While the motivations behind acts of terrorism seem to have remained the same over the years, violence has reached new dimensions. Terrorist groups are no longer loose bunches of freedom fighters who attack government or military targets in their homeland. Most are well-organized and use modern technologies to create a climate of fear.
What is most alarming about modern terrorism is that war can be carried to places formerly considered secure. Terrorists are more and more targeting places with many potential civilian victims such as trains, buses, subway stations, pedestrian areas and even schools. Of course people in most areas of the world are still much more secure than, for example, those in Iraq, but terrorist attacks in Bali, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Tokyo have made many aware that there is no such thing as total security.
People have died in terror attacks for decades, yet new dimensions of violence and death have been reached in the past 20 years. Terrorists have built up their armory, no longer merely using conventional weapons such as knives, guns and bombs. The tragedy of 9/11 painfully demonstrated that aircraft can be misused as flying missiles, with the potential to kill thousands.
A threat in the air
Suicide bombers who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for a creed spread fear among civilians in countries such as Israel, Iraq, Russia and Sri Lanka. And the threat of chemical and biological substances misused as weapons is literally in the air. In 1995, a religious group called AUM Shinrikyo (Sanskrit for 'to teach the truth about the creation and destruction of the universe') released sarin, a nerve gas, in five commuter trains on three different Tokyo subway lines. Twelve people died and thousands were injured. At the end of 2001, five people died and 22 were infected after they were exposed to anthrax spores that were sent by mail to several politicians and journalists in the US.
There is rising concern that terrorists could poison the water supplies of a big city or develop a dirty bomb - a combination of a conventional explosive with radioactive material - which could kill thousands if set off over a densely populated area. The potential threats are many, and while most of us are unlikely to fall victim to a terrorist attack, the threat alone is the terrorists' most efficient weapon. They have learnt how to use modern technologies to stage and publicize their attacks. Consider those terrorists in Iraq, for example, who use videos of kidnapped people pleading for their lives as 'terror public relations tools'.
The following overview includes some of the most notorious groups who carry out terror attacks or have done so in the past.
Al-Qaeda = The Base - Afghanistan, Muslim countries
Al-Qaeda‘s Osama bin Laden
Since 9/11 Osama bin Laden's international network has been the epitome of terrorism. Al-Qaeda's goal is to free all Muslim countries from the 'profane' influence of the West, which for them is the source of all evil. To achieve this end, bin Laden proclaimed the jihad (holy war).
The roots of the organization (whose Arabic name means "the base") go back to the international Muslim brigade that fought against the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. In the 1980s thousands of mujahedeens (holy warriors) from more than 50 countries joined the local Muslim forces. They were significantly financed, armed and trained by the US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. After the end of the Soviet regime, the mujahedeens split into two groups, the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, who fought each other in a bloody civil war.
In 1988, bin Laden, who had fought in the Afghanistan war and is a descendant of a wealthy Saudi Arabian family, founded Al-Qaeda, a worldwide Islamic fundamentalist movement. The organization was based in Sudan from 1991 to 1996 and later in Afghanistan until the end of the Taliban regime in 2001. Al-Qaeda allegedly has underground cells in more than 100 countries and estimates of its membership vary from some hundreds to several thousands. The organization is thought to be financed by bin Laden and other donors from the Persian Gulf region.
Besides the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Al-Qaeda network has taken responsibility for many other attacks. On March 11, 2004, 191 people died and more than 1,500 were injured in a series of explosions on four commuter trains in Madrid during the rush hour.
Chechen Separatist Groups - Chechnya
Chechnya, situated in the mountainous Caucasus region, looks back on a long history of war against Russia. This culminated in 1944, during World War II, when Josef Stalin accused the Chechen people of having cooperated with the Nazis and deported the entire population to the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. Tens of thousands of Chechens died. It was only after Stalin's death in 1953 that the survivors were allowed to return home.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Chechnya declared independence. This was initially ignored by Russia's new leaders, but in 1994, Russia tried to re-establish its power, which led to a two-year guerrilla war with a death toll of tens of thousands on both sides. It ended with a peace treaty that granted Chechnya de facto independence.
Chechen Commander Shamil Basayev
In 1999, Islamic law was introduced in the Muslim-dominated republic. In the same year, Islamic militants invaded neighboring Dagestan from Chechnya, provoking a harsh military intervention by Russia. As a consequence, Chechnya's capital Grosny was destroyed and the young republic lost its independence. Since then Chechen separatist groups have waged a guerrilla war against Russia. The battlefield, however, has been extended to other areas of the country, including Moscow, and among the victims are more and more civilians. Last September, 32 heavily armed terrorists took 1,300 hostages at the celebration of the start of a new school year in Beslan in North Ossetia. 330 people died, more than half of them children. Shamil Basayev, one of the most radical Chechen commanders, took responsibility for the attack.
Irish Republican Army (IRA) - Northern Ireland
The IRA aims to end British rule over Northern Ireland and to unify that province with the Republic of Ireland. The root of the conflict goes back to the twelfth century, when Henry II conquered parts of the island. Time and time again, the Irish rebelled against the conquerors.
