Al-Burkan (The Volcano, alt. Al-Burkan al Watani) was a Libyan dissident

terrorist group A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

opposed to the rule of

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

, that claimed responsibility for several political assassinations and attacks in Europe during the 1980's. A leader of Al-Burkan, Ragab Mabruk Zatout claimed to have personally met Oliver North and received support from

US intelligence The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Al-Burkan claimed responsibility for the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on 21 January 1984 in Rome. A Libyan businessman with close ties to Gaddafi was killed on June 21, 1984, in Athens during the visit of Abdul Salam Turayki, Libya's secretary of foreign liaison. Both Al-Burkan and the Iraqi Sadr Brigade took credit for the 11 September 1984 attack on two Libyan diplomats in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In 1985, Al-Burkan claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Libyan Information Bureau chief in Rome. In 1996, the ''Dispatches'' program on BBC Channel 4 produced a documentary on the shooting murder of London police office Yvonne Fletcher during the 17 April 1984 demonstration at the Libyan embassy. The program alleged that Al-Burkan had infiltrated the building and had shot Fletcher.

References

Terrorism in Italy History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi Organizations established in 1984 1984 in Italy {{terrorism-stub