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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
1994 APRIL: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1993
Department of State Publication 10136
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
International terrorism would not have flourished as it has during the
past few decades without the funding, training, safehaven, weapons, and
logistic support provided to terrorists by sovereign states. For this
reason, a primary aim of our counterterrorism policy has been to apply
pressure to such states to cease and desist in that support and to make
them pay the cost if they persist. We do this by publicly identifying state
sponsors and by imposing economic, diplomatic, and sometimes military
sanctions. Seven nations are designated as states that sponsor
international terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and
Syria. Cuba is a long-time supporter of international terrorism. As a
result of its economic difficulties, it cannot afford to be a significant
sponsor, yet it still provides safehaven in Havana for some terrorist
groups and has not renounced political support for groups that engage in
terrorism.
Iran remains the most dangerous sponsor and the greatest source of
concern to US policymakers. While Americans are no longer held hostage by
Iranian surrogates, that government continues to kill dissidents and other
enemies wherever it can find them. It continues to fund and train
extremists who seek to overthrow friendly and secular governments, such as
Egypt and Tunisia. Iran is totally opposed to the Middle East peace
process, and it arms and funds those who share that view. The fatwa against
Salman Rushdie remains in effect; there is a strong possibility that the
attempted murder in October of the Norwegian publisher of Rushdie's book is
connected to the fatwa.
Iraq, despite the requirements of the relevant UN Security Council
resolutions, has resumed its sponsorship of terrorism. Iraq was clearly
responsible for the foiled plot to kill former President Bush and caused
President Clinton to respond with military force. Iraq has also continually
targeted international relief operations in the Kurdish area of northern
Iraq.
Libya's support for terrorism is longstanding and notorious. It is
subject to mandatory international sanctions because of its responsibility
for bombing two civil aircraft, Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.
Although Libya has taken a number of cosmetic and easily reversible steps
to reduce its support for international terrorism, it has not fully
complied with any Security Council demands. In December, the UN Security
Council tightened sanctions to induce Libyan compliance. Along with Iraq,
Libya is the only other nation against which the United States has
responded militarily because of its support for terrorism.
North Korea is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since
1987, when a KAL airliner was bombed in flight. However, North Korea is
believed to maintain contacts with groups that practice terrorism.
Last August, Sudan was added to the list of state sponsors. While there
is no evidence that the Government of Sudan--or the National Islamic Front,
the power broker in the country--has been a direct sponsor of terrorism, it
has willingly harbored elements of several notorious terrorist groups,
including the Abu Nidal organization, Egypt's IG, and Hizballah. Syria
continues to sponsor groups and provide training sites and bases. Groups
with Syrian ties tend to limit attacks to anti-Israel operations, but Syria
also assists Marxist groups active in Turkey, the PKK, and Dev Sol. Both
groups have attacked Westerners.
In the past, Cuba provided significant military training, weapons,
funds, and guidance to radical subversives from different parts of the
world. Largely because of its steady and dramatic economic decline, Cuba
has been unable to maintain support to subversive groups. Moreover, the
Castro regime has minimized its ties to such groups in an attempt to
upgrade diplomatic and trade relations. Although there is no evidence that
Cuba directly sponsored an international terrorist attack in 1993, the
island continued to serve as a safehaven for members of some regional and
international terrorist organizations.
Cuba has adhered to UN-mandated sanctions against Libya but has not
limited Libyan diplomatic representation as required. In September, Cuban
Deputy Prime Minister Pedro Miret Prieto traveled to Libya to expand
bilateral cooperation.
Iran again was the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 and
was implicated in terrorist attacks in Italy, Turkey, and Pakistan. Its
intelligence services support terrorist acts--either directly or through
extremist groups--aimed primarily against opponents of the regime living
abroad. Although neither Iran nor its surrogate Hizballah has launched an
attack on US interests since 1991, Iran still surveils US missions and
personnel. Tehran's policymakers view terrorism as a valid tool to
accomplish their political objectives, and acts of terrorism are approved
at the highest levels of the Iranian Government. During the year, Iranian-
sponsored terrorist attacks were less frequent in Western Europe and the
Middle East, favored venues of the past, but were more frequent in other
areas, especially Turkey and Pakistan.
Iranian intelligence continues to stalk members of the Iranian
opposition in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Despite
Tehran's attempts to distance itself from direct involvement in terrorist
acts, Iran has been linked to several assassinations of dissidents during
the past year. Iran was probably responsible for the assassination of at
least four members of one opposition group, the Iraq-based
Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK): one in Italy in March, a second in Pakistan in
June in which a bystander was also killed, and two in Turkey in August. The
body of a MEK member who was abducted in Istanbul at the end of 1992 has
still not been found. In January, the body of another Iranian dissident who
had been kidnapped in Istanbul several months before was found. All of the
murders were carried out by professional assassins; no arrests have been
made.
