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.

Strenght

Perhaps 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.