State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terrorist organizations, providing training, supplying weapons, providing other logistical and intelligence assistance, and hosting groups within their borders. Because of the pejorative nature of the word, the identification of particular examples are often subject to political dispute and different definitions of terrorism. A wide variety of states in both developed and

developing Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

areas of the world have engaged in sponsoring terrorism. During the 1970s and 1980s, state sponsorship of terrorism was a frequent feature of international conflict. From that time to the 2010s there was a steady pattern of decline in the prevalence and magnitude of state support. Nevertheless, because of the increasing consequent level of violence that it could potentially facilitate, it remains an issue of highly salient international concern.

Definition

There are at least 250 definitions of "terrorism" available in academic literature and government and intergovernmental sources, several of which include mention of state sponsorship. In a review of primary documents on international law governing armed conflict, Reisman and Antoniou identify that: The

Gilmore Commission Gilmore Commission is the informal and commonly used name for the U.S. Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the A ...

of the U.S. Congress gave the following definition of state-sponsored terrorism: The

U.S. Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

, which has repeatedly engaged in sponsorship of terrorism as a feature of its foreign policy, provides its own definition in the U.S. State Department's

list of state sponsors of terrorism "State Sponsors of Terrorism" is a designation applied by the United States Department of State to countries which the Department alleges to have "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism". Inclusion on the list imposes ...

. Authorities and scholars of terrorism and conflict, such as

Alex P. Schmid Alex Peter Schmid (born 1943) is a scholar in terrorism studies, who from 1999 to 2005 was Officer-in-Charge of the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna. He is particularly known for his work on t ...

(former Officer-in-Charge of Terrorism Prevention at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), Daniel Byman, Richard Chasdi, and Frank Shanty, have pointed to problems in the U.S.' definition, including that it is politicized, analytically unclear, and inherently self-serving.

Background

The use of terrorist organizations as proxies in armed conflicts between state actors became more attractive in the mid-20th century as a result of post World War II developments like the increasing costs of traditional warfare and the risk of

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

. Speaking about the effect of nuclear capability on traditional military conflict KGB agent Alexander Sakharovsky said that "In today's world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." Though state-sponsored terrorism persists in the post-9/11 era, some scholars have argued that it has become less significant in the age of global jihadism. On the other hand, Daniel Byman believes its importance has increased. Organizations like Hamas,

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are heavily dependent on state support. According to the US Counter-Terrorism Coordinator's Office this support can include "funds, weapons, materials and the secure areas" that organizations use for "planning and conducting operations". The ''Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law'' notes that international legal institutions currently lack a mechanism to prosecute terrorist leaders who "instruct, support or succour" terrorism. At the conclusion of the

Lockerbie trial The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, 11 years, 4 months and 13 days after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set ...

, some commentators continued to harbor doubts about the legitimacy of the only conviction secured during the trial, and thus also about Libyas involvement. The domestic trial proved to be insufficient to identify those who had given the instructions.

By country

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's KHAD was one of four secret service agencies which were accused of perpetrating terrorist bombings in North-west Pakistan during the early 1980s; By the late 1980s, the U.S state department blamed WAD (a secret Afghan intelligence agency which was created by the KGB) for the perpetration of terrorist bombings in Pakistani cities. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, Afghanistan security agencies supported the terrorist organization called al-Zulfiqar, the terrorist group that in 1981 hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines plane from Karachi to Kabul. On 24 June 2017, Pakistani army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa chaired a high-level meeting in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

and called on Afghanistan to "do more" in the fight against terrorism. According to the ISPR, the attacks in Quetta and Parachinar were linked to terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan which enjoyed the "patronage of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS)"

China

India has accused China of supporting the Naxalites in the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency. In 2011, Indian police accused the Chinese government of providing sanctuary to the movement's leaders, and accused Pakistani

ISI ISI or Isi may refer to: Organizations * Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a classical conservative organization focusing on college students * Ice Skating Institute, a trade association for ice rinks * Indian Standards Institute, former name of ...

of providing financial support. Times of India describes new findings of China ISI links to Naxal movement. India has also reported of China supporting rebel groups in its Northeast states of Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram. The Chinese government has blocked UN Security Council Sanctions Committee listing of

Masood Azhar Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi is a radical Islamist and terrorist, being the founder and leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, active mainly in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region. His actions a ...

, the founder and leader of the Pakistan based terrorist organization

Jaish-e-Mohammed Jaish-e-Mohammed ( ur, , literally "The Army of Muhammad", abbreviated as JeM) is a Pakistan-based: "The JEM is a Pakistan-based, militant Islamic group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000." Deobandi: "Deobandis like Masood Azha ...

as a terrorist, thwarting international efforts to disrupt the activities of his group. Starting 2009, there have been 4 attempts to put

in the UN Security Council's counter-terrorism sanctions list. All the attempts were vetoed by China, citing 'lack of evidence'. China moved to protect Azhar again in October 2016 when it blocked India's appeal to the United Nations to label him as a terrorist. China also blocked a US move to get Azhar banned by the UN in February 2017. The most recent attempt was on 13 March 2019. However, China pulled the blockade in May 2019, finally resulting listing of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. In mid-2020,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

accused China of arming the Arakan Army, which was legally considered a terrorist organisation by the Myanmar government from 2019 to 2021. China has allegedly given the Arakan Army assault rifles, machine guns and FN-6 Chinese Manpads capable of shooting down helicopters, drones and combat aircraft.

India

India's

Research and Analysis Wing The Research and Analysis Wing (abbreviated R&AW; hi, ) is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, an ...

trained and armed the Sri Lankan Tamil group

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

which want an independent country for Tamils of Sri lanka, due to the continuous

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and violent persecution against

Sri Lankan Tamils Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pro ...

by the

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

dominated Sri Lankan Government during the 1970s, but it later withdrew its support in the late 1980s when the terrorist activities of LTTE became serious and it formed alliances with separatist groups in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. From August 1983 to May 1987, India, through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), provided arms, training and monetary support to six Sri Lankan Tamil insurgent groups including the LTTE. During that period, 32 terror training camps were set up in India to train these 495 LTTE insurgents, including 90 women who were trained in 10 batches. The first batch of Tigers were trained in

Establishment 22 The Special Frontier Force (SFF) is an Indian special operations unit created on 14 November 1962. It mainly comprised Tibetan refugees living in India. Now it has increased in size and scope of operations. Its primary goal originally was to ...

based in Chakrata, Uttarakhand. The second batch, including LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman, trained in Himachal Pradesh. Prabakaran visited the first and the second batch of Tamil Tigers to see them training. Eight other batches of LTTE were trained in Tamil Nadu. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam ''alias'' Dhanu, who carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and Sivarasan—the key conspirator were among the militants trained by R&AW, in Nainital, India. In April 1984, the LTTE formally joined a common militant front, the

Eelam National Liberation Front The Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF) was a short-lived (1984-1986) umbrella organisation for leading Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups. Formation In April 1984 M. Karunanidhi invited the leaders of the five leading Tamil militant groups, ...