Iranian intelligence agents are under arrest in Germany and France for
their links to murders of Iranian dissidents. One Iranian, identified by
German prosecutors as an Iranian intelligence agent, is being tried with
four Lebanese Hizballah members for their roles in the murder of three
Iranian Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in September 1992. France arrested two
Iranians in November 1992 for the murder of MEK leader Kazein Rajavi in
Geneva in 1990; on 30 December, France expelled them to Iran, despite an
extradition request from Switzerland. They had been in Europe as part of a
hit team to assassinate one or more unidentified Iranian dissidents. The
French Government explained that it was pursuing French national interests.
A French magistrate investigating the killings of former Iranian Prime
Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar and an assistant near Paris in 1991 has linked
the murder to Iranian intelligence. Three men are being held in French
prisons in connection with the murders, including a nephew of President
Rafsanjani who was an employee of the Iranian Embassy, and a nephew of the
late Ayatollah Khomeini who was an Iranian radio correspondent. French
authorities have issued arrest warrants for several other men.
Iranian leaders continue to defend the late Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989
fatwa, which condemned British author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy and
called for his death. In February, on the fourth anniversary of the decree,
Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that the
death sentence must and will be carried out, no matter the consequences. To
demonstrate its support, the Iranian Parliament also passed a resolution
endorsing the fatwa and calling for Rushdie's death. An Iranian foundation
that has offered a reward of more than $2 million for killing Rushdie has
warned that Muslims will also take revenge on anyone who supports Rushdie.
In Beirut, Hizballah vowed to carry out the decree. In Oslo, an unknown
assailant shot and seriously wounded the Norwegian publisher of The Satanic
Verses in October. In Turkey in July, 37 persons died in a fire set by
anti-Rushdie demonstrators during a violent three-month-long campaign to
prevent a Turkish magazine from publishing excerpts of Rushdie's book. At
the start of the campaign, the Iranian Ambassador to Turkey proclaimed that
the fatwa against Rushdie also applied in Turkey. Fundamentalists,
including Turkish Hizballah groups, issued death threats to the journal's
officials, distributors, and vendors and attacked printing facilities,
distribution vehicles, and sales kiosks, injuring several workers. Iran is
also the world's preeminent sponsor of extremist Islamic and Palestinian
groups, providing funds, weapons, and training. The Lebanese Hizballah,
Iran's most important client, was responsible for some of the most lethal
acts of terrorism of the last decade, including the 1992 car bombing of the
Israeli Embassy in Argentina. In 1993, Hizballah concentrated on guerrilla
operations in southern Lebanon, including rocket attacks on civilians in
northern Israel, and simultaneously boosted its political influence in the
Lebanese parliament. Hizballah has also continued its efforts to develop a
worldwide terrorist infrastructure.
Iran supports many other radical organizations that have resorted to
terrorism, including the PIJ, the PFLP-GC, and HAMAS. Iranian leaders have
worked to develop a rejectionist front, comprising Hizballah and 10
Palestinian groups based in Damascus, to counter the Middle East process.
An Iranian-backed Turkish group, Islamic Action--also referred to as the
Islamic Movement Organization--is suspected by Turkish authorities in the
car bombing of a prominent Turkish journalist in Istanbul in January and an
assassination attempt on a Turkish Jewish businessman a few days later. In
February, three members of an Iranian-backed radical Islamic group,
possibly Islamic Action, were convicted for the bombing of an Istanbul
synagogue almost a year earlier. It is unclear whether the group, some of
whose members were arrested by Turkish police, were involved in the
anti-Rushdie campaign in Turkey or linked to any of the several hundred
murders of secular Kurdish activists in eastern Turkey that have been
blamed on so-called Turkish Hizballah groups.
Tehran continues to support and provide sanctuary for the PKK, which was
responsible for hundreds of deaths in Turkey during the year.
Iran has become the main supporter and ally of the fundamentalist regime
in Sudan. Members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps provide
training for the Sudanese military. The Iranian Ambassador to Khartoum was
involved in the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and played a
leading role in developing Hizballah in the 1980s. Khartoum has become a
key venue for Iranian contact with Palestinian and North African
extremists.
The opposition group MEK launched several attacks into Iran from Iraq in
1993, mostly on oil refineries and pipelines in southwestern Iran. Two
guards were killed in an attack on a communications facility of the
national oil company in Kermanshah in May. In December, the MEK admitted
that it killed a Turkish diplomat in Baghdad, claiming he was mistaken for
an Iranian official.
The attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait in April
was the most brazen Iraqi act of terrorism in 1993. Iraqi- sponsored
terrorism has become almost commonplace in northern Iraq, where the regime
has been responsible for dozens of attacks on UN and relief agency
personnel and aid convoys.
Iraq has not fully recovered its ability to conduct terrorist attacks
outside its borders since the mass expulsion of Iraqi agents from many
countries during the Gulf war. However, Iraqi intelligence has resumed
sending agents abroad to track opponents of Saddam Husayn.
Kuwaiti officials discovered the elaborate scheme to kill former
President Bush with an enormous car bomb shortly before he arrived for a
visit. The group arrested for the assassination attempt was also planning a
bombing campaign to destabilize Kuwait. The 14 suspects--11 Iraqis and
three Kuwaitis- -went on trial in June. Several of the Iraqi defendants
worked for Iraqi intelligence, according to testimony in the trial.
Forensic evidence also clearly linked Iraq to the abortive attack.
Iraqi-backed surrogates were probably responsible for two attempts to
bomb the Kuwait Airways office in Beirut and another attempt to bomb the
Kuwaiti Embassy, also in Lebanon. The Iraqi regime continued its war of
attrition on UN and humanitarian targets in northern Iraq aimed at driving
the foreign presence out of the area and depriving the Kurdish population
of relief supplies. UN and relief workers were shot at; bombs or grenades
were tossed at residences and vehicles; and bombs were placed on UN trucks
loaded with relief supplies. In March, a Belgian official of Handicapped
International was shot and killed; a local employee of the same
organization was killed and six others were injured when an aid station was
bombed in December. We suspect Iraqi involvement.
On 26 September, a UN truck carrying 12 tons of medical supplies was
completely destroyed by a bomb attached to the fuel tank probably by Iraqi
agents at an Iraqi checkpoint. The truckdriver and 12 civilians were
injured by the blast. The incident illustrates Iraqi determination to
reduce aid to the Kurds.
Although the Iraqi Government agreed in 1992 to comply with UN
Resolution 687, which requires that Iraq not allow any terrorist
organization to operate within its territory, Baghdad still maintains
contacts with or provides sanctuary to several groups and individuals that
have practiced terrorism. For example, the PKK, which has killed hundreds
of people in attacks inside Turkey and has mounted two separate terrorist
campaigns against Turkish interests in Europe in 1993, has training camps
in Iraq, according to press reports. Iraq supports an opposition group, the
MEK, which carried out several violent attacks in Iran during the year from
bases in Iraq. Baghdad also harbors members of several extremist
Palestinian groups including the ANO, the Arab Liberation Front, and Abu
Abbas's Palestine Liberation Front (PLF).
The Libyan Government took no serious measures during the year to comply
fully with UN Security Council Resolution 731. The resolution demanded that
Libya take steps to end its state- sponsored terrorism, including
extraditing two Libyan intelligence agents indicted by the United States
and the United Kingdom for their role in bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
The resolution also required that Libya accept responsibility for the
bombing, disclose all evidence related to it, pay appropriate compensation,
satisfy French demands regarding Libya's alleged role in bombing UTA Flight
772 in 1989, and cease all forms of terrorism. The UN Security Council
adopted Resolution 748 in March 1992; it imposed an arms and civil aviation
embargo on Libya, demanded that Libyan Arab Airlines offices be closed, and
required that all states reduce Libya's diplomatic presence abroad. Libya's
continued defiance of the resolutions led the Security Council to adopt
Resolution 883 in November 1993, which imposed a limited assets freeze and
oil technology embargo on Libya and significantly tightened up existing
sanctions.
Although the Libyan regime made some cosmetic changes to its terrorism
apparatus immediately following the adoption of Resolutions 731 and 748, it
made no further attempts during the year to dismantle its broad-based
terrorism network. Instead, Tripoli concentrated its efforts on extricating
itself from UN sanctions by floating a number of proposals that fell short
of UN demands, including offering the two suspects for trial in a
"neutral" country and leaving their "surrender" up to
the suspects. The Libyan regime has largely avoided association with acts
of terrorism and terrorist groups while under the United Nations' watchful
eye; however, its multifaceted terrorism apparatus remains intact. Qadhafi
reiterated his anti- Western themes throughout the year and publicly
offered support to radical Palestinian groups opposed to the PLO's
Gaza-Jericho accord with Israel. In addition, Qadhafi publicly threatened
to support extremist Islamic groups in neighboring Algeria and Tunisia as
punishment for not having adequately supported Libya against the UN
sanctions effort. Qadhafi's speeches in the fall of 1993, particularly
after the mid-October uprising and subsequent crackdown, became
increasingly belligerent, and he vowed to strike back against Libyan
oppositionists, those who enforced sanctions against Libya, and individuals
who cooperated with the United States. Qadhafi also invited notorious
terrorist organizations-- including the ANO and PIRA--to Libya in December.
