Group | Description
and activities | Strenght, Location and
External Aid |
Eastern Turkistan
Islamic Movement (ETIM) | The Eastern Turkistan
Islamic Movement (ETIM), a small Islamic extremist
group based in China’s western Xinjiang Province,
is one of the most militant of the ethnic Uighur separatist
groups pursuing an independent “Eastern Turkistan,” which
would include Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Xinjiang. ETIM and other overlapping
militant Uighur groups are linked to the international
mujahidin movement— and to a limited degree al-Qaida—beginning
with the participation of ethnic Uighur mujahidin in
the Soviet/Afghan war. US and Chinese Government information suggests ETIM
was responsible for terrorist acts inside and outside
China. Most recently, in May 2002, two ETIM members
were deported to China from Kyrgyzstan for plotting
to attack the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan as well as
other US interests abroad. | Unknown. Only a small minority
of ethnic Uighurs supports the Xinjiang independence
movement or the formation of an East Turkistan.
|
Xinjiang Province and neighboring
countries in the region.
|
ETIM is suspected of having received
training and financial assistance from al-Qaida. |
First of October
Antifascist Resistance Group (GRAPO | Formed in 1975 as
the armed wing of the illegal Communist Party of Spain
during the Franco era. Advocates the overthrow of the
Spanish Government and its replacement with a Marxist-Leninist
regime. GRAPO is vehemently anti-US, seeks the removal
of all US military forces from Spanish territory, and
has conducted and attempted several attacks against
US targets since 1977. The group issued a communique
following the 11 September attacks in the United States,
expressing its satisfaction that “symbols of
imperialist power” were decimated and affirming
that “the war” has only just begun. GRAPO did not mount a successful terrorist attack
in 2002. GRAPO has killed more than 90 persons and
injured
more than 200. The group’s operations traditionally
have been designed to cause material damage and gain
publicity rather than inflict casualties, but the
terrorists have conducted lethal bombings and close-range
assassinations. In May 2000, the group killed two
security guards during a botched armed robbery attempt
of an armored truck carrying an estimated $2 million,
and in November 2000, members assassinated a Spanish
policeman in a possible reprisal for the arrest that
month of several GRAPO leaders in France. The group
also has bombed business and official sites, employment
agencies, and the Madrid headquarters of the ruling
Popular Party. | Fewer than two-dozen activists
remaining. Police have made periodic large-scale arrests
of GRAPO members, crippling the organization and forcing
it into lengthy rebuilding periods. In 2002, Spanish
and French authorities arrested 22 suspected members,
including some of the group’s reconstituted leadership.
|
Spain. |
None. |
Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami
(HUJI) | HUJI, a Sunni extremist
group that follows the Deobandi tradition of Islam,
was founded in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight in the
jihad against the Soviets. It also is affiliated with
the Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam Fazlur Rehman faction (JUI-F)
and the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam. The group,
led by chief commander Amin Rabbani, is made up primarily
of Pakistanis and foreign Islamists who are fighting
for the liberation of Kashmir and its accession to
Pakistan. Has conducted a number of operations against Indian
military targets in Kashmir. Linked to the Kashmiri
militant group al-Faran that kidnapped five Western
tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one was killed
in August 1995, and the other four reportedly were
killed in December of the same year. | Exact numbers are unknown, but
there may be several hundred members in Kashmir. |
Pakistan
and Kashmir. Trained members in Afghanistan until
fall of 2001. |
Specific sources of external
aid are unknown. |
Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami/Bangladesh | The mission of HUJI-B, led by Shauqat Osman, is to establish
Islamic rule in Bangladesh. HUJI-B has connections to
the Pakistani militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami
(HUJI) and Harak ul-Mujahidin (HUM), who advocate similar
objectives in Pakistan and Kashmir. HUJI-B was accused of stabbing a senior Bangladeshi
journalist in November 2000 for making a documentary
on the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh. HUJI-B was
suspected in the July 2000 assassination attempt
of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. |
HUJI-B has an estimated cadre strength of more than several
thousand members.
|
Operates
and trains members in Bangladesh, where it maintains
at least six camps.
|
Funding of the HUJI-B
comes primarily from madrassas in Bangladesh. The group
also has ties to militants in Pakistan that may provide
another funding source. |
Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin
(HIG) | Gulbuddin Hikmatyar
founded Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) as a faction
of the Hizb-I Islami party in 1977, and it was one
of the major mujahedin groups in the war against the
Soviets. HIG has long-established ties with Bin Ladin.
In the early 1990s, Hikmatyar ran several terrorist
training camps in Afghanistan and was a pioneer in
sending mercenary fighters to other Islamic conflicts.