(ENLF), a union between LTTE, the

Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) is an Eelam Tamil organisation which campaigned for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in the northeast of Sri Lanka during 1972-1987 which later accepted the December 19th proposals. T ...

(TELO), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), the

People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) is a former Tamil militant group that had become a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front. Ori ...

(PLOTE) and the

Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) is a series of Sri Lankan political parties and a former militant separatist group. Militant separatists The EPRLF was formed in 1980 by K. Pathmanabha (Padmanaba), Douglas Devananda, Su ...

(EPRLF). On 4 June 1987, when the Tamil Tiger-held Jaffna Peninsula was under siege by the Sri Lankan army, India provided airdrop of relief supplies to LTTE. India has been accused by Pakistan of supporting terrorism and carrying out "economic sabotage". In November 2020, the

Foreign Office of Pakistan The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( ur, , ''Wazarat-e-Kharja'', abbreviated as MoFA) is a ministry of the Government of Pakistan tasked in managing Pakistan's diplomatic and consular relations as well as its foreign policy. The MOFA is also resp ...

made public a dossier allegedly containing 'irrefutable proofs' of the Indian sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan. It allegedly contained proof of India's financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organisations, including UN-designated terrorist organisations Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Pakistan has also accused Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad, Afghanistan, of providing arms, training and financial aid to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in an attempt to destabilize Pakistan.

Brahamdagh Bugti Brahamdagh Khan Bugti or Brahumdagh Khan Bugti ( ur, براہمدغ خان بگٹی) is the founder and leader of the Political Organisation Baloch Republican Party, a Baloch nationalist group which broke away from his uncle Talal Akbar Bugti's ...

stated in a 2008 interview that he would accept help from India. Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of supporting Baloch rebels, and Wright-Neville writes that outside Pakistan, some Western observers also believe that India secretly funds the BLA. In August 2013 US Special Representative James Dobbins said Pakistan's fears over India's role in Afghanistan were “not groundless". A diplomatic cable sent on December 31, 2009, from the U.S. consulate in Karachi and obtained by WikiLeaks said it was "plausible" that Indian intelligence was helping the Baluch insurgents. An earlier 2008 cable, discussing the Mumbai attacks reported fears by British officials that "intense domestic pressure would force Delhi to respond, at the minimum, by ramping up covert support to nationalist insurgents fighting the Pakistani army in Baluchistan." Another cable dating back to 2009 showed that UAE officials believed India was secretly supporting Tehrik-e-Taliban insurgents and separatists in northwest Pakistan.

Iran

Former United States President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

accused the Iranian government of being the "world's primary state sponsor of terror." Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was instrumental in founding, training, and supplying

, a group designated a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" by the United States Department of State, and likewise labeled a terrorist organization by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Gulf Cooperation Council. This view is not universal, however; for example, the European Union differentiates between the political, social, and military wings of Hezbollah, designating only its military wing as a terrorist organization, while various other countries maintain relations with Hezbollah.

Israel

The

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

has been accused of being a state-sponsor of terrorism, and also committing acts of state terrorism. Several sovereign countries have at some point officially alleged that Israel is a proponent of state-sponsored terrorism, including Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, Turkey, and Yemen.

Kuwait

Kuwait is listed as sources of militant money in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kuwait is described as a "source of funds and a key transit point" for

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

and other militant groups.

Lebanon

Lebanon was accused by United States and Israel for supporting

Libya

After the military overthrow of

King Idris Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi ( ar, إدريس, Idrīs; 13 March 1890 – 25 May 1983) was a Libyan political and religious leader who was King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his overthrow on 1 September 1969. He ruled ov ...

in 1969 the

Libyan Arab Republic Muammar Gaddafi became the ''de facto'' leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Comman ...

(later the

Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Muammar Gaddafi became the ''de facto'' leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Comman ...

), the new government supported (with weapon supplies, training camps located within Libya and monetary finances) an array of armed

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

groups largely

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

as well as some

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

. Leftist and socialist groups included the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Basque Fatherland and Liberty, the Umkhonto We Sizwe, the Polisario Front, the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

, the

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement ( es, Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, abbreviated MRTA) was a Peruvian Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group which started in the early 1980s. Their self-declared g ...

, the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Free Aceh Movement, Free Papua Movement, Fretilin, Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, Republic of South Maluku and the Moro National Liberation Front of the Philippines. In 2006, Libya was removed from the United States list of terrorist supporting nations after it had ended all of its support for armed groups and the development of weapons of mass destruction.

Malaysia

Citing

Operation Merdeka The Jabidah massacre on March 18, 1968 was the purported assassinations or executions of Moro army recruits who allegedly mutinied upon learning the true nature of their mission. It is acknowledged as a major flashpoint that ignited the Moro i ...

, an alleged Philippine plot to incite unrest in Sabah and reclaimed the disputed territory, Malaysia funded and trained secessionists groups such as the Moro National Liberation Front in retaliation.

North Korea

Iraq

Pakistan

Pakistan has been accused by India, Afghanistan, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United StatesInternational Terrorism: Threats and Responses: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary By United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, , 1996, pp. 482 of involvement in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

as well as Afghanistan. Poland has also alleged that terrorists have "friends in Pakistani government structures". In July 2009, the then

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.Asif Ali Zardari admitted that the Pakistani government had "created and nurtured" terrorist groups to achieve its short-term foreign policy goals in the 80’s under Zia. According to an analysis published by the

Saban Center for Middle East Policy The Center for Middle East Policy ("CMEP", formerly the Saban Center for Middle East Policy) is a center for research within the Brookings Institution focused on the United States' involvement in the Middle East. It was founded in May 2002 . Cre ...

at Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was the worlds 'most active' state sponsor of terrorism including aiding groups which were considered a direct threat to the United States. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has stated that it was training more than 3,000 militants from various nationalities. According to some reports published by the

Council of Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York City ...

, the Pakistan military and the ISI have provided covert support to terrorist groups active in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, including the

affiliate

". Pakistan has denied any involvement in terrorist activities in

, arguing that it only provides political and moral support to the secessionist groups who wish to escape Indian rule. Many Kashmiri militant groups also maintain their headquarters in

Pakistan-administered Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompass ...

