Terrorism Timeline

Lynn NguyenPeriod 3

World HistorySeptember 21, 2011

- Munich Olympics kidnappingOn September, 1972, members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization attacked a dormitory holding Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics. They killed 2 of the 9 hostages and demanded release of 236 Palestinian and 5 other terrorists. The German police resulted in deaths of all the hostages and terrorists.

1972

1973

- Terror at Rome’s airportOn December 17, 1973, a group of unidentified Palestinian militants opened fire on passengers boarding Pan Am flight 110 at Rome International airport before it departed for Beirut. They took 5 hostages and demanded the release of 2 Arab terrorists. To Kuwait, they landed and awarded safe passage in return for the release of the remaining hostages.

1976

- Rise of Corsican nationalist groupSeeking Autonomy from France through armed struggle, Corsican separatists formed Front de Liberation Nationale de la Corse in 1976. In addition to independence, they demanded the return on any Corsican prisoners held in France. Renowned early on for bombing public buildings representative of French authority, they increased attacks on France in 1980s.

- Birth of the Tamil TigersIn 1976, Velupillai Prabhakaran founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan, also known as the Tamil Tigers, as a secessionist political group seeking an independent state in northeast Sri Lanka for ethnic Tamils. They have their first violent attack later in the 1980s.

1979

- State sponsors of terrorism listIn 1979, the U.S. Department of State designated 5 countries as state sponsors of terrorism: Libya, Iraq, South Yemen, and Pakistan. The resulting sanctions included “restrictions on foreign assistance; a band on defense exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions. 198

0- Start of the Shining Path in PeruIn 1980, the group, Partido Comunista del Peru- Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), staged its first violent attack, setting fire to polling places on the eve of the presidential election. According to a government-backed Truth and Reconcilation Commission report, they’ve killed as many as 11,000 civilians, though it is estimated that as many 70,000 were killed over in fighting between the Peruvian government and Shining Path.

1980 198

1- Convention calls for protection of nuclear sitesPassed In 1980, the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material provides a legal framework to ensure that nuclear materials are not diverted from legitimate use. Securing the nuclear materials has become a primary goal of the international community as terror networks have stated their intent to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction. The convention currently has 142 state parties.

- Pope John Paul II survives attackOn May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was injured in an assassination attempt staged by a young Turkish man named Mehment Ali Agca. Four bullets struck the Pope as he traveled in a procession in St. Peter’s Square. An Italian parliamentary commission would later find that Agca was given the order by Soviet intelligence.

1982

- FLNC increases attacks on FranceAugust Night in 1982, the group assaulted 99 government targets around France –including banks, post offices, and the former Military College in Paris. 198

5

- Air India BombingsAir India flight 182, flying from Montreal to Delhi, exploded in mid-air over Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 331 passengers. The same day, luggage to be placed on an Air India flight exploded while being handled by airport crews in Japan. Sikh separatists were suspected of the attack, but a twenty-year Canadian investigation failed to reveal the full extent of responsibility.

- ETA increases its attacksIn the late 1980s, Euzkadi Ta Askatsuna (Basque Fatherland and Liberty) increase the intensity of its attacks, embarking on a campaign of car bombings against civilians and military personnel throughout Spain. In one of the worst attacks, ETA militants detonated a bomb in a supermarket in Barcelona. ETA leaders apologize for the act, but many of their supporters deny them.

1986- 1987 198

7

- Bombing of Korean Airline Flight 858In November 1987, agents of North Korea bombed Korean Airline Flight 858. The explosion killed all 115 passengers and crew. In her testitmony, she directly implicated the North Korean government and Kim Jong Il, contributing to the nation’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. North Korea retained this status until 2008.

1988

1991

- Formation of al-QaedaAfter The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, thousands of young Muslim men flocked to the region to join the anti-Soviet jihad. Among them were Osama Bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi, and the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri. Both of them and their cohorts set up a network to support the Afghan jihad now known as al-Qaeda, or “the base.” This group of mujahadeen would follow the call of jihad to Bosnia, Chechnya, and Kashmir in the following decade.

- Tamil Tigers launch targeted attacksOften using women and children assailants, the Liberation Tigers of Tamel Eelam’s (LTTE) elite Black Tiger unit used suicide bombing throughout the 1990s. In 1991, a LTTE suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister.

February 1993

April 1993

- First World Trade Center bombingAiming to bring down the World Trade Towers, Ramzi Yousef, a Kuwaiti engineer, detonated a car bomb in the parking structure under the World Trade Center. The explosion caused considerable damage to the structure of the building, but killed only 6 and injured around 1,000. Yousef demanded that the U.S. cut aid and relations with Israel and stop interfering in Middle Eastern affairs.

- Attempt on President Bush’s LifePresident George H.W. Bush was targeted by a 17 member assassination squad with apparent ties to Iraqi intelligence services when he visited Kuwait. The actual attack failed to materialize, Kuwaiti authorities arrested many of the members and discovered a car bombing was involved. The Clinton administration authorized a series of 23 Tomahawk missile strikes against an Iraqi intelligence command and control center in Baghdad.

- Sarin gas attack on Japanese subwayIn one of the most prominent attempts to use chemical agents in a terrorist attack, members of the Japanese cult Aum Shinikyo released sarin gas at 5 subway stations on the morning of March 20, 1995. The gas killed 12 and injured thousands. After the attack, Japanese authorities responded quickly, removing Aum Shinikyo’s status as a religious organization.

- Convention on terrorist financingIn December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The convention requires state parties to adopt all measures feasible to detect, freeze, and seize any funds allocated for purposes of terrorism. This didn’t go into operation until after the attacks of 9/11/01.

1995

1999

2001

2005

- Al-Qaeda attacks on the United StatesOn the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 members of Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners in the northeast United States. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in NYC. A third was flown into the Pentagon and the fourth was downed by its passengers in a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 were killed and now marked as the single most destructive incident of terrorism on U.S. soil.

- Nuclear terror conventionThe September 11 attacks and Osama bin Laden’s stated desire to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction led to the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism in 2005. The treaty requires state parties to adopt measures to protect their nuclear-weapon-related materials and facilities in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency regulations, as well as criminalize the act or support of nuclear terrorism.

Sites Used

http://www.cfr.org/interactives/GG_Monitor/dashboard-deep.html#/Terrorism/Timeline/