabi. 3 hijackers surrender, fate unknown.
11/25/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists kill a grocer. (ROP)
12/11/73 Oakland, CA: A man is killed in a phone booth by Nation of Islam members. (ROP)
12/13/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists shhot a woman to death on the sidewalk. (ROP)
12/17/73 Italy: Rome Airport Attack and Hijacking. 5 attackers attacked a Pan American 707 with grenades. They herded 5 Italian hostages into a Lufthansa airliner and killed an Italian customs agent, and forced the pilot to fly to Beirut. After Lebanon refused to let the plane land, it landed in Athens, where the terrorists demanded the release of 2 Arab terrorists. They killed a hostage and threw his body onto the tarmac. The plane flew to Damascus, for fuel and food. It then flew to Kuwait, where the terrorists released their hostages in return for passage to an unknown destination—probably to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 33 killed.
12/20/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists shoot an 81-year-old janitor. (ROP)
12/22/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam members kill two people in separate attacks. (ROP)
12/24/73 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam members kidnap, torture and decapitate a man. (ROP)
1/24/74 Oakland, CA: Five shootings by Nation of Islam terrorists leave three people dead and one paralyzed. (ROP)
2/2/74 Pakistan: Freighter Vory Hijacked at port at Karachi. In April, the Greek government commuted the death sentences of the 2 attackers responsible for 8/5/73 attack at Athens to life in prison. In May, they were freed, and deported to Libya at Libya’s request. S. Ch. Kaminaris, “Greece and Middle Eastern Terrorism,” in MERIA,3.2, 6/1999, http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=403.
3/1/74 Sudan: Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum seized by Black September terrorists. Diplomats taken hostages. The terrorists murder 2American and 1 Belgian diplomat. CDISS.
4/1/74 Oakland, CA: A Nation of Islam terrorist shoots at two Salvation Army members, killing one and injuring one. (ROP)
4/16/74 Oakland, CA: Nation of Islam terrorists kill a man helping a friend move. (ROP)
9/8/74 Greece: TWA Flight 841, Tel Aviv to NY, crashed after takeoff from a scheduled stop in Athens. 88 killed, including 1 American. Cause: explosives in rear cargo compartment. ASN: http://aviation-safety.net/database/1980/800724-1.html.
1/19/75 France: Arab terrorists attack Orly airport, Paris. 10 hostages seized. The French provided the terrorists with a plane to fly them to safety in Baghdad, Iraq. CDISS.
6/27/75 Germany. Politician Peter Lorenz kidnapped in West Berlin, by June the Second Movement terrorists. The German government released 5 terrorists, who were allowed to fly to South Yemen. (CDISS)
6/29/75 Lebanon: US attaché kidnapped, released, when an anonymous donor met demands for food for a Beirut neighborhood. (JVL)
11/14/75 Israel: bombing in Jerusalem kills 6, including 1 American; wounds 38. (JVL)
11/21/75 Israel: 1 American killed in axe attack from a PLO faction (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine). (JVL)
12/21/75 Austria: Carlos "The Jackal" holds 11 oil ministers and 59 civilians hostage during an OPEC meeting in Vienna. Given several hundred million dollars in Algeria, Carlos escaped with other Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists. CDISS.
6/27/76 Air France jet, Paris to Athens, hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda. On 7/4 Israelis launch a rescue raid and free 105 passengers. 200 Commandos kill 20 Ugandan soldiers and all hijackers. 3 passengers are killed, along with the commando unit’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu. http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm. Also, “The Entebbe Rescue Mission,” in JVL, http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/entebbe.html. One hostage, Mrs. Dora Bloch, had been taken to a hospital; she was murdered on Idi Amin’s orders. Responsibility: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, German Baader-Meinhof, and Idi Amin.
8/11/76 Turkey: Attack on terminal at Istanbul airport. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Japanese Red Army terrorists kill 4, including an American, Harold Rosenthal, injure 20. CDISS.
1/1/77 Lebanon: US Ambassador Frances E. Meloy and the US Economic Counsellor kidnapped, later murdered. (JVL)
3/9/77 Washington, DC: Hanifi Muslims storm three buildings including a B'nai B'rith to hold 134 people hostage. 1 dead. They demand the cancellation of a forthcoming movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (for a fine), and the five men who had massacred the Hanafi leader's family, along with the killer of Malcolm X. (D. Pipes, "What do the Terrorists Want? A Caliphate," in New York Sun 7/26/05.
7/8/77 Kuwait Airways Boeing 707, Beirut to Kuwait, hijacked to Syria. ASN http://aviation-safety.net/database/1977/770708-1.html.