, which is cited as further proof by the Indian government. Many of the terrorist organisations are banned by the UN, but continue to operate under different names. The United Nations organization has publicly increased pressure on Pakistan on its inability to control its Afghanistan border and not restricting the activities of Taliban leaders who have been designated by the UN as terrorists. Many consider that Pakistan has been playing both sides in the US " War on Terror". Ahmed Rashid, a noted Pakistani journalist, has accused Pakistan's ISI of providing help to the Taliban. Author

Ted Galen Carpenter TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

echoed that statement, stating that Pakistan "... assisted rebel forces in Kashmir even though those groups have committed terrorist acts against civilians" Author Gordon Thomas stated that whilst aiding in the capture of al-Qaeda members, Pakistan "still sponsored terrorist groups in the disputed state of Kashmir, funding, training and arming them in their war on attrition against India." Journalist

Stephen Schwartz Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...

notes that several militant and criminal groups are "backed by senior officers in the Pakistani army, the country's ISI intelligence establishment and other armed bodies of the state." According to one author, Daniel Byman, "Pakistan is probably today's most active sponsor of terrorism." The Inter-Services Intelligence has often been accused of playing a role in major

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terrori ...

across the world including the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

in the United States, terrorism in Kashmir,

Mumbai Train Bombings The 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts on 11 July. They took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capit ...

, Indian Parliament Attack, Varanasi bombings, Hyderabad bombings and Mumbai terror attacks. The ISI is also accused of supporting Taliban forces and recruiting and training

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Based on communication intercepts US intelligence agencies concluded Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, a charge that the governments of India and Afghanistan had laid previously. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has constantly reiterated allegations that militants operating training camps in Pakistan have used it as a launch platform to attack targets in Afghanistan, urged western military allies to target extremist hideouts in neighbouring Pakistan. When the United States, during the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

, targeted al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan with cruise missiles, ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' reported that two officers of the ISI were killed. Pakistan is accused of sheltering and training the Taliban as strategic asset in operations "which include soliciting funding for the Taliban, bankrolling Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranging training for Taliban fighters, recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planning and directing offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and on several occasions apparently directly providing combat support," as reported by Human Rights Watch. Pakistan was also responsible for the evacuation of about 5,000 of the top leadership of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda who were encircled by NATO forces in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. This event, known as the

Kunduz airlift The Kunduz airlift, also called the Airlift of Evil, refers to the alleged evacuation by Pakistan of hundreds of top commanders and members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda as well as their Pakistani advisors (which included agents of the Inter-Ser ...

, which is also popularly called the "Airlift of Evil", involved several Pakistani Air Force transport planes flying multiple sorties over a number of days. On May 1, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

was killed in Pakistan, he was living in a safe house less than a mile away from, what is called the West Point of Pakistan, the Pakistan Military Academy. This has given rise to numerous allegations of an extensive support system for Osama Bin Laden was in place by the Government and Military of Pakistan. Former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan for supporting ISIS during interview with ANI that Afghanistan has evidence of Pakistan's support to ISIS.He added that there is no to the above statement. Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistan President, had admitted in 2016 that Pakistan supported and trained terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1990s to carry out militancy in Kashmir and Pakistan was in favour of religious militancy in 1979. He said that

Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi (born 30 December 1960) is a Pakistani terrorist and co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba. One of the prime perpetrators in the 2008 Mumbai Attacks, he features on India's NIA Most Wanted list. In January 2021, he was arrested by ...

and

Hafiz Saeed Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ( ur, , born 5 June 1950) is a Pakistani Islamism, Islamist who co-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based Islamist militant organization that is List of designated terrorist groups, designated as a terrorist grou ...

were seen as heroes in Pakistan during the 1990s. He added that later on this religious militancy turned into terrorism and they started killing their own people. He also stated that Pakistan trained the Taliban to fight against Russia, saying that the Taliban,

, Jalaluddin Haqqani and

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with ...

were heroes for Pakistan however later they became villains.

Philippines

was a destabilization plot planned with the objective of establishing Philippine control over Sabah. The operation failed to carry out, which resulted in the

Jabidah massacre The Jabidah massacre on March 18, 1968 was the purported assassinations or executions of Moro people, Moro army recruits who allegedly mutiny, mutinied upon learning the true nature of their mission. It is acknowledged as a major flashpoint tha ...

Qatar

In 2011 the '' Washington Times'' reported that Qatar was providing weapons and funding to

Abdelhakim Belhadj Abdelhakim Belhaj (or Belhadj; ar, عبد الحكيم بلحاج, nom de guerre: Abu Abdallah Assadaq) (born 1 May 1966) is a Libyan politician and military leader. He is the leader of the Islamist al-Watan Party and former head of the Trip ...

, leader of the formerly U.S. designated terrorist group,

Libyan Islamic Fighting Group The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), also known as ''Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya'' ( ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المقاتلة بليبيا), was an armed Islamist group. Militants participated in the 2011 Liby ...

(LIFG) and then leader of the conservative Islamist Al-Watan Party. In December 2012 the '' New York Times'' published an editorial accusing the Qatari regime of funding the

Al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

, a U.S. government designated terrorist organization. The '' Financial Times'' noted Emir Hamad's visit to Gaza and meeting with Hamas, another internationally designated terrorist organization. Spanish football club FC Barcelona were coming under increasing pressure to tear up their £125m shirt sponsorship contract with the

Qatar Foundation Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development ( ar, مؤسسة قطر) is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser. Qatar Founda ...

after claims the so-called charitable trust finances Hamas. The fresh controversy follows claims made by the Spanish newspaper '' El Mundo'' that the Qatar Foundation had given money to cleric Yusuf al Qaradawi who is alleged to be an advocate of terrorism, wife beating and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. In January 2013 French politicians again accused the Qatari Government of giving material support to Islamist groups in Mali and the French newspaper '' Le Canard enchaîné'' quoted an unnamed source in French military intelligence saying that "The MNLA ecular Tuareg separatists al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine and

Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (abbreviated MOJWA) or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (abbreviated MUJWA; ar, جماعة التوحيد والجهاد في غرب أفريقيا ''Jamāʿat at-tawḥīd wal-jih ...

have all received cash from Doha." In March 2014, the then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused the Qatari government of sponsoring Sunni insurgents fighting against Iraqi soldiers in western Anbar province. In October 2014, it was revealed that a former Qatari Interior Ministry official, Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari, had been named by the

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

as an al Qaeda financier, with allegations that he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the terrorist group. Kuwari worked for the civil defense department of the Interior Ministry in 2009, two years before he was designated for his support of al Qaeda. A number of wealthy Qataris are accused of sponsoring the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In response to public criticism over Qatari connections to ISIL, the government has pushed back and denied supporting the group.

Russia

Alexander J. Motyl Alexander John Motyl ( uk, Олександр Мотиль; born October 21, 1953) is an American historian, political scientist, poet, writer, translator and artist-painter. He is a resident of New York City. He is professor of political science ...