Oppositionists in exile have blamed Tripoli for the December disappearance
from Cairo of prominent dissident and former Libyan Foreign Minister,
Mansur Kikhia.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not known to have sponsored
any terrorist acts since 1987, when a KAL airliner was bombed in flight. A
North Korean spokesman condemned all forms of terrorism including state
terrorism after the April assassination of South African Communist Party
chief Chris Hani. P'yongyang has supported the Communist Party of the
Philippines/New People's Army (CPP/NPA) in the past but does not appear to
be doing so at present. North Korea is believed, however, to maintain
contacts with other groups that practice terrorism. P'yongyang continues to
provide political sanctuary to members of the Japanese Communist League-Red
Army Faction who participated in the hijacking of a Japanese airlines
flight to North Korea in 1970.
In August, the Secretary of State placed Sudan on the list of state
sponsors of terrorism. Despite several warnings to cease supporting radical
extremists, the Sudanese Government continued to harbor international
terrorist groups in Sudan. Through the National Islamic Front (NIF), which
dominates the Sudanese Government, Sudan maintained a disturbing
relationship with a wide range of Islamic extremists. The list includes the
ANO, the Palestinian HAMAS, the PIJ, the Lebanese Hizballah, and Egypt's al
Gama'at al-Islamiyya.
The Sudanese Government also opposed the presence of the United Nations
coalition in Somalia and probably provided some aid to the Somali Islamic
Union and the Somali National Alliance. Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria have
complained that Sudan supports antiregime insurgents in North Africa with
safehaven, weapons, passports, funds, and training. Algeria withdrew its
Ambassador from Khartoum in March.
Sudan's ties to Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism, continued
to cause concern during the past year. Sudan served as a convenient transit
point, meeting site, and safehaven for Iranian- backed extremist groups.
Iranian Ambassador in Khartoum Majid Kamal was involved in the 1979
takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran and guided Iranian efforts in
developing the Lebanese Hizballah group while he served as Iran's top
diplomat in Lebanon during the early 1980s. His presence illustrated the
importance Iran places on Sudan.
Although there is no conclusive evidence linking the Government of Sudan
to any specific terrorist incident during the year, five of 15 suspects
arrested this summer following the New York City bomb plot are Sudanese
citizens. Khartoum's anti-US rhetoric also escalated during 1993. In
September, at a prominent Khartoum mosque, a radical journalist called for
the murder of the US Ambassador. President Bashir dismissed the call as
that of an unstable individual, but no NIF officials publicly disavowed it.
There is no evidence that Syrian officials have been directly involved
in planning or executing terrorist attacks since 1986, but Syria continues
to provide support to and safehaven for several groups that engage in
international terrorism. Syria has taken steps to restrain the
international activities of some of these groups. In July, Damascus played
an important part in cooling hostilities in southern Lebanon by inducing
Hizballah to halt its rocket attacks on northern Israel. Since the signing
of the Gaza- Jericho accord in September, Syria has counseled Palestinian
rejectionists to refrain from violence outside the region, although it has
not acted to stop rejectionist violence in southern Lebanon, or halted
Iranian resupply of Hizballah via Syria.
Several radical terrorist groups maintain training camps or other
facilities on Syrian territory. Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC, for example, has
its headquarters near Damascus. In addition, Damascus grants a wide variety
of groups engaged in terrorism--including the PFLP-GC, the ANO, the PIJ,
and the JRA--basing privileges or refuge in areas of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley
under Syrian control. The notorious international terrorist Carlos appears
to continue to enjoy Syrian sanctuary.
The Turkish PKK continues to train in the Bekaa Valley, despite earlier
reports that camps had been closed. The PKK is responsible for hundreds of
terrorist incidents in Turkey and across Europe, including bombings and
kidnappings of foreigners. One American was held hostage by the group. PKK
leader Abdulla Ocalan, who is believed to reside in Syria, made threats
against Turkey and foreign tourists and residents of Turkey in press
conferences in the Bekaa Valley during the year. Syrian safehaven for PKK
operations was vigorously protested by Turkey and is the subject of ongoing
talks between Syria and Turkey.
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