US State Department and Counter- Terrorism Center Reporting Terrorism in the Middle East and Central Asia, August 2010
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US State Department and Counter- Terrorism Center Reporting Terrorism in the Middle East and Central Asia, August 2010 Anthony H. Cordesman Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy [email protected] June 29, 2011 Introduction This document reformats the latest annual US State Department country reports on terrorism (http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/index.htm), to provide a single source showing the reports for the entire Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. It should be noted that these country reports dates back to August 2010, and most material dates back to 2009. It also does not contain the detail available from the US National Counterterrorism Center, which are available in a separate Burke Chair report. The State Department reports this compilation draws upon also predate the rise of unrest in much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, and the steady rise in terrorist activity in key Central and South Asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The way in which the State Department and US government report on terrorism also does not cover abuses by national internal security forces and justice systems that amount to state terrorism in dealing with security operations and the local population. It should be noted, however, that the US State Department annual country reports on human rights do provide this information, and are one of the few unclassified overviews of this aspect of what some call terrorism by both security forces and national justice systems. (See http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/index.htm) This report does, however, provide an overview of US government assessments of the role of given state and non-state actors in sponsoring or conducting terrorist activities. It also describes the role of other states in fight internal terrorism and in cooperating in the international struggle against terrorism. As such, it provides both a useful overview of official unclassified US government views, and a basis for discussing ways to improve cooperation in counterterrorism and conduct a dialogue on different US, other country, international organization, and independent expert views of terrorism and who should be designated as a terrorist. US State Department and Counter-Terrorism Center Reporting Terrorism in the Middle East and Central Asia, August 2010 http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/index.htm GLOBAL AND REGIONAL PATTERNS IN TERRORISM ............................................................. 5 NCTC Observations Related to Terrorist Incidents Statistical Material ....................... 5 Attackers ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Types of Attacks ............................................................................................................................. 6 Victims and Targets of Attacks ................................................................................................. 7 Patterns of Terrorism: Worldwide: 2005-2009 ........................................................... 8 Patterns of Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq ............................................................. 9 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ............................................................................................ 10 Overview............................................................................................................................................. 10 Algeria ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Bahrain ................................................................................................................................................ 12 Egypt .................................................................................................................................................... 13 Iraq ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 Israel, West Bank, and Gaza ........................................................................................................ 15 West Bank and Gaza .................................................................................................................. 18 Jordan .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Kuwait ................................................................................................................................................. 22 Lebanon .............................................................................................................................................. 23 Libya ..................................................................................................................................................... 26 Morocco .............................................................................................................................................. 26 Oman .................................................................................................................................................... 28 Qatar ..................................................................................................................................................... 29 Saudi Arabia ...................................................................................................................................... 29 Tunisia ................................................................................................................................................. 31 United Arab Emirates .................................................................................................................... 32 Yemen .................................................................................................................................................. 33 TERRORIST SAFE HAVENS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ..................... 35 Somalia ................................................................................................................................................ 35 The Trans-Sahara ............................................................................................................................ 35 Iraq ........................................................................................................................................................ 36 Northern Iraq .................................................................................................................................... 36 Lebanon .............................................................................................................................................. 36 STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ..... 38 State Sponsor: Implications ........................................................................................................ 38 Iran ........................................................................................................................................................ 38 Sudan ................................................................................................................................................... 39 Syria ...................................................................................................................................................... 40 TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ............... 43 Abu Nidal Orbanisation ................................................................................................................ 43 Al-Aqsa Martys Brigade ................................................................................................................ 43 Al-Shahab ........................................................................................................................................... 44 Ansar al-Islam ................................................................................................................................... 45 Armed Islamic Group ..................................................................................................................... 46 Asbat Al-Ansar .................................................................................................................................. 46 Gama’a Al Isalmiyya ....................................................................................................................... 47 Hamas .................................................................................................................................................. 48 Hizballah ............................................................................................................................................. 49 Kahane Chai ....................................................................................................................................... 50 Kata’ib Hizballah.............................................................................................................................. 51 Kurdistan Worker’s Party ............................................................................................................ 52 Libyan Islamic Fighting Group ..................................................................................................