, professor of political science at Rutgers University argues that Russia's direct and indirect involvement in the violence in eastern Ukraine qualifies as a state-sponsored terrorism, and that those involved qualify as "terrorist groups." Russia's behaviour towards its neighbours was alleged by Dalia Grybauskaitė, the

President of Lithuania The President of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidentas) is the head of state of Lithuania. The officeholder has been Gitanas Nausėda since 12 July 2019. Powers The president has somewhat more executive authority tha ...

to be evidence of state terrorism. Grybauskaitė stated that "Russia demonstrates the qualities of a terrorist state." During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov defined Russian forces as "not military – they are terrorists, representatives of the terrorist state and this mark will be with them for a long time." US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham announced the introduction of a resolution calling on US president Joe Biden to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States for its war on Ukraine and conduct elsewhere under Vladimir Putin. In the introduction, Senator Graham said, "Putin is a terrorist, and one of the most disruptive forces on the planet is Putin's Russia." During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, the following countries and international organisations have recognised Russia as a "terrorist state" or a "state sponsor of terrorism": * Czech Republic *Estonia *Latvia *Lithuania *Netherlands *Poland *Ukraine *The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe *The European Parliament

Saudi Arabia

While Saudi Arabia is often a secondary source of funds and support for terror movements who can find more motivated and ideologically invested benefactors, Saudi Arabia arguably remains the most prolific sponsor of international

Islamist terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities fr ...

, allegedly supporting groups as disparate as the Afghanistan Taliban,

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the

. Saudi Arabia is said to be the world's largest source of funds and promoter of Salafist jihadism, which forms the ideological basis of terrorist groups such as

, Taliban, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and others. In a December 2009 diplomatic cable to U.S. State Department staff (made public in the diplomatic cable leaks the following year), U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged U.S. diplomats to increase efforts to block money from

Gulf Arab states The Arab states of the Persian Gulf refers to a group of Arab states which border the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. ...

from going to terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, writing that "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide" and that "More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for

, the Taliban,

LeT Let or LET may refer to: Sports * Let serve, when the served object in certain racket sports hits the net and lands in the correct service court, such as; ** Let (badminton) ** Let (pickleball) ** Let (tennis) * Ladies European Tour, the ladi ...

and other terrorist groups." An August 2009 State Department cable also said that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of Terrorism, terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from P ...

, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities in 2005. The violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan is partly bankrolled by wealthy, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. Three other Arab countries which are listed as sources of militant money are Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, all neighbors of Saudi Arabia. According to two studies published in 2007 (one by Mohammed Hafez of the

University of Missouri in Kansas City A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

and the other by Robert Pape of the University of Chicago), most of the suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudis. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers of the four airliners who were responsible for

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

originated from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

was born and educated in Saudi Arabia. Starting in the mid-1970s the

Islamic resurgence Islamic revival ( ar, تجديد'' '', lit., "regeneration, renewal"; also ', "Islamic awakening") refers to a revival of the Islamic religion. The revivers are known in Islam as ''mujaddids''. Within the Islamic tradition, ''tajdid'' has been ...

was funded by an abundance of money from Saudi Arabian oil exports. The tens of billions of dollars in " petro-Islam" largess obtained from the recently heightened price of oil funded an estimated "90% of the expenses of the entire faith." Throughout the Sunni Muslim world, religious institutions for people both young and old, from children's maddrassas to high-level scholarships received Saudi funding, "books, scholarships, fellowships, and mosques" (for example, "more than 1500 mosques were built and paid for with money obtained from public Saudi funds over the last 50 years"), along with training in the Kingdom for the preachers and teachers who went on to teach and work at these universities, schools, mosques, etc. The funding was also used to reward journalists and academics who followed the Saudis' strict interpretation of Islam; and satellite campuses were built around Egypt for

Al Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic ...

, the world's oldest and most influential Islamic university. The interpretation of Islam promoted by this funding was the strict, conservative Saudi-based Wahhabism or

Salafism The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a Islah, reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three g ...

. In its harshest form it preached that Muslims should not only "always oppose" infidels "in every way", but "hate them for their religion ... for Allah's sake", that democracy "is responsible for all the horrible wars of the 20th century", that Shia and other non-Wahhabi Muslims were " infidels", etc. According to former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, while this effort has by no means converted all, or even most, Muslims to the Wahhabist interpretation of Islam, it has done much to overwhelm more moderate local interpretations of Islam in Southeast Asia, and to pitch the Saudi-interpretation of Islam as the "gold standard" of religion in minds of Muslims across the globe. Patrick Cockburn accused Saudi Arabia of supporting extremist Islamist groups in the Syrian Civil War, writing: "In Syria, in early 2015, it supported the creation of the

Army of Conquest The Army of Conquest ( ar, جيش الفتح) or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, was a joint command center of Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War. The alliance was formed in March 2015 under the supe ...

, primarily made up of the

affiliate the

al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

and the ideologically similar

Ahrar al-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...

, which won a series of victories against the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

Idlib ar, إدلبي, Idlibi , coordinates = , elevation_m = 500 , area_code = 23 , geocode = C3871 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info ...

province." While the Saudi government denies claims that it exports religious or cultural extremism, it is argued that by its nature, Wahhabism encourages intolerance and promotes terrorism. Former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

director

James Woolsey Robert James Woolsey Jr. (born September 21, 1941) is an American political appointee who has served in various senior positions. He headed the Central Intelligence Agency as Director of Central Intelligence from February 5, 1993, until January 1 ...

described it as "the soil in which

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

and its sister terrorist organizations are flourishing." In 2015, Sigmar Gabriel, Vice-Chancellor of Germany, accused Saudi Arabia of supporting intolerance and extremism, saying: "Wahhabi mosques are financed all over the world by Saudi Arabia. In Germany, many dangerous Islamists come from these communities." In May 2016, The New York Times editorialised that the kingdom allied to the U.S. had "spent untold millions promoting Wahhabism, the radical form of Sunni Islam that inspired the

hijackers and that now inflames the Islamic State". Iranian

Hamidreza Taraghi Hamidreza Taraghi ( fa, حمیدرضا ترقی) is an Iranian ''bazaari'' merchant and conservative politician who served a member of the Parliament of Iran from 1996 to 2000 Mashhad and Kalat electoral district. Taraghi formerly headed Islamic ...

, a hard-line analyst with ties to

Iran’s supreme leader The Supreme Leader of Iran ( fa, رهبر ایران, rahbar-e irān) is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Supreme Leader directs the executive system and judicial system of the Islamic theocratic government and is the ...

, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said, “ISIS ideologically, financially and logistically is fully supported and sponsored by Saudi Arabia...They are one and the same”. In 2014, former

Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...