10/13/77 Hijacking of Lufthansa airlines Boeing 737, Mallorca / Frankfurt, flies to Rome, Cyprus, Bahrain, Dubau, Aden, Mogadishu. Pilot killed in South Yemen. After 5 days German commandos storm the plane in Somalia. 3 hijackers killed; 1 arrested, served 1 year in prison; then arrested in Norway in 1996, serving 12 years. A woman convicted in 1996 of smuggling weapons onto Mallorca for the attack; released on time served, 2 ½ years. On Haas: International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=187. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
10/17/77 Air Djibouti commuter jet hijacked; Pilot and 1 passenger shot by hijacker.
6/2/78 Israel: Bus bombing in Jerusalem: 6 killed including 1 American. (JVL)
9/17/78 Camp David Peace accords between Egypt and Israel. Most Arab States, the PLO, and the Soviets reject the peace. Israel returns land taken from Egypt.
12/25/79 USSR invades Afghanistan; bin Laden moves there and organizes a financial network and a resistance to the Soviets based on jihad. 1989 USSR leaves.
1979 Saddam Hussein takes control of Iraq. The next year, he invades Iran.
4/14/79 4 Afghans kidnapped U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs in Kabul and demanded the release of various "religious figures." Dubs was killed, along with 4 terrorists, when Afghan police stormed the hotel where he was held.
5/4/79 Israel: Bomb attack in Tiberias; 2 Americans injured. (JVL)
11/4/79 Iranian hostage crisis. US territory (embassy) assaulted and occupied. 66 hostages taken; 53 held until 1/20/1981. No effective US military response: A rescue attempt by the Delta Force unit failed on 4/25/80 when a Marine Corps CH-53 helicopter crashed into a USAF C-130 transport aircraft in central Iran, 8 dead, 5 injured. NO further military action taken.
11/20/79 Saudi Arabia: 200 Islamic terrorists seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, taking hundreds of pilgrims hostage. Saudi and French security forces retook the shrine after a battle. Some 250 people were killed and 600 wounded. (The Bin Laden Construction Company trucks were used by militants. The company assisted the security forces.) Jacquard, In the Name 13.
12/2/79 Libya: 2,000 Libyans ransack the U.S. Embassy, in support of the Iranian regime. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106281,00.html.
12/25/79 USSR invades Afghanistan; bin Laden moves there and organizes a financial network and a resistance to the Soviets based on jihad.
4/30/80 London: Iranian Embassy in Princess Gate, London attacked by 6 Iranians, who opposed the Ayatollah Khomeini, backed by Iraq. 26 hostages freed 6 days later by British Special Air Service anti-terrorist troops, with the support of the Iranian theocracy. 5 terrorists killed, 1 jailed for life. 2 hostages killed. Some 13 years later, Iran and England agreed to a “mutual compensation” package, whereby embassies in either country were repaired. “We did not surrender, we became victorious” said Iran’s President Bani-Sadr. CDISS, http://www.cdiss.org/terror_1980s.htm. BBC News, http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/5/newsid_2510000/2510873.stm.
5/2/80 Israel: West Bank: PLO attack on people walking home from worship; 1 American killed. (JVL)
7/22/80 Bethesda, MD: A political dissident is killed in front of his home by an Iranian agent who was an American convert to Islam. (ROP)
7/24/80 Kuwait Airways Boeing 737, Beirut to Kuwait, flown to Kuwait, Manama, Bahrain, Abadan; hijackers surrender in Kuwait. ASN: http://aviation-safety.net/database/1980/800724-1.html.
10/13/80 Turkish Boeing 72, Istanbul to Ankara, hijacked to Iran; lands in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Plane stormed; 4 hijackers arrested. ASN: http://aviation-safety.net/database/1980/801013-1.html.
1/20/81 Iran releases US hostages, upon inauguration of US President Reagan.
3/2/81 Pakistan International Airlines, Boeing 720, Karachi to Peshawar, Hijcaked to Kabul and Damascus. Hijackers surrendered after 13 days.
10/6/81 Egypt: Anwar Sadat assassinated by Islamic Jihad, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
4/1982 Syrian President Hafez Assad orders the bombing of Hamah to end a revolt of the Muslim Brotherhood, killing more than 20,000 people.
7/9/82 Lebanon: David Dodge, Actin President of American University, kidnapped by Hizballah; released after 1 year. Syrian intelligence services helped in negotiations. (JVL)
9/14/82 Lebanon: Christian Premier Bashir Gemayel was assassinated by a car bomb. The result was a massacre, by Christians, in a refugee camp, as the Israeli army surrounded it. Defense Minister Ariel Sharon resigned after an Israeli investigation.
