Secret
Middle Eastern-Origin Terrorist Incidents in Western Europe, 1980-85
at Rhein-Main Airbase in August. Despite counterterrorist successes against the organization, West German security officials continue to believe
that the RAD)(3)pable of conducting another major
Number of incidents
80
70
60
In France, Action Directe conducted 22 terrorist attacks last year, including the assassination in January of a high-level official in the Defense Ministry. Nearly all of these were directed at domestic political targets. In December, however, terrorists bombed the office in Versailles of the Central Europe Operating, Aronsy, which monitors the NATO pipeline.?
(b)(3)
SO
40
30
bUL
20
10
0
1980
Most of the dozen or so international terrorist incidents that occurred in Italy during 1985 were conducted by Middle Easterners against non-Western targets. However, one of the most spectacular attacks of the year—the hijacking in October of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro—victimized many nationalities, primarily Western. An Ame, was killed before the incident ended.
81
82
83
84
85
& Preliminary.
(b)(3)
- (b)(3jourist
300675 4
US interests, although this appears to be changing. The TWA hijacking in June, the seizure of the Achille Lauro in October, the diversion to Malta of the Egyptian airliner in November, and the attack on the Rome airmat in December all resulted in US
fatalities.(b)(3)
Belgian terrorists carried out some 30 attacks in 1985. Most of these were conducted by the Communist Combatant Cells (CCC), which surfaced in October 1984 in connection with a series of attacks against NATO and defense-related targets. The group bombed offices of the Motorola Company in Brussels on the day of President Reagan's meeting with allies to discuss the Geneva summit. In December, it blew up a control station on the NATO pipeline in western Belgium-within a half hour of the Versailles bombing. Since the arrest by Belgian security officials of key members of the group in mid-December, _(b)(3) however, there have been no further attacks.
Western Europe Some 200 international terrorist incidents occurred in Western Europe during 1985. About one-third of these were directed against US or NATO-related targets, primarily by West European terrorists. Although the growing number of incidents conducted in Western Europe by terrorists of Middle Eastern origin is of increasing concern, European authorities
have also had to contend (b)(3)ntinuing activity
The separatist Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) remained Spain's most serious terrorist problem in 1985, despite counterterrorist successes by Spanish and French police and continued murders of ETA members by the Antiterrorist Liberation Group, which Spanish and French press sources have linked to the Spanish police. Spain's other major terrorist
from domestic terrorists.
In West Germany, sympathizers and hardcore members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) carried out more than a dozen attacks against US and NATOrelated interests last year, including the car bombing
For a more detailed examination of terrorism affecting interesis, see the accompanying article in this issue.
"(b)(3),
21
Secret
Approved for Release: 2017/09/13 C05632837