Nouri al-Maliki stated that Saudi Arabia and Qatar started the civil wars in Iraq and

, and incited and encouraged terrorist movements, like ISIL and

, supporting them politically and in the media, with money and by buying weapons for them. Saudi Arabia denied the accusations which were criticised by the country, the Carnegie Middle East Center and the Royal United Services Institute. One of the leaked Podesta emails from August 2014, addressed to John Podesta, identifies Saudi Arabia and Qatar as providing "clandestine," "financial and logistic" aid to ISIL and other "radical Sunni groups." The email outlines a plan of action against ISIL, and urges putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to end their alleged support for the group. Whether the email was originally written by Hillary Clinton, her advisor Sidney Blumenthal, or another person is unclear. Following the

2017 Tehran attacks The 2017 Tehran attacks were a series of two simultaneous terrorist attacks that occurred on 7 June 2017 that were carried out by five terrorists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against the Iranian Parliament buildi ...

, Iranian authorities such as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( fa, وزارت امور خارجه, Vezārat-e Omūr-e Khārejeh) is an Iranian government ministry headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is a member of cabinet. The current Minister of Foreign Affair ...

Javad Zarif Mohammad Javad Zarif Khansari ( fa, محمدجواد ظریف خوانساری, Mohammad-Javād Zarīf Khānsāri ; ; born 8 January 1960) is an Iranian career diplomat and academic. He was the foreign minister of Iran from 2013 until 2021 in th ...

, have accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the attacks. In a Twitter post, Zarif wrote, "Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy". His statements referred to the Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammad bin Salman's threats against the country about a month earlier, in which bin Salman revealed their policy to drag the regional conflict into Iranian borders. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, denied his country's involvement in the attacks and said Riyadh had no knowledge of who was responsible for them. He condemned terrorist attacks and killing of the innocent "anywhere it occurs". In 2017 Bob Corker, then-chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stated that the Saudi support for terrorism "dwarfs what Qatar is doing"; the statement was made after Saudi Arabia cut ties with Qatar, citing alleged support of terrorism by the latter. According to '' Newsweek'', the United Kingdom government may decide to keep secret the results of an official inquiry into the supporters of the Islamist militant groups in the country. The findings are believed to have references to Saudi Arabia. Following various accusations relating to sponsoring terrorism, Saudi Arabia became eager to join the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). However, a review conducted by the FATF on Saudi’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing system, pointed that the kingdom has not been able to tackle the risk of terrorism financing by third-party and facilitators, as well as individuals financing international terrorist organizations. In 2019, Saudi Arabia has been granted a full membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) becoming the first Arab country awarded this full membership. This was following the group’s Annual General Meeting in Orlando. The group is responsible for designing and issuing standards and policies that face money laundering and terrorist financing. On 25 June 2019, the Arab Coalition has revealed that Saudi and Yemeni special forces had captured Abu Osama al-Muhajir, the leader (emir) of ISIS's network in Yemen. The ISIS's leader, as well as other members of ISIS, were arrested on 3 June 2019 in a house that was under surveillance. On 6 December 2019, a 21-year-old Royal Saudi Air Force second lieutenant, identified as Mohammed Alshamrani attacked the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. Allegedly, the attack has been labeled as an act of terrorism while further investigations are being carried out to determine the same. According to a Twitter account linked to that of the shooter, posted a message that arose the possibility of it being an al-qaeda inspired attack. Attorneys who defended Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 lawsuits, are reported to be representing crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in the alleged targeting and assassination of an ex-intelligence official from Saudi Arabia. The cases filed in August accused the prince of committing human rights violations, murder, and torture.

Sudan

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

was considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the US government from 1993 to 2020, and was targeted by United Nations sanctions in 1996 for its role in sheltering suspects of an attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt. Sudan has been suspected of harboring members of the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Nidal Organization, Jamaat al-Islamiyya, and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, as well as supporting insurgencies in Uganda, Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Voice of America News reported that Sudan is suspected by US officials of allowing the Lord's Resistance Army to operate within its borders. In December 1994,

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

broke diplomatic relations with Sudan after a long period of increasing tension between the two countries due to a series of cross-border incidents involving the

Eritrean Islamic Jihad Eritrean Islamic Jihad is referred to as the Eritrean Islamic Salvation Movement, EIJM, EIJ, ERIJ, EISM, Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement, and/or Harakat al Jihad al Islami al Eritrea. The Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement (ERIJ), is one of several op ...

(EIJ). Although the attacks did not pose a threat to the stability of the Government of Eritrea (the infiltrators have generally been killed or captured by government forces), the Eritreans believe the

National Islamic Front The National Islamic Front ( ar, الجبهة الإسلامية القومية; transliterated: ''al-Jabhah al-Islamiyah al-Qawmiyah'') was an Islamist political organization founded in 1976 and led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi that influenced th ...

(NIF) in Khartoum supported, trained, and armed the insurgents. After many months of negotiations with the Sudanese to try to end the incursions, the Government of Eritrea concluded that the NIF did not intend to change its policy and broke relations. Subsequently, the Government of Eritrea hosted a conference of Sudanese opposition leaders in June 1995 in an effort to help the opposition unite and to provide a credible alternative to the present government in Khartoum. Eritrea resumed diplomatic relations with Sudan on December 10, 2005. Since then, Sudan has accused Eritrea, along with

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

, of supporting rebels. The undemarcated border with Sudan previously posed a problem for Eritrean external relations. Sudan was accused of allowing members of Hamas to travel to and live in the country, as well as raise funds, though the presence of terrorists in Sudan has largely been a secondary concern in terms of Sudanese sponsorship of terror to the facilitation of material supplies to terrorist groups and the use of Sudan by Palestine-based terrorist organizations has declined in recent years. The Allied Democratic Forces, designated as a terrorist organization by Uganda, is said to be supported by Sudan and suspected of affiliation with widely designated terrorist group Al-Shabaab Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are said to have been formerly based in Sudan during the early 1990s. The US and Israel have conducted operations against Sudanese targets affiliated with terrorist groups as recently as 2012. Following the fall of Omar Al Bashir as the president of Sudan and the visit of the newly appointed Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to Washington, the United States agreed to exchange ambassadors and said it would consider dropping Sudan from its list of countries of state sponsored terrorism. On December 14, 2020, the United States officially removed Sudan from the list after it agreed to establish relations with Israel and pay $335m to US victims of terror attacks.

Syria

The Syrian government itself has been accused of engaging in

state sponsored terrorism State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terrorist ...

by President

and by the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

from 1979 to today. The European Community met on 10 November 1986 to discuss the

Hindawi affair The Hindawi affair was a failed attempt to bomb El Al Flight 016, from London to Tel Aviv in April 1986 by Nezar Nawwaf al-Mansur al-Hindawi ( ar, نزار نواف منصور الهنداوي, born 1954), a Jordanian citizen. On the morning of ...