Hikmatyar offered to shelter Bin Ladin after the latter
fled Sudan in 1996. HIG has staged small attacks in its attempt to force
US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow
the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA), and
establish a fundamentalist state. | HIG possibly could have hundreds
of veteran fighters to call on. |
Eastern
Afghanistan (particularly Konar and Nurestan Provinces)
and adjacent areas of Pakistan's tribal areas. |
Unknown. |
Hizb ul-Mujahidin
(HM) | Hizb ul-Mujahidin, the largest Kashmiri militant group,
was founded in 1989 and officially supports the liberation
of Kashmir and its accession to Pakistan, although some
cadres are proindependence. The group is the militant
wing of Pakistan’s largest Islamic political party,
the Jamaat-i-Islami. It currently is focused on Indian
security forces and politicians in Kashmir and has conducted
operations jointly with other Kashmiri militants. It
reportedly operated in Afghanistan through the mid-1990s
and trained alongside the Afghan Hizb-I-Islami Gulbuddin
(HIG) in Afghanistan until the Taliban takeover. The
group, led by Syed Salahuddin, is made up primarily of
ethnic Kashmiris. Currently, there are visible splits
between Pakistan-based commanders and several commanders
in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Has conducted a number of operations against Indian
military targets in Kashmir. The group also occasionally
strikes at civilian targets in Kashmir but has not
engaged in terrorist acts elsewhere. | Exact numbers are unknown, but there may be several
hundred members in Indian-controlled Kashmir and
Pakistan. |
Indian-controlled
Kashmir and Pakistan. Trained members in Afghanistan
until the Taliban takeover.
|
Specific sources
of external aid are unknown. |
Irish Republican
Army (IRA) | Dissension within
the IRA over support for the Northern Ireland peace
process resulted in the formation of two more radical
splinter groups: Continuity IRA, in 1995 and the Real
IRA in 1997. Until its July 1997 cease-fire, the Provisional
IRA had sought to remove British forces from Northern
Ireland and unify Ireland by force. In July 2002, the
IRA reiterated its commitment to the peace process
and apologized to the families of what it called “non-combatants” who
had been killed or injured by the IRA. The IRA is organized
into small, tightly knit cells under the leadership
of the Army Council. IRA traditional activities have included bombings,
assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings,
extortion, smuggling, and robberies. Before the 1997
cease-fire, bombing campaigns had been conducted
on various targets in Northern Ireland and Great
Britain and included senior British Government officials,
civilians, police, and British military targets.
In April 2002, the IRA conducted a second act of
arms decommissioning that the Independent International
Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) called “varied” and “substantial.” In
late October, however, the IRA suspended contact
with the IICD. The IRA retains the ability to conduct
paramilitary operations. The IRA’s extensive
criminal activities reportedly provide the organizations
with millions of dollars each year.
| Several hundred members, plus
several thousand sympathizers—despite the defection
of some members to RIRA and CIRA. |
Northern
Ireland, Irish Republic, Great Britain, and Europe. |
Has in the past
received aid from a variety of groups and countries
and considerable training and arms from Libya and the
PLO. Is suspected of receiving funds, arms, and other
terrorist-related materiel from sympathizers in the
United States. Similarities in operations suggest links
to ETA and the FARC. In August 2002, three suspected
IRA members were arrested in Colombia on charges of
assisting the FARC to improve its explosives capabilities. |
Islamic Army of Aden
(IAA) | The Islamic Army
of Aden (IAA) emerged publicly in mid-1998 when the
group released a series of communiques that expressed
support for Usama Bin Ladin and appealed for the overthrow
of the Yemeni Government and operations against US
and other Western interests in Yemen. IAA’s assets
were frozen under E.O. 13224 in September 2001, and
it was designated for sanctions under UNSCR 1333 in
the same month. Engages in bombings and kidnappings to promote its
goals. Kidnapped 16 British, US, and Australian tourists
in late December 1998 near Mudiyah in southern Yemen.
Since the capture and trial of the Mudiyah kidnappers
and the execution in October 1999 of the group’s
leader, Zein al-Abidine al-Mihdar (a.k.a. Abu Hassan),
individuals associated with the IAA have remained
involved in terrorist activities on a number of occasions.
In 2001, the Yemeni Government convicted an IAA member
and three associates for their role in the bombing
in October 2000 of the British Embassy in Sanaa.
The current status of the IAA is unknown. Despite
the appearance of several press statements attributed
to the IAA and released through intermediaries and
the Internet in 2002, Yemeni officials claim that
the group is operationally defunct. | Not known.
|
Operates
in the southern governorates of Yemen—primarily
Aden and Abyan.
|
Not known. |
Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) | One of three terrorist
groups affiliated with Chechen guerrillas that furnished
personnel to carry out the seizure of the Dubrovka
Theater in Moscow on 23 October 2002. The suicide attackers
took more than 800 hostages, whom they threatened to
kill if the Russian Government did not meet their demands,
including the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
Chechen extremist leader Shamil Basayev—who claimed
responsibility for ordering the seizure—established
the IIPB in 1998, which he led with Saudi-born mujahidin
leader Ibn al-Khattab until the latter’s death
in March 2002. Arab mujahidin leader Abu al-Walid since
has taken over Khattab’s leadership role in the
IIPB, which consists of Chechens, Arabs, and other
foreign fighters. Primarily guerrilla operations against Russian forces. | Up to 400 fighters, including as many as 150 Arabs and
other foreign fighters. |
Primarily
in Chechnya and adjacent areas of the north Caucasus,
but major logistic activities also occur in Georgia,
Azerbaijan, and Turkey. |
The
IIPB and its Arab leaders appear to be a primary
conduit for Islamic
funding for the Chechen guerrillas, in part through
links to al-Qaida–related financiers on the Arabian
Peninsula. |