In 1920, after an uprising and years of guerrilla war led by Irish nationalist Michael Collins, the British government decided to split the island. An independent state was established in the Catholic-dominated south, while the smaller northern part known as Ulster, with predominantly Protestant inhabitants, remained part of the United Kingdom.
Conflicts between Catholic republicans (also called nationalists), who wanted to expel the British, and Protestant unionists (also called loyalists as they were loyal to the British crown) led to riots. The IRA conducted guerrilla operations against the British Army and police. During riots in Londonderry on "Bloody Sunday", January 30, 1972, British paratroopers killed 13 unarmed Catholics. Since 1969 in the Northern Ireland conflict 3,200 people have died on both sides. The IRA is estimated to have killed about 1,800, including 650 civilians.
In April 1998, the 'Good Friday accord' was concluded, a landmark agreement between most of the political parties in Northern Ireland including Sinn Féin (Irish Gaelic for "we, ourselves"), the political arm of the IRA, in which they renounced violence and established a new Northern Ireland legislative body. And in April 2005, the President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, made an unprecedented appeal to members of the IRA, calling on them to give up their armed struggle. While important steps towards peace have been taken, there is still a long way to go.
Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) = Basque Fatherland and Liberty - Spain
The Basques are united by their distinct culture and ancient mother tongue, which has been spoken in the western Pyrenees for more than 5,000 years and before the Indo-Europeans arrived. Although the Basques never had an independent state, they enjoyed several degrees of autonomy over the centuries. In 1980 the Spanish provinces of Viscaya, Alava and Guipuzcoa were officially joined as the Basque Autonomous Community and the first Basque parliament was elected.
ETA separatists
ETA is a separatist group that aims to establish an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-western France. It was founded in 1959 by a group of student activists who were dissatisfied with the moderate nationalism of the traditional Basque party. The group embraced a revolutionary Marxist ideology.
In 1961 ETA started its terrorist activities with an unsuccessful attempt to derail a train transporting politicians. The assassination of a secret policy chief in 1968 marked the beginning of a new level of violence. In 1973, ETA assassinated its most prominent victim, Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, in retaliation for the government's execution of Basque militants. Since the beginning of their terrorist activities, the group is said to have killed more than 1,000 people.
While at the beginning ETA targeted national and regional officials and government buildings mainly in the Basque region and in Madrid, the organization later extended its activities to tourist destinations and to France. Experts assume that ETA finances its activities through kidnapping for ransom, robberies, extortion and drug trafficking. It is thought to have only a small number of activists and several hundred supporters. While most Basques would prefer to have an independent state, they reject terrorism and therefore do not support ETA. Since 9/11 ETA activities have decreased, which experts say is the result of successful law enforcement.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also called Tamil Tigers, is a separatist terrorist organization in Sri Lanka. It aims to establish an independent state for the Tamils, who form about 18% of the 19 million inhabitants of the island. The Tamils are an ethnic group who live in the South of India and in Sri Lanka. Whereas three quarters of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese, most Tamils are Hindu. During British rule, the Tamils were treated preferentially, but they lost this status in 1948 when the island became independent.
The Tamil Tigers were founded in 1976 to combat discrimination by the Sinhalese majority. After the group killed 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in 1983, a bloody civil war began during which so far more than 60,000 people have died. In the late 1980s, the group introduced a new kind of terrorism, suicide bombing, which was later adopted by Al-Qaeda, Hamas and other groups.
Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 were the most prominent of their victims. Since December 2001, the Tigers have kept a ceasefire. The group is said to have 8,000 to 10,000 armed members, including 3,000 to 6,000 trained fighters. The Black Tigers, its suicide bombing squad, comprises about 500 members. Experts believe the group is financed by fund-raising among sympathetic Tamils throughout the world and through trafficking in drugs and arms.
Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya = Hamas - Palestine
Hamas is the main Muslim fundamentalist movement in Palestine. It aims to destroy Israel and establish an Islamist state on the West Bank and in Gaza by way of armed struggle. Hamas is the Arabic word for zeal or an acronym for 'Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya' which means Islamic Resistance Movement. It was founded in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by an Israeli attack in March 2004. The organization derived from the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization founded in Egypt in 1928.
Besides its terrorist activities, Hamas maintains an extensive social services network, which includes schools, orphanages, mosques, health care clinics and soup kitchens. This partly explains why the group is so popular among Palestinians. Hamas is the strongest force besides the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded by Yassir Arafat.
Hamas started carrying out suicide bombings in April 1993. This was only a few months before the Oslo accord was reached, the Israeli-Palestinian peace pact signed between Palestinian authority leader Yassir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin.
According to surveys, most Palestinians consider suicide bombings as a legitimate way of resisting Israeli occupation. The typical suicide bomber is a deeply religious young man who passionately hates Israel. After a bombing, the family of the bomber is said to receive 3,000 to 5,000 dollars and is assured that their son died as a martyr in the jihad. Hamas is thought to be funded by expatriates as well as private donors in Saudi Arabia and by Iran.
