Country Reports on Terrorism 2007
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Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 April 2008 ________________________________ United States Department of State Publication Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism Released April 2008 1 Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 is submitted in compliance with Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f (the ―Act‖), which requires the Department of State to provide to Congress a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act. COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 2007 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Strategic Assessment Chapter 2. Country Reports Africa Overview Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership The African Union Angola Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Comoros Cote D‘Ivoire Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Liberia Madagascar Mali Mauritania Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Somalia South Africa Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe East Asia and Pacific Overview Australia Burma Cambodia China o Hong Kong 2 o Macau Indonesia Japan Republic of Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia New Zealand Philippines Singapore Taiwan Thailand Europe Overview Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Malta Moldova The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania 3 Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom o Northern Ireland Middle East and North Africa Overview Algeria Bahrain Egypt Iraq Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Tunisia United Arab Emirates Yemen South and Central Asia Overview Afghanistan Bangladesh India Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Western Hemisphere Overview Tri-Border Area Argentina 4 Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay Venezuela Chapter 3. State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview Cuba Iran North Korea Sudan Syria Chapter 4. The Global Challenge of WMD Terrorism Chapter 5. Terrorist Safe Havens (7120 Report) 1. Terrorist Safe Havens/Strategies, Tactics, Tools for Disrupting or Eliminating Safe Havens 1a. International Conventions and Protocols Matrix 2. Support for Pakistan 3. Collaboration with Saudi Arabia 4. Struggle of Ideas in the Islamic World 5. Outreach through Foreign Broadcast Media 6. Visas for Participants in United States Programs 7. Basic Education in Muslim Countries 8. Economic Reform Chapter 6. Terrorist Organizations Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) Abu Sayyaf Group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade 5 Ansar al-Sunnah Armed Islamic Group (GIA) Asbat al-Ansar Aum Shinrikyo Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) Communist Party of Philippines/New People's Army (CPP/NPA) Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) Gama'a al-Islamiyya (IG) HAMAS Harakat ul-Mujahadin (HUM) Hizballah Islamic Jihad Group (IJG) Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) Jemaah Islamiya Organization (JI) Al-Jihad Kahane Chai (Kach) Kongra-Gel (formerly PKK)/People‘s Defense Force Lashkar e-Tayyiba Lashkar i Jhangvi (LJ) Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) Mujahadin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) National Liberation Army (ELN) Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) Al-Qa‘ida Al-Qa‘ida in Iraq Al-Qa‘ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Real IRA (RIRA) Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Revolutionary Nuclei (RN) Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N) Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) Shining Path (SL) United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) Chapter 7. Legislative Requirements and Key Terms NCTC Statistical Annex Supplement on Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens 6 Chapter 1 Strategic Assessment This chapter highlights terrorism trends and ongoing issues in 2007 to provide a framework for detailed discussion in later chapters. TRENDS IN 2007 AL-QA’IDA AND ASSOCIATED TRENDS: Al-Qa‘ida (AQ) and associated networks remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2007. It has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan‘s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), replacement of captured or killed operational lieutenants, and the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although Usama bin Ladin remained the group‘s ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as AQ‘s strategic and operational planner. AQ and its affiliates seek to exploit local grievances for their own local and global purposes. They pursue their own goals, often at large personal cost to the local population. These networks are adaptive, quickly evolving new methods in response to countermeasures. AQ utilizes terrorism, as well as subversion, propaganda, and open warfare; it seeks weapons of mass destruction in order to inflict the maximum possible damage on anyone who stands in its way, including other Muslims and/or elders, women, and children. Despite the efforts of both Afghan and Pakistani security forces, instability, coupled with the Islamabad brokered ceasefire agreement in effect for the first half of 2007 along the Pakistan- Afghanistan frontier, appeared to have provided AQ leadership greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly that targeting Western Europe and the United States. Numerous senior AQ operatives have been captured or killed, but AQ leaders continued to plot attacks and to cultivate stronger operational connections that radiated outward from Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. 2007 was marked by the affiliation of regional insurgent groups with AQ, notably the growing threat in North Africa posed by the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat‘s (GSPC) September 2006 merger with AQ, which resulted in GSPC renaming itself al-Qa‘ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). AQIM is still primarily focused on the Algerian government, but its target set is broader than it was prior to the merger. For example, AQIM claimed responsibility for the near-simultaneous December 11 bombings of the Algerian Constitutional Council and the United Nations headquarters in Algeria; building upon previous attacks on foreign vehicles and AQIM statements, the attack on the UN underlined that AQIM now considers foreign interests to be attractive targets. In April, AQIM launched suicide attacks for the first time and vowed to use them as a primary tactic against their enemies. In 2007, AQIM carried out eight suicide attacks that resulted in large numbers of government and civilian casualties. The suicide bombers used by AQIM are typically recruited from easily exploitable groups, such as teenagers in the July 11 and September 8 attacks, or the elderly and terminally ill, as in the December 11 UN attack. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group‘s (LIFG) November 2007 merger with AQ, on the other hand, 7 has yielded few successful attacks to date, reflecting the depleted capabilities of LIFG within Libya. (See Chapter 6, Terrorist Organizations, for further information on AQIM and LIFG.) At the same time, the alliance of convenience and mutual exploitation between al-Qa‘ida in Iraq (AQI) and many Sunni populations there has deteriorated. The Baghdad Security Plan, initiated in February, along with assistance from primarily Sunni tribal and local groups has succeeded in reducing violence to late 2005 levels, has disrupted and diminished AQI infrastructure, and has driven some surviving AQI fighters from Baghdad and Al Anbar into the northern Iraqi provinces of Ninawa, Diyala, and Salah ad Din. While AQI remained a threat, new initiatives to cooperate with tribal and local leaders in Iraq have led to Sunni tribes‘ and local citizens‘ rejection of AQI and its extremist ideology. The continued growth and improved capabilities of the Iraqi forces have increased their effectiveness in rooting out terrorist cells. Iraqis in Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala Provinces, and elsewhere have turned against the terrorist group and were cooperating with the Iraqi government and Coalition Forces to defeat AQI. The late 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia and subsequent deployment of AU forces there have kept AQ East Africa leadership, and elements of the Council of Islamic Courts that harbored them, on the run. Intense militancy against the Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces continued, reinforcing the early 2007 call to action by AQ through Ayman al-Zawahiri. In an Internet video released in January 2007, al-Zawahiri urged all mujahedin, specifically those in the Maghreb, to extend support to Somali Muslims in a holy war against the occupying Ethiopian forces. Throughout 2007, AQ increased propaganda efforts seeking to inspire support in Muslim populations, undermine Western confidence, and enhance the perception of a powerful worldwide movement. Terrorists consider information operations a principal part of their effort. Use of the Internet for propaganda, recruiting, fundraising and, increasingly, training, has made the Internet a ―virtual safe haven.‖ International intervention in Iraq continued