1982 Hizbollah (Party of God) founded in response to Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982. 1983: Israel withdrew, and international force came in.
3/16/83 Lebanon: 5 US Marines injured in grenade attack near Beirut Airport. Shi’ite Militia claimed responsibility. (JVL)
4/18/1983 Beirut, US Embassy destroyed by suicide truck-bombing. 63 people killed, including CIA Middle East Director Robert Ames; 120 wounded. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
10/23/83 Beirut, Lebanon: Marine Barracks bombed. 241 Marines, 56 French killed. Responsible: Lebanese Shia militants, Islamic Jihad members under Iranian control. Response: US bombed Syrian Air Defense positions. French bombed Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions. The international force left in 4/1984—the key demand of the militants.
12/12/83 Kuwait: US embassy targeted by Iranian backed Iraqi Shia truck-bomb. The attack was foiled; the bomb exploded in the Embassy fore-court. 5 killed. (CDISS) A Kuwaiti court sentenced Jamal Jafaar Mohammed to death in 1984 for the attacks. He was likely involved in the 12/4/84 hijacking of a Kuwaiti airliner. He won a seat in Iraq's Council of Representatives in the U.S.-backed elections of December 2005, to represent Babil province. (CNN 2/6/07)
1/18/84 Malcolm Kerr, President of American University in Beirut, murdered by gunmen. Hizballah claimed the goal was to “drive all Americans out from Lebanon.” (JVL)
1/20/84 Iran declared a sponsor of terrorism by US.
3/7/84 Lebanon: CNN Bureau Chief Jeremy Levin kidnapped, escaped to Syrian army barracks, returned to Americans. (JVL)
3/8/84 Lebanon: Rev. Benjamin Weir kidnapped; released after 18 months, with Syrian and Iranian Assistance. (JVL)
3/16/84 Lebanon: Islamic Jihad kidnapped / murdered Political Officer William Buckley.
4/12/84 Spain: A restaurant near US Air Force Base at Torrejon bombed. 18 U.S. servicemen killed, 83 injured.
9/20/84 Lebanon: Suicide bomb attack on US Embassy in Beirut. 23 dead, 21 injured. Responsible: Hizballah. (JVL)
9/20/84 Lebanon: truck bombing of US Embassy Annex in Aukar. 2 Americans, over a dozen others killed. 20 injured, including US Ambassador Reginald Bartholomew and British Ambassador David Miers. Responsible: Islamic Jihad, in retaliation for US veto of a UN Security Concil resolution. (JVL) Putative attempt to kill the head of Hizbollah fails.
12/4/84 Kuwait Airways, Airbus A300, Dubai to Karachi, hijacked to Tehran. 4 hijackers demand release of prisoners. Plane stormed after 6 days. 2 American Agency for International Development employees killed. Iran promises to try the attackers, but releases them to leave the country. (JVL) Reagan offers $250,000 reward; no military response.
1985-1986 US and Iran: arms scheme to fund Nicaraguan rebels.
3/8/85 Lebanon: Car bomb kills over 80 in Beirut.BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/8/newsid_2516000/2516407.stm. The CDISS incorrectly shows it in 1984. http://www.cdiss.org/terror_1980s.htm.
3/16/85 Terry Anderson, AP correspondent, kidnapped by Hizbollah in Lebanon. Anderson, Associated Press Bureau Chief in Beirut, was held for six years, released on 12/4/1991, the last US hostage in Lebanon.
5/28/85 American David Jacobsen, CEO of American University of Beirut Medical Center, taken hostage in Lebanon (held until 11/2/86). The captors and torturers of these men, and of Terry Anderson, Thomas Sutherland and Rev. Lawrence Jenco were Hizbollah, supported by Iran, granted sanctuary in Syria. No military action was taken against Iran.
6/14/85 TWA Airliner (Rome to Athens) hijacked to Beirut by Islamic Jihad. US Navy diver Robert Stethem killed, his body dumped on the tarmac. 39 Americans held captive by the Shia Muslim Amal militia and Hizbollah until freed on 6/3/1985 by orders of President Assad. After being flown twice to Algiers, the aircraft was returned to Beirut after Israel released 435 prisoners. As always, the Shiites and the Sunnis were able to cooperate with the Baathist secular dictator Assad when directed against a common enemy. No military action was taken against Syria, or Iran as supporters of Hizbollah.
6/23/85 A bomb destroyed an Air India Boeing 747 over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people aboard. Both Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists were blamed. 2 cargo handlers were killed at Tokyo Airport, when another Sikh bomb exploded in an Air Canada aircraft.