, an attempt to bomb an El Al flight out of London, and the subsequent arrest and trial in the UK of Nizar Hindawi, who allegedly received Syrian government support after the bombing, and possibly beforehand. The European response was to impose sanctions against Syria and state that these measures were intended "to send Syria the clearest possible message that what has happened is absolutely unacceptable."

Turkey

Francis Ricciardone Francis Joseph Ricciardone Jr. (born 1952) is a former President of the American University in Cairo. Ambassador Ricciardone was the United States ambassador to Turkey between 2011 and 2014. Previously he was Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Embas ...

, United States Ambassador to Turkey from 2011 to 2014, claims that Turkey had directly supported and worked with

and

in the Syrian conflict for a period of time.

, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and Egypt have designated Ahrar al-Sham a terrorist organization but the U.S. has not. The United Nations Security Council and many countries including the US class al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation; it was the official Syrian branch of

until July 2016, when it ostensibly split.

Al-Monitor Al-Monitor ( ar, المونيتور) is a news website launched in February 2012 by the Arab American entrepreneur Jamal Daniel and based in Washington, DC, United States. Al-Monitor provides reporting and analysis from and about the Middle East. ...

claimed in 2013 that Turkey was reconsidering its support for Nusra, and Turkey's designation of the Nusra Front as a terrorist group since June 2014 was seen as an indication of it giving up on the group. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia supported the

, a coalition of Salafist and Islamist Syrian rebel groups formed in March 2015 that included the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, but that also included non-al-Qaeda-linked Islamist factions, such as the

Sham Legion The Sham Legion ( ar, فَيْلَق الشَّام, ''Faylaq al-Shām'') is an alliance of Sunni Islamist rebel groups formed in March 2014, during the Syrian Civil War. The alliance was formed from 19 different groups, some of which were previ ...

, that have received covert arms support from the United States. According to '' The Independent'', some Turkish officials admitted giving logistical and intelligence support to the command center of the coalition, but denied giving direct help to al-Nusra, while acknowledging that the group would be beneficiaries. It also reported that some rebels and officials claim that material support in the form of money and weapons was given to the coalition by Saudis with Turkey facilitating its passage.

2014 National Intelligence Organisation scandal in Turkey Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

caused a major controversy in Turkey. The critiques of the government claimed that the Turkish government has been providing arms to ISIL, while the Turkish government has maintained that the trucks were bound for the

Bayırbucak Bayirbucak ( tr, Bayırbucak) is a region in the Latakia District of the Latakia Governorate in northwestern Syria. There is a considerable Syrian Turkmen presence in the area have strong cultural and historical ties with Turkey. Bayirbucak's mo ...

Turkmens, who are opposed to the Syrian government. According to later academic study the arms were bound for the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

and rebel Syrian Turkmen. In 2014,

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

reported that the Turkish government had stamped passports of foreigners seeking to cross the border and join ISIL. However, it was also reported by Sky News that ISIL members use fake passports in order to get to Syria and Turkish officials can not easily identify the authenticity of these documents.

YPG The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly-Kurds in Syria, Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the ...

commander

Meysa Abdo Narin Afrin (b. 1974) is the nom de guerre of Meysa Abdo, a leader of the Kurds, Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), Women's Protection Units (YPJ), and Kobane resistance, notably during the 2014–2015 Siege of Kobanî. Background Narin A ...

in an op-ed written for NY Times on October 28 claimed there is evidence that Turkish forces have allowed the Islamic State’s men and equipment to move back and forth across the border. On November 29, Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), reportedly said that ISIL started to attack them from all four sides for the first time. Turkey's hesitation to help

and PYD in the fight against ISIL was reportedly caused by their affiliation with the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, EU and many countries including US, but Turkey later gave support to the Kurdish Peshmerga from northern Iraq instead of the YPG, allowing 155 peshmerga to pass through Turkey with their arms who, President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

told, would initially be about 2000 but PYD was reluctant to accept. Ahmet Gerdi, a Peshmerga general, told the Turkish press that they appreciate Turkey's help in their fight against ISIL. Russian Prime Minister

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...

and President Vladimir Putin accused Turkish officials of helping the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the aftermath of shootdown of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 on 25 November. These accusations were rejected by Turkish President

. In October 2015, the office of the Turkish Prime Minister had stated that while smuggling of oil between Turkey and Syria had taken place, the nation had been successful in effectively stopping it. In December 2015, the Russian ministry of defence claimed it had evidence regarding the Turkish president and his relatives being involved in oil trade with Islamic State. It also published pictures purporting to show trucks carrying oil travelling from oil installations under ISIL control into Turkey. Mark Toner, the deputy spokesperson for the United States Department of State, rejected these claims stating there was no proof to back up the claims of Turkish government being involved in oil trade with ISIL who was selling oil in Turkey through middlemen. Russia also accused Turkey of allowing weapons trade with ISIL. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest meanwhile stated they had intelligence that most of the terror group's oil was being sold to the Syrian government of

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

. Several analysts meanwhile, have also claimed Russia's accusations of Turkey's cooperation as baseless, while also stating that a small amount of oil might end up in Turkey with cooperation from some middlemen and corrupt officials but much of it is actually sold in Syria. American officials meanwhile stated that the smuggling of oil by ISIL into Turkey was low. Adam Szubin, the acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, also stated that most of the oil was being sold in areas under Syrian government's control, with only some going towards Turkey. Israel's Minister of Defence Moshe Ya'alon also accused Turkey of purchasing oil from the terror group in January 2016. In December, WikiLeaks released 57,000 emails of Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Berat Albayrak Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and former politician, and the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is a former CEO of Çalık Holding. He was a member of parliament from Istanbul in the 25th ...

stolen by

RedHack RedHack is a Turkish Marxist-Leninist computer hacker group founded in 1997. The group has claimed responsibility for hacking the websites of institutions which include the Council of Higher Education, Turkish police forces, the Turkish Army ...

, a hacktivist group. 32 of them included him directing business affairs of

Powertrans Powertrans is an oil trading company in Turkey that was established in 2011. In a controversial move, the company was given a monopoly on all the road and rail transportation of oil into Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish media reported in 20 ...

, which has been accused by Turkish media of transporting ISIL oil in past and whom Albayrak had denied having links with. ''The Independent'' however had stated in past that the reports of Powertrans smuggling ISIL oil had no concrete proof. Some Arab and Syrian media agencies claimed that the village of Az-Zanbaqi (الزنبقي) in

Jisr al-Shughur Jisr ash-Shughūr ( ar, جِسْرُ ٱلشُّغُورِ, jisr aš-šuġūr, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus ( el, Σελευκόβηλος, translit=Seleukóbēlos), is a city i ...

