Group | Description and activities | Strenght, Location and External Aid |
Al-Badhr Mujahidin (al-Badr) | Split from Hizb ul-Mujahidin (HM) in 1998. Traces
its origins to 1971 when a group of the same name attacked
Bengalis in East Pakistan. Later operated as part of
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-I-Islami (HIG) in Afghanistan
and from 1990 as a unit of HM in Kashmir. Has conducted a number of operations against Indian
military targets in Kashmir. | StrenghtPerhaps several
hundred. |
Kashmir, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. |
Unknown. |
Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) | The ABB, the breakaway urban hit
squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s
Army, was formed in the mid-1980s. The ABB was added
to the Terrorist
Exclusion list in December 2001. Responsible for more than 100 murders and believed
to have been involved in the murder in 1989 of US Army
Col. James Rowe in the Philippines. In March 1997, the
group announced it had formed an alliance with another
armed group, the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA).
In March 2000, the group claimed credit for a rifle grenade
attack against the Department of Energy building in Manila
and strafed Shell Oil offices in the central Philippines
to protest rising oil prices. | Approximately
500
|
The largest RPA/ABB groups are on the
Philippine islands of Luzon, Negros, and the Visayas. |
Unknown. |
Al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI) a.k.a.
Islamic Union | Somalia’s largest militant
Islamic organization rose to power in the early 1990s
following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime. Its
aims to establish an Islamic regime in Somalia and force
the secession of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia have largely
been abandoned. Some elements associated with AIAI maintain
ties to al-Qaida. Conducted terrorist attacks against Ethiopian forces
and other Somali factions in the 1990s. The group is
believed to be responsible for a series of bomb attacks
in public places in Addis Ababa in 1996 and 1997 as well
as the kidnapping of several relief workers in 1998.
AIAI sponsors Islamic social programs, such as orphanages
and schools, and provides pockets of security in Somalia. | Estimated at some 2,000 members,
plus additional reserve militias
|
Primarily in Somalia, with limited
presence in Ethiopia and Kenya. |
Receives funds from Middle East
financiers and Western diaspora remittances and suspected
training in Afghanistan. Past weapons deliveries from
Sudan and Eritrea. |
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) | Consists of a diverse coalition
of former members of the National Army for the Liberation
of Uganda (NALU) and Islamists from the Salaf Tabliq
group. The conglomeration of fighters formed in 1995
in opposition to the government of Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni. The ADF uses the kidnapping and murder of civilians
to create fear in the local population and undermine
confidence in the government. The group is suspected
to be responsible for dozens of bombings in public areas.
The Ugandan military offensive in mid-2000 destroyed
several ADF camps.
| A few hundred fighters.
|
Northeastern Congo. |
Received past funding, supplies,
and training from the Government of Sudan. Some funding
suspected from sympathetic Hutu groups. |
Anti-Imperialist Territorial Nuclei
(NTA) | Clandestine leftist extremist group
that first appeared in the Friuli region in Italy in
1995. Adopted the class struggle ideology of the Red
Brigades of the 1970s-80s and a similar logo—an
encircled five-point star—for their declarations.
Seeks the formation of an “anti-imperialist fighting
front” with other Italian leftist terrorist groups
including NIPR and the New Red Brigades. Opposes what
it perceives as US and NATO imperialism and condemns
Italy’s foreign and labor polices. Identified experts
in four Italian Government sectors—federalism,
privatizations, justice reform, and jobs and pensions—as
potential targets in a January 2002 leaflet. To date, the group has conducted attacks against property
rather than persons. In January 2002, police thwarted
an attempt by four NTA members to enter the Rivolto Military
Air Base. NTA attacked property owned by US Air Force
personnel at Aviano Air Base. It claimed responsibility
for a bomb attack in September 2000 against the Central
European Initiative office in Trieste and a bomb attack
in August 2001 against the Venice Tribunal building.
During the NATO intervention in Kosovo, NTA members threw
gasoline bombs at the Venice and Rome headquarters of
the then-ruling party, Democrats of the Left.
| Approximately 20 members. To date,
no NTA members have been arrested and prosecuted. |
Primarily northeastern Italy. |
None evident. |
Army for the Liberation of Rwanda
(ALIR) | The FAR was the army of the Rwandan
Hutu regime that carried out the genocide of 500,000
or more Tutsis and regime opponents in 1994. The Interahamwe
was the civilian militia force that carried out much
of the killing. The groups merged and recruited additional
fighters after they were forced from Rwanda into the
Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) in 1994. They
are now often known as the Army for the Liberation of
Rwanda (ALIR), which is the armed branch of the PALIR
or Party for the Liberation of Rwanda. The group seeks to topple Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated
government, reinstitute Hutu control, and, possibly,
complete the genocide. In 1996, a message¾allegedly
from the ALIR¾threatened to kill the US Ambassador
to Rwanda and other US citizens. In 1999, ALIR guerrillas
critical of alleged US-UK support for the Rwandan regime
kidnapped and killed eight foreign tourists, including
two US citizens, in a game park on the Congo-Uganda border.