10/7/85 Passenger shop the Achille Lauro ship hijacked off Egypt by 4 terrorists. Passenger Leon Klinghoffer pushed over the side in a wheelchair. The hijackers negotiated safe passage by air, but a US fighter forced them down in Sicily. The Italian government captured, then released the mastermind, Abu Abbas, but convicted 11 others, including Klinghoffer's killer, Youssef Magied al-Molqi. He disappeared while on leave from prison for good behavior. Two others were paroled. Abbas was captured in Baghdad in April, 2003, and died of natural causes in US custody in March, 2004. Responsibility: the Palestinian Liberation Front.
9/14/85 Lebanon: Rev. Benjamin Weir released (taken captive 3/8/84).
11/23/85 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking. An Egypt Air airliner from Athens to Malta hijacked by the Abu Nidal Islamic Group. (Abu Nidal was later captured in Iraq, during the American occupation.)
12/27/85 Italy, Austria: Simultaneous gun and grenade attacks against ticket desks of El Al airlines at airports in Rome and Vienna. Responsibility: Arafat denied involvement; probably the Fatah Revolutionary Council, run by Abu Nidal, although Arafat used them to appear moderate. 18 dead; some 120 injured. http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/27/newsid_2545000/2545949.stm. Nidal was found dead in Iraq in August, 2002.
4/2/86 Greece: TWA Flight 840 from Rome bombed on approach to Athens. 15,000 feet over Argos, near Mycenae, a plastic explosive blew a hole in the side of the 727. 4 American citizens were sucked out to their deaths, including Demetra Stylianopoulou, her daughter Maria Stylian Klug and her infant grandaughter Demetra. 9 passengers were injured. (This was the second attack on TWA flight 840; see 8/1969.) Responsibility may rest with Ezzedine Kassam Unit of the Arab Revolutionary Cells, who claimed responsibility. The US State Department thought the bombing had been carried out by May Elias Mansur, under orders of a Palestinian, Colonel Hawari, with close ties to Yassir Arafat. Mohammed Rashid was arrested in Greece, tried, and served 4 years in prison.Washington Post “Bombing of TWA Flight 840,” 4/2/86, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac3/ContentServer?node=world/issues/terrordata&pagename=world/terror&appstat=detail&resulttype=attack&entityId=141&cache12=8.
4/5/86 German discotheque in West Berlin bombed. 2 U.S. Servicemen killed, 79 injured in a Libyan bomb attack. U.S. military jets hit targets in and around Tripoli and Benghazi. France refuses over-flight because the US would not commit to going all the way against Qadaffi. The French were reluctant to commit if the US was going to pull back, leaving France with a problem in North Africa.Ledeen, War 144.
9/9/86 Frank Reed, who owned and operated two private schools in Beirut with a Lebanese partner, was abducted in Beirut. Held hostage until 4/30/1990; when released, he was hospitalized for 80 days with arsenic poisoning.
9/12/86 Joseph Cicippio, Comptroller of American University of Beirut and its hospital, kidnapped in Beirut for 5 years and 3 months.
10/15/86 Israel: Grenade attack by Fatah kills an American woman at Western Wall. (JVL)
10/21/86 Lebanon. Edward A. Tracy, an American citizen in Beirut, kidnapped by Hizbollah. He was released five years later, on August 1991. (JVL) mUch has been written on this attack, e.g., Wallis Lockerbie, 2001.
10/24/86 Britain expels Syrian Ambassador Loutof Haydar for assisting in an attempt to blow up an Israeli airliner. Nezar Hindawi had placed a bomb in his girlfriend’s hand luggage; it went through 2 X-ray machines and was found by the hand search of an officer who thought the bag looked heavy. The bomb was assembled at the Syrian Embassy in London. Hindawi received a 45 year sentence. Syria later admitted Hindawi had met with the Ambassador after the bomb was found, then stayed in Syrian accommodations as London police looked for him, and had a falsified Syrian passport.
2/2/1987 Terry Waite, Anglican church envoy and hostage negotiator, was taken hostage in Lebanon (he was released 11/18/1991 with Thomas Sutherland, kidnapped in 1985).
[4/24/87 Greece: Bus in Athens bombed. 16 U.S. servicemen riding in a Greek Air Force bus were injured in a bombing attack, carried out by the November 17 revolutionary organization.]
1987 Hamas (“Islamic Resistance Movement”) founded, out of Muslim Brotherhood.
2/17/88 Kidnapping and murder of US Marine Lt. William Higgins, serving with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization in Lebanon, while driving from Tyre to Nakura. Responsibility: Iran, through Hizbollah.
4/14/88 Italy: USO Club in Naples car-bombed. 5 dead include 1 US servicewoman. 15 injured, including 4 Americans. Responsible: Organization of Jihad Brigades.