's countryside has become a base for a massive amount of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party militants and their families in Syria, estimated at around 3,500. They further accused the Turkish intelligence of being involved in transporting these Uyghurs via Turkey to Syria, with the aim of using them first in Syria to help Jabhat Al-Nusra and gain combat experience fighting against the Syrian Army before sending them back to Xinjiang to fight against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

if they manage to survive. In 2016, Jordan's king accused Turkey of helping Islamist militias in Libya and Somalia. In 2019, the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Ha ...

accused the Turkish authorities of supporting terrorist groups in Libya for many years. They added that the Turkish support has evolved from just logistic support to a direct interference using military aircraft to transport mercenaries, as well as ships carrying weapons, armored vehicles and ammunition to support terrorism in Libya.

United Arab Emirates

No official connection to state sponsored terrorism was found between the United Arab Emirates government to terrorists, however the UAE has been listed as a place used by investors to raise funds to support militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taliban and their militant partners the Haqqani network has been reported to raise funds through UAE-based businesses. The United States Library of Congress Research Division in its 2007 report reported the UAE to be a major transit point for terrorists, stating that more than half of the 9/11 hijackers directly flew out of Dubai International Airport to the United States. The report also indicated that UAE based banks were utilized by the hijackers. The United Arab Emirates has been fighting alongside General Khalifa Haftar’s army in the Libya war. As mentioned in a December, 2019 International Peace Institute report, the army led by Haftar comprises militias. Meanwhile, according to another report, UAE has been accused by the United Nations of breaching its 1970 arms embargo imposed on Libya, in a 376-page report. Weapons obtained by the Haftar army, were Pantsir S-1 surface-to-air missile system, which is “a configuration only the United Arab Emirates uses”. In the airstrikes led by the United Arab Emirates, more than 100 civilians have been reportedly killed and injured, while 100,000 have been reported to be displaced. On 30 April 2020, Financial Action Task Force said that the UAE’s actions to combat terrorist financing and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

were not enough. The watchdog acclaimed that it will now put region’s financial centre Dubai under a year-long observation and monitor 10 of 11 missing pointers required to improve laundering along with the financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom supported Ulster loyalist paramilitaries during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. During the 1970s, a group of loyalists known as the "

Glenanne gang The Glenanne gang or Glenanne group was a secret informal alliance of Ulster loyalists who carried out shooting and bombing attacks against Catholics and Irish nationalists in the 1970s, during the Troubles.

" carried out numerous shootings and bombings against Irish Catholics and

Irish nationalists Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

in an area of Northern Ireland known as the "murder triangle". It also carried out some cross-border attacks in the Republic of Ireland. The group included members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paramilitary group as well as Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers and

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...

(RUC) police officers. It was allegedly commanded by the Intelligence Corps and RUC Special Branch. Evidence suggests that the group was responsible for the deaths of about 120 civilians. The ''Cassel Report'' investigated 76 killings attributed to the group and found evidence that UDR soldiers and RUC policemen were involved in 74 of those.The Cassel Report (2006)
, p. 4 One former member, RUC officer John Weir, claimed his superiors knew of the group's activities but allowed it to continue. Attacks attributed to the group include the Dublin and Monaghan bombings (which killed 34 civilians), the Miami Showband killings and the Reavey and O'Dowd killings. The UK has also been accused of providing intelligence material, training, firearms, explosives and lists of people that members of the security forces wanted to have killed to Loyalist paramilitaries. The

Stevens Inquiries The Stevens Inquiries were three official British government inquiries led by Sir John Stevens concerning collusion in Northern Ireland between loyalist paramilitaries and the state security forces. While Stevens declared in 1990 that collusion wa ...

concluded that the

Force Research Unit The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1982 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiti ...

(FRU), a covert unit of the Intelligence Corps, helped loyalists to kill people, including civilians."Scandal of Ulster’s secret war"
. '' The Guardian''. 17 April 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2013."Security forces aided loyalist murders"
. BBC News. 17 April 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2013. FRU commanders say their plan was to make loyalist groups "more professional" by helping them target IRA activists and prevent them killing civilians. The Stevens Inquiries found evidence only two lives were saved and that FRU was involved with at least 30 loyalist killings and many other attacks – many of the victims uninvolved civilians. One of the most prominent killings was that of the Republican solicitor Pat Finucane. A FRU double-agent also helped ship weapons to loyalists from South Africa. Stevens would later claim that members of the security forces attempted to obstruct his team's investigation. Starting in 1979, the UK worked alongside the US and Saudi Arabia to fund and arm the Mujahedeen under Operation Cyclone, which arguably contributed to the creation of the Taliban and

(more information here on

United Kingdom in the Soviet–Afghan War Though not officially a belligerent during the Soviet–Afghan War, the United Kingdom was heavily involved, playing a key covert role in the conflict. Also known as the Second Great Game, the British provided both indirect and direct support fo ...

). The UK has also been accused by Iran of supporting Arab separatist terrorism in the southern city of Ahvaz in 2006.

United States

Starting in 1959, under the Eisenhower administration, the US government had the Central Intelligence Agency recruit operatives in Cuba to carry out terrorism and sabotage, kill civilians, and cause economic damage. Following the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs, the US massively escalated its sponsorship of terrorism against Cuba. In late 1961, using the military and the Central Intelligence Agency, the US government engaged in an extensive campaign of state-sponsored terrorism against civilian and military targets in Cuba. The terrorist attacks killed significant numbers of civilians. The US armed, trained, funded and directed the terrorists, most of whom were Cuban expatriates. Terrorist attacks were planned at the direction and with the participation of US government employees and launched from US territory. The terrorist attacks directed by the CIA continued through at least 1965, and the CIA was ordered to intensify the campaign in 1969.

Andrew Bacevich Andrew J. Bacevich Jr. (, ; born July 5, 1947) is an American historian specializing in international relations, security studies, American foreign policy, and American diplomatic and military history. He is a Professor Emeritus of International ...

, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, wrote of the campaign: The United States had trained militant Cuban exiles Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch as part of this state-sponsored terrorism campaign. They are widely believed to be responsible for the Cubana 455 bombing, the deadliest instance of airline terrorism in the western hemisphere prior to the attacks of September 2001 in New York and Washington. The US Justice Department recorded Bosch as having participated in at least thirty terrorist attacks, and sought to deport him when he entered the US illegally. Bosch was released by the US Government at the instruction of

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

without charges, and Bosch was granted residency in the country. Starting in 1979, the US worked alongside the UK and Saudi Arabia to fund and arm the Mujahedeen under Operation Cyclone as part of the Reagan Doctrine, which arguably contributed to the creation of the Taliban and

. However, scholars such as Jason Burke, Steve Coll, Peter Bergen, Christopher Andrew, and Vasily Mitrokhin have argued that Bin Laden was "outside of

eyesight" and that support from reliable sources are lacking for "the claim that the CIA funded bin Laden or any of the other Arab volunteers who came to support the mujahideen." However, '' Le Figaro'' said that Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at an American hospital two months before September 11, and was visited there by a local CIA agent, which were denied by the hospital and the CIA. The US has been accused of arming and training a political and fighting force of some Kurds in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is a sister organization of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is listed in the US Department of State's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, and described as "a US-designated terrorist organization" in the CIA's World Factbook, but the YPG is not.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Soviet secret services worked to establish a network of terrorist

front organization A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

s and had been described as the primary promoters of terrorism worldwide.