In the current Congolese war, the ALIR is allied with
Kinshasa against the Rwandan invaders. The Government
of Rwanda recently transferred to US custody three former
ALIR insurgents who are suspects in the 1999 Bwindi Park
murder case.
| Several thousand ALIR regular forces
operate alongside the Congolese army on the front lines
of the Congo civil war, while a like number of ALIR guerrillas
operate in eastern Congo closer to the Rwandan border.
|
Mostly Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Rwanda, but some operate in Burundi. |
The Democratic Republic of the
Congo has provided ALIR forces in Congo with training,
arms, and supplies. |
Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) | The Cambodian Freedom Fighters
(CFF) emerged in November 1998 in the wake of political
violence that saw many influential Cambodian leaders
flee and the Cambodian People’s Party assume power.
With an avowed aim of overthrowing the Government, the
US-based group is led by a Cambodian-American, a former
member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. The CFF’s
membership includes Cambodian-Americans based in Thailand
and the United States and former soldiers from the separatist
Khmer Rouge, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and various
political factions. The CFF was not reported to have participated in terrorist
activities in 2002. Cambodian courts in February and
March 2002 prosecuted 38 CFF members suspected of staging
an attack in Cambodia in 2000. The courts convicted 19
members, including one US citizen, of “terrorism” and/or “membership
in an armed group” and sentenced them to terms
of five years to life imprisonment. The group claimed
responsibility for an attack in late November 2000 on
several government installations that killed at least
eight persons and wounded more than a dozen civilians.
In April 1999, five CFF members were arrested for plotting
to blow up a fuel depot outside Phnom Penh with antitank
weapons.
| Exact strength is unknown, but
totals probably never have exceeded 100 armed fighters.
|
Northeastern Cambodia near the
Thai border. |
US-based leadership collects funds
from the Cambodian-American community. |
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) | The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
insurgency grew out of the increasing radicalization
and fragmentation of left-wing parties following the
emergence of democracy in 1990. The United People’s
Front—a coalition of left-wing parties—participated
in the 1991 elections, but the Maoist wing failed to
win the minimum 3 percent of the vote leading to their
exclusion from voter lists in the 1994 elections. In
response, they abandoned electoral politics and in 1996
launched the insurgency. The Maoists’ ultimate
objective is the takeover of the government and the transformation
of society, probably including the elimination of the
present elite, nationalization of the private sector,
and collectivization of agriculture. The Maoist insurgency largely engages in a traditional
guerrilla war aimed at ultimately overthrowing the
Nepalese Government. In line with these efforts, the
Maoist leadership has allowed some attacks against
international targets in an attempt to further isolate
the Nepalese Government. In 2002, Maoists claimed responsibility
for assassinating two US Embassy guards, citing anti-Maoist
spying, and in a press statement threatened foreign
embassy—including the US—missions, to deter
foreign support for the Nepalese Government. Maoists,
targeting US symbols, also bombed Coca-Cola bottling
plants in April and January 2002 and November 2001.
In May, Maoists destroyed a Pepsi Cola truck and its
contents. | Numbering in the thousands.
|
Nepal. |
None. |
Continuity Irish Republican Army
(CIRA) | Terrorist splinter group formed
in 1994 as the clandestine armed wing of Republican Sinn
Fein (RSF), which split from Sinn Fein in 1986. “Continuity” refers
to the group’s belief that it is carrying on the
original IRA goal of forcing the British out of Northern
Ireland. Cooperates with the larger Real IRA. CIRA has been active in Belfast and the border areas
of Northern Ireland where it has carried out bombings,
assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings, extortions,
and robberies. On occasion, it has provided advance
warning to police of its attacks. Targets include British
military, Northern Ireland security targets, and loyalist
paramilitary groups. Unlike the Provisional IRA, CIRA
is not observing a cease-fire. CIRA continued its bombing
campaign in 2002 with an explosion at a Belfast police
training college in April and a bombing in July at
the estate of a Policing Board member; other CIRA bombing
attempts in the center of Belfast were thwarted by
police. | Fewer than 50 hard-core activists.
Eleven CIRA members have been convicted of criminal charges
and others are awaiting trial. Police counterterrorist
operations have reduced the group’s strength, but
CIRA has been able to reconstitute its membership through
active recruiting efforts.
|
Northern Ireland, Irish Republic.
Does not have an established presence on the UK mainland. |
Suspected of receiving funds and
arms from sympathizers in the United States. May have
acquired arms and materiel from the Balkans in cooperation
with the Real IRA. |