6/28/88 Greece: Defense Attaché of the U.S. Embassy killed when a car-bomb detonated outside his home in Athens. Responsibility: ?
7/23/88 US mistakenly shoots down an Iranian Airbus, killing 290.
12/21/88 Scotland: Pan Am Flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie. 270 Dead. Responsible: 2 Libyan intelligence officers, Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah indicted in Scotland and the US, for conspiracy, murder and violation of the Aviation Security Act of 1982. After ten years of negotiation, Libya handed them over for trial in a neutral country. Pan Am Airlines was convicted of “willful misconduct.” (JVL)
1989 USSR leaves Afghanistan; Muslim jihad is victorious. Taliban and Northern Alliance battle for the country; in 1996 the Taliban enter Kabul.
1/27/89 Turkey: 3 simulaneous bombings of US businesses in Istanbul and Ankara. Responsible: Dev Sol (Revolutionary Left). (JVL)
2/1989 Ayatollah Khomeini issues fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his book. It was confirmed by Khomeini’s successor in Dec., 1990, and renewed in February, 2003.
3/6/89 Egypt: 2 bombings of American and British Cultural Centers foiled. 3 revolutionary groups blamed. (JVL)
6/12/89 Turkey: US consul boat bombed in Bosporus Straits; no injuries. “Warriors of June 16th Movement” claimed responsibility. (JVL)
6/30/89 Sudan: Omar Hassan al-Bashir seizes power with aid of an Islamic National Front party headed by Hassan Al-Turabi.
9/19/89 Bombing of UTA Flight 772, Brazzaville to Paris. A bomb destroyed the airliner over the Sahara Desert in southern Niger. Killed: all 170 persons aboard. 6 Libyans found guilty in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment.
10/11/89 Turkey: Bombing outside US military PX. Responsible: Dev Sol. (JVL)
1/90 Peru: US Embassy in Lima bombed
1/30/90 Tucson, AZ: A Sunni cleric is assassinated in front of a mosque after declaring that two verses of the Qur'an were invalid. (ROP)
11/5/90 New York City: An Israeli is stabbed to death by a Muslim attacker at a hotel. (ROP)
12/10/90 Iraq: Saddam Hussein releases 100 of the hostages held since the Kuwait invasion of 8/2.
1/18/91 Philippines: Bombs placed at Ambassador’s Residence in Manila and at the USIS library in Manila. Responsibility: Iraqi agents..
2/7/91 Turkey: US Civilian contractor killed by Dev Sol at his car at Incirlik Air Base. (JVL)
2/28/91 Turkey: US Air Force Officer shot, wounded in Izmir. (JVL)
3/28/91 Saudi Arabia: attempted shooting of 3 US Marines at Jubial. (JVL)
10/28/91 Turkey: Car bomb kills 1 American serviceman; wounds his wife. Responsible: Islamic Jihad. (JVL)
10/28/91 Turkey: 2 car bombs kill 1 American in Ankara. Responsible: Islamic Jihad. (JVL)
10/30/91 Middle East Peace Conference opens in Spain. Israel and Palestine talk for first time in 43 years.“Approaches towards the Settlement of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Question of Palestine” Issue 7, October 1991. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine: http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/ec8db69f77e7a33e052567270057e591/f952a47244aa95da852560ef0068e15f?OpenDocument
11/8/91 Lebanon: 100 kg. Car bomb destroys the administration building of American University in Beirut.“Approaches towards the Settlement of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Question of Palestine” Issue 7, October 1991. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine: http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/ec8db69f77e7a33e052567270057e591/f952a47244aa95da852560ef0068e15f?OpenDocument
3/17/92 Argentina: Hizbollah bombs Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. 29 dead, 242 wounded.
1992 Yemen: Movenpick Hotel in Aden bombed. Within hours, US personnel were airlifted from Aden; Bin Laden won this first skirmish. Miniter Losing Bin Laden 1-5 for narrative of this, Bin Laden’s first direct attack on America.
10/21/92 Egypt: British female tourist shot during Islamic terrorist attack at Beirut, Egypt. (CDISS)
1/25/93 Virginia, USA: Pakistani gunman with Mujahideen ties kills 2 CIA employees, wounds 3.
2/26/93 Egypt: bomb at Café in Cairo kills 3, wounds 18, incl. 2 Americans. Responsible: ? (JVL)
2/26/93 World Trade Center bombed; 6 killed. Responsibility: Eyad Ismoil and Ramzi Yousef et al, convicted. 6 dead, over 1000 wounded. Bomb plot against UN foiled. The attackers were followers of Umar Abd al-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who preached in Brooklyn. See Posner, Why America Slept chapter One “The Takeover” for a picture of the Islamic community in the New York area.