Stanislav Lunev Stanislav Lunev (russian: Станислав Лунев; born 1946 in Leningrad) is a former Soviet military officer, the highest-ranking GRU officer to defect from Russia to the United States. Biography Stanislav Lunev was born in Leningrad, to ...

''Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev'', Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. .

Viktor Suvorov Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...

, ''Spetsnaz'', 1987, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, . According to defector

Ion Mihai Pacepa Ion Mihai Pacepa (; 28 October 1928 – 14 February 2021) was a Romanian two-star general in the Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania, who defected to the United States in July 1978 following President Jimmy Carter' ...

, General

Aleksandr Sakharovsky Aleksandr Michael Sakharovsky (; 3 September 1909 – 12 November 1983) was a Soviet General who was head of the First Chief Directorate (foreign intelligence) of the KGB from 1955 to 1971. Sakharovsky oversaw the KGB foreign intelligence divisio ...

from the First Chief Directorate of the KGB once said: "In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." Pacepa further claims Sakharovsky stated that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention" and that

George Habash George Habash ( ar, جورج حبش, Jūrj Ḥabash), also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" ( ar, الحكيم, al-Ḥakīm, "the wise one" or "the doctor"; 2 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian Christian politician who founded the ...

, who worked under the KGB's guidance, Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin, (2000). ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West''. Gardners Books. explained: "Killing one Jew far away from the field of battle is more effective than killing a hundred Jews on the field of battle, because it attracts more attention." Pacepa described an alleged operation "SIG" (" Zionist Governments") that was devised in 1972, to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the United States. KGB chairman

Yury Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...

allegedly explained to Pacepa that "a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the

Islamic world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...

, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States." The following organizations have been allegedly established with assistance from

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

security services: the PLO, the

National Liberation Army of Bolivia National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(created in 1964 with help from

Ernesto Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

); the

National Liberation Army of Colombia The National Liberation Army (Spanish: ''Ejército de Liberación Nacional'', ELN) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict,

(created in 1965 with help from Cuba), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1969, and the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975. Vasili Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew, ''The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World'', Basic Books (2005) hardcover, . The leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, established close collaboration with the Romanian Securitate service and the Soviet KGB in the beginning of the 1970s.''The KGB and the Battle for the Third World'', pp. 250–253 The secret training of PLO guerrillas was provided by the KGB. However, the main KGB activities and arms shipments were channeled through Wadie Haddad of the DFLP organization, who usually stayed in a KGB dacha BARVIKHA-1 during his visits to Russia. Led by

Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...

, a group of PFLP fighters accomplished a spectacular raid on OPEC headquarters in Vienna in 1975. Advance notice of this operation "was almost certainly" given to the KGB. A number of notable operations have been conducted by the KGB to support international terrorists with weapons on the orders from the Soviet Communist Party, including: * Transfer of machine-guns, automatic rifles,

Walther Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was fir ...

pistols, and cartridges to the Official Irish Republican Army by the Soviet intelligence vessel ''Reduktor'' (operation SPLASH) in 1972 to fulfill a personal request of arms from Michael O'Riordan. * Transfer of anti-tank grenade RPG-7 launchers, radio-controlled SNOP mines, pistols with silencers, machine guns, and other weaponry to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine through

Wadi Haddad Wadie Haddad ( ar, وديع حداد; 1927 – 28 March 1978), also known as Abu Hani, was a Palestinian leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing. He was responsible for organizing several civilian airplane hi ...

who was recruited as a KGB agent in 1970 (operation VOSTOK, "East"). * Support of the

, in order to destabilize Turkey, a key NATO member during the Cold War. Large-scale terrorist operations have been prepared by the KGB and GRU against the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Mitrokhin Archive, Mitrokhin Archive, ''The KGB in Europe'', pp. 472–476. GRU defectors Victor Suvorov and

, and former SVR officer Kouzminov.Alexander Kouzminov ''Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West'', Greenhill Books, 2006, Among the planned operations were the following: * Large arms caches were allegedly hidden in many countries for the planned terrorism acts. They were booby-trapped with "Lightning" explosive devices. One of such cache, which was identified by Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities tried to remove it from woods near

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

. Several others caches (probably not equipped with the "Lightnings") were removed successfully. * Preparations for nuclear sabotage. Some of the allegedly hidden caches could contain portable tactical nuclear weapons known as RA-115 "

suitcase bomb A suitcase nuclear device (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable enough that it could use a suitcase as its delivery method. Both the United States and ...

s" prepared to assassinate US leaders in the event of war, according to GRU defector

. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: ''The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev'', Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. . These portable bombs can last for many years if wired to an electric source. "In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message – either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate." Lunev states that he had personally looked for hiding places for weapons caches in the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...

area and that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip undetected when launched from a Russian airplane. * Extensive sabotage plans in London, Washington, Paris, Bonn, Rome, and other Western capitals have been revealed by KGB defector

Oleg Lyalin Oleg Adolfovich Lyalin (russian: Олег Адольфович Лялин; 24 June 1937 – 12 February 1995) was a Soviet agent who defected from the KGB. His defection led to the expulsion of 105 Soviet officials suspected as being Soviet spies fr ...

in 1971, including plan to flood the London underground and deliver poison capsules to Whitehall. This disclosure triggered mass expulsion of Russian spies from London. * Disruption of the power supply in the entire New York State by KGB sabotage teams, which would be based along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

, in the Big Spring Park. * An "immensely detailed" plan to destroy "

oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...

and oil and gas pipelines across Canada from British Columbia to Montreal" (operation "Cedar") has been prepared, which took twelve years to complete. * A plan for sabotage of Hungry Horse Dam in Montana. * A detailed plan to destroy the port of New York (target GRANIT); most vulnerable points of the port were marked at maps.

Venezuela

In 2019, the National Assembly of Venezuela designated the colectivos (irregular, leftist Venezuelan community organizations that support

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

, the Bolivarian government and the Great Patriotic Pole) as terrorist groups due to their "violence, paramilitary actions, intimidation, murders and other crimes", declaring their acts as state-sponsored terrorism.