State Department singles out Tehran in latest
terror report
The United States on Tuesday renewed its “state sponsor of terrorism”
designation for Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria and identified
Tehran as the “most active state sponsor of terrorism” in 2001.
In its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report, the State Department also said Tripoli
and Khartoum were making the most progress toward ending their status as “rogue
states.”
“Sudan and Libya seem closest to understanding what they must do to get out of the
terrorism business and each has taken measures pointing it in the right direction,”
it said.
Sudan has boosted counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States and Libya has
repeatedly renounced terrorism and moved “to recast itself as a peacemaker.” The
report also noted that Iran, North Korea and Syria had taken limited steps to end support
for terrorists, although it accused Tehran and Damascus of backsliding.
In Iran’s case, the report said positive steps were outweighed by continued support
for Islamic militant groups.
Iraq also came in for harsh criticism, in particular for its refusal to speak out against
the Sept. 11 attacks. Iraq also continued to support several groups identified by the US
as “foreign terrorist organizations,” including the Kurdistan Workers Party, the
Iranian People’s Mujahideen, the Palestine Liberation Front and the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine.
The report also highlighted US determination to crush even the most obscure forms of
Islamic militancy, and added eight groups on three continents to its watchlist.
Collectively, the new names have members as far afield as Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Kashmir, the Philippines, Somalia, Turkey,
Western Europe and Yemen.
Among new additions were groups the report said sought to impose Islamic regimes,
including one that claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt in 1996 against
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya sees
Gadhafi’s government as un-Islamic and is alleged to have ties to Osama bin
Laden’s Al-Qaeda group.
With 2,000 members and some reserve militias, al-Ittihad al-Islami has attacked Ethiopian
forces and Somali factions and is believed to have launched bomb attacks in public places
in 1996 and 1997 in its fight for an Islamic regime in Somalia, the report said.
Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami in Pakistan and Kashmir was founded in 1980 in Afghanistan to
fight against Soviet forces but now attacks Indian targets in its fight for the accession
of Kashmir to Pakistan, and trained its members in Afghanistan until US forces attacked
Al-Qaeda training camps last year, it said.
Harakat ul-Jihad i-Islami/
Bangladesh seeks to impose an Islamic regime in Bangladesh, while Kumpulan Mujahidin
Malaysia seeks to build an Islamic state of Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern
Philippines.
The Islamic Army of Aden has expressed support for bin Laden and carried out bombings and
kidnappings to promote its goals of overthrowing the government and launching operations
against US and other Western interests in Yemen, the report said.
The Tunisian Combatant Group and Turkish Hizbullah were also cited in the report.
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