4/14/93 Attempted assassination of ex-President Bush by Iraqi intelligence service agents in Kuwait. The U.S. launched a cruise missile attack 2 months later on Baghdad.
7/5/93 Turkey: 8 separate incidents: Kurdistan Workers Party kidnaps 19 western tourists; released after several weeks. (JVL)
9/9/93 Oslo “Peace Process”; Arafat and Rabin exchange letters; Arafat recognizes Israel. From this date until 12/2003, over 1300 Israelis are killed by Palestinian attacks. The number killed in the 5 years after Oslo was greater than the 15 years preceding it. JVL, “Fatalities in Palestinian Terror Attacks (1967-2003),” http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/osloterr.html. Also, “Major Palestinian Terror Attacks since Oslo,” http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/TerrorAttacks.html. This does not include Palestinian deaths from Israeli counter-attacks, Israeli pre-emptive strikes against Hamas leaders and other militants, and Palestinian reprisals against suspected collaborators with Israel.
10/4/93 Somalia: Mogadishu attacks kill 18 US servicemen. This was a UN operation to take arrest members of a faction led by General Muhammad Aideed. In 3/94, UN withdrew. Bin Laden cited this in his 1996 declaration of war as an example of US weakness. The US military was subordinated to UN command, and did not respond as required.
12/1/93 Israel: Yitzhak Weinstock, 19, family from Los Angeles CA, killed by Hamas in drive-by shooting. (JVL)
3/1/94 Brooklyn, NY: A Muslim fires on a van of Jewish boys, killing one.
[4/6/94 Rwanda's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, and Burundian president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, killed when a Falcon 50 was hit by a missile on approach to Kigali. They were returning from a meeting in Tanzania on setting up a transitional government in Rwanda. The inclusion of the Tutsi-dominated RPF enraged Hutu extremists. The death of Hutu President Habyarimana triggered genocide that ended in 7/94. ASN. In March of 2004 the data recorder was discovered locked in a UN drawer in New York for 10 years. “Rwanda 'black box' turns up in UN drawer” David Usborne in New York, The Independent 13 March 2004.
6/18/94 Argentina: A Jewish community center bombed; 95 dead.
6/19/94 Panamanian commuter jet bombed; 21 dead. Responsible: Hizbollah? “Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1994.” Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, 1995 April. http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/arms/PGT_report/1994PGT.html
10/9/94 Israel: Nachson Wachsman, 19, family from New York, murdered by Hamas. (JVL)
10/9/94 Israel. Shooting attack on cafe-goers in Jerusalem. U.S. citizens Scot Doberstein and Eric Goldberg injured. (JVL)
12/11/94 Bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Cebu to Tokyo. 1 passenger killed. Ramzi Yousef—of World Trade Center fame—put a micro-bomb built from a watch under seat 27F as a test. He deplaned in Cebu. He planned to bomb 12 airliners flying the Pacific. He was arrested a month later in Pakistan. The plot was linked to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, working in Manila. He was captured 3/1/03 in Pakistan. Nationmaster.com, “Philippine Airlines Flight 434,” http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Philippine-Airlines-Flight-434. CNN.com “Officials: Alleged al Qaeda paymaster in custody,” 3/4/2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/03/pakistan.arrests/
12/24/94 Air France Hijacking.: Armed Islamic militants seized an Air France Flight to Algeria. The 4 terrorists were killed during a rescue effort.
3/8/95 Pakistan: 2 American Diplomats gunned down in Karachi; 1 wounded. The gunmen were unidentified.
4/9/95 Israel: 2 suicide attacks kill 8, including 1 American. (JVL)
7/4/95 India: 6 foreigners, including 2 U.S. citizens, were taken hostage by Al-Faran, a Kashmiri separatist group. 1 non-U.S. hostage was later found beheaded.
7/4/95 India. In Kashmir, an unknown militant group, Al-Faran, took hostage 6 tourists, including 2 Americans. One of the U.S. citizens escaped on 7/8, while on 8/13 the decapitated body of a Norwegian was found with a note that the others would be killed if the demands were not met. India refused. The rest of the hostages were most likely killed in 1996.
7/25/95 France: Bomb attack on Paris Metro, St. Michel Station. 8 dead, over 80 injured. Responsibility: Algerian Armed Islamic Group, connected to Al Qaeda. Two men were convicted of a string of attacks in France. Time Europe, 10/6/02, “Terror takes the Stand.” http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901021014-361590,00.html.
8/95 Turkey: bombing of public square injures 2 Americans. (JVL)
8/21/95 Israel: Jerusalem Bus Attack. A bomb killed 4 and injured over 100, including several U.S. citizens. Hamas claimed responsibility.
11/4/95 Israel: Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin assassinated by a right-wing Jew, Yigal Amir.
11/9/95 Algeria: US Embassy warehouse set afire. Responsible” Armed Islamic Group. (JVL)
11/13/95 Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Military Compound bombed; 1 American, others dead. Responsibility: The Islamic Movement of Change. Vernon Loeb Washington, “Terrorism Entrepreneur Unifies Groups Politically, Financially,” in Washington Post 8/23/1998.
11/19/95 Pakistan: Egyptian Embassy suicide car-bombing. Dead: at least 16; 60 injured. 3 militant Islamic groups claimed responsibility.
2/15/1996 Greece: US Embassy in Athens hit by rocket. Probably the November 17 group.
2/25/96 Israel: Suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem killed 26, including 3 U.S. citizens, and injured some 80 others, including 3 Americans. Responsibility: Hamas.
3/4/96 Israel: Dizengoff Center Bombing, Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall. Killed 20, injured 75, including 2 Americans. Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
5/13/96 Israel: On the West Bank, Arab gunmen fire on a bus and a group of Yeshiva students near the Bet El settlement, killing a dual U.S./Israeli citizen and wounding 3 Israelis. Responsibility: Hamas.
5/1996 Osama bin Laden goes to Afghanistan.
6/9/96 Israel: Unidentified gunmen fire on a car near Zekharya, killing a dual U.S./Israeli citizen and an Israeli. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was suspected. (JVL)
6/25/96 Saudi Arabia: Bombing of the Khobar Towers military facility in Dharan. A Hizballah truck bomb killed 19 Americans, wounds hundreds. Responsibility: Osama bin Laden and Saudi Hizballah, aided by Iran. Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwailer, 4404th Wing Commander was disciplined. No US military response. On 6/21/01 a US Grand Jury indicted 14 members of Hizballah group. The indictment details the group and its relationship to Iran and Syria, including the location of its meetings in Syria. http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/acts_of_terror/Khobar_Towers.htm. The indictment shows that the US has more than enough information to destroy the group’s support by military means. (The bombing was 2 days after an Arab League summit meeting called for continued sanctions against Iraq.) Miniter Losing Bin Laden 237 asks whether Iraq was involved in the attack.
[7/17/96 TWA Flight 800, NY to Paris, a Boeing 747, crashes into the Atlantic off New York. 230 passengers and crew killed. Wreckage was retrieved, and re-assembled. http://www.cnn.com/US/9707/twa.800/reports/structures.html. For a map of the debris, http://members.aol.com/bardonia2/debris.pdf. Witness claim to have seen a missile, which the government denies. The cause remains controversial. http://www.apfn.org/thewinds/arc_features/government/flight_800_coverup12-97.html.
8/17/96 Sudan: Sudan People’s Liberation Army kidnaps 6 missionaries (1 American); releases 8/28/. (JVL)
8/23/96 Bin Laden’s Declaration of War published. This followed a meeting beginning 7/19/96, where representatives of every fundamentalist group, from every major Muslim sect and nation, declared unity against “Zionists and Crusaders.” Jacquard In the Name 45. Bin Laden’s declaration is all over the internet, e.g., http://www.kimsoft.com/2001/binladenwar.htm.
9/1996 Taliban (“religious students”) enter Kabul. They are Sunni Muslims, educated in madrasas (religious schools) derived from Deobandi thought, a traditional form of Islam that began in Deoband, India in 1867 as an opposition to the British. The schools, financed by the Saudis and others, expanded into Pakistan. The Taliban oppose minority sects, such as Shiism, and are enemies of the Iranian theocracy. But like the Iranians, they are fanatically anti-western.
11/23/96 Hijacked airliner ditches into the sea. Flight ET961, Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, was hijacked by Ethiopian nationals seeking asylum in Australia. 125 of 175 died.
12/3/96 France: Bomb on subway train kills 4, injures 86. (JVL)
1/2 - 1/13/97 Sixteen letter bombs disguised as holiday greeting cards arrived via mail at Al-Hayat newspaper bureaus in Washington, New York City, London, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 3 similar devices, also postmarked in Egypt, were found at a prison facility in Leavenworth, Kansas. They all had postmarks of 12/21/96 from Alexandria, Egypt. 1 exploded in London, injuring 2. http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/acts_of_terror/Letter_Bomb.htm.
2/23/97 Palestinian terrorist Ali Hasan Abu Kamal, shoots tourists on Empire State Building Observation Tower. 1 Danish national killed; Americans, Argentina, Swiss, and French wounded. Ended in suicide. A note carried by the gunman targeted "enemies of Palestine." http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/24/empire.shooting/. Relatives claimed that he was despondent after losses in a business deal, but, five years later, admitted that his widow's story was fabricated by the Palestinian Authority. He actually wanted to "punish" the United States for supporting Israel. http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/747
7/30/97 Israel: Bombing in Jerusalem market kills 15 (1 American), wounds 168. Hamas claimed responsibility. (JVL)
9/4/97 Israel: Ben Yehuda shopping mall in Jerusalem. 3 Hamas suicide bombers killed 5 and wounded nearly 200. 1 U.S./Israeli citizen died, and 7 Americans wounded.
10/8/1997 Iranian resistance group Mujahideen-e Khalq MKO declared a terrorist organization by US State Dept. 9/16/98: 220 US Congressmen sign a statement condemning Iran, and calling for support for MKO. 7/1/99: 130 Congressmen sign a letter in support of MKO. The US bombed the group’s positions during the 2003 offensive into Iraq.
10/30/97 Yemen: Al-Sha'if tribesmen kidnapped a U.S. businessman near Sanaa. They wanted the release of two fellow tribesmen. They released the hostage on 11/27.
11/12/97 Pakistan: 2 gunmen murdered 4 American auditors from Union Texas Petroleum Corp. and their Pakistani driver near the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. The Islamic Revolutionary Council claimed responsibility in a call to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. In a letter to Pakistani newspapers, the Aimal Khufia Action Committee also claimed responsibility.
11/17/97 Egypt: Luxor, 58 Tourists (68 total) massacred. Responsibility probably belongs to Gamaat-al-Islamiya, “Islamic Jihad,” connected to Al Qaeda. In 1998 a member, Mohamed Abid Abdel Aal, was extradited to Egypt from Ecuador. Ayman al-Zawahiri (sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt 1999, and hiding in Afghanistan, mentor to Osama bin Laden) was likely the leader. Shayk Omar Abdel Rahmann, spiritual advisor to Islamic Jihad, issued a fatwa sanctioning the killings. He had been exiled to the US from Egypt, implicated in the 1993 WTC bombing, and imprisoned for other bombings.
In October 1997 a major terrorist meeting was held in Tehran, with over 20 Islamic and a few non-Muslim groups. A campaign of attacks was planned. “The Tehran summit also decided to use non-Iranian Islamist organs as the mouthpieces for the new campaign to give it a pan-Islamic character.” Al-Zawahiri’s Jihad Group issued a communiqué calling for jihad against the US and Israel: “The United States realizes that its real enemy, as it has declared many times, is Islamic extremism, by which it means the Islamic Jihad, the Jihad of the entire Muslim nation against the world dominance of America, the international influence of the Jews, and the US occupation of Muslim lands.” Bodansky Bin Laden 210 for the meeting and the quotations.
11/25/97 Yemen. 5 westerners kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen, released 11/27. (JVL)
4/15/98 Somalia: Somali militiamen abducted 9 aid workers, including 1 American, north of Mogadishu. The hostages included 1 U.S. citizen. The gunmen were loyal to Ali Mahdi Mohammed, who controlled the northern section of Mogadishu.
4/19/98 Israel: 1 Israeli / American killed on West Bank. Responsible: a Fatah group. (JVL)
5/9/98 Bin Laden’s statement for jihad against America.
5/28/98 Pakistan tests nuclear weapons.
6/21/98 Lebanon: Bombing of US embassy in Beirut. No casualties. (JVL)
8/7/98 Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Simultaneous bombings of 2 US Embassies. Responsibility: bin Laden. In Tanzania there were 10 deaths and some 77 injuries. In Kenya, 213 deaths, including 12 Americans, and over 5,000 injuries. The US attacked an alleged chemical weapons plant in Sudan with 13 cruise missiles, resulting in 1 death, the night watchman. 3 training camps were attacked in Afghanistan with over 70 cruise missiles; some 24 killed. Bin Laden was indicted, but did not turn himself in. (Iraq had expelled weapons inspectors 2 days earlier. Miniter Losing Bin Laden 238 discusses how Iraq’a, and Bin Laden’s, statements “moved in lockstep” throughout this summer.)
12/28/98 Yemen: 16 tourists kidnapped. Islamic Army of Aden Abyan, of Al-Jihad, demanded their leader’s release from jail. (JVL)
10/19/99 Egypt Air Flight 838, Istanbul to Cairo, hijacked over Turkey; flies to Hamburg. Hijacker arrested after promise of Asylum. CNN News “Hijacker surrenders after seizing Egyptian airliner” 10/19/99, http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9910/19/turkey.hijack.06/.
[10/31/99 Egypt Air Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic off Nantucket. Th