Complete Description of Five Terrorist Groups - Essay Example

? Complete of Five Terrorist Groups al Affiliation The international community and specific nations have been struggling to bring to an end the various terrorist groups that have not only affected their economies and posed as a danger to the rest of the world, but have resulted to intense human destruction across numerous nations, which is against the human rights and principles. This paper briefly describes five terrorist groups namely, the Al Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Al jihad, Kach and Kahane Chai of Israel, Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) from Palestine. The Al Qaeda has been the notorious extremist that has affected international communities intensively, majorly been focused to destroy the United States civilians and its economy. Most of the interested allies of US have also been attacked, resulting in numerous deaths through bomb attacks in USA and East Africa. All the listed terrorist groups have various reasons for their formation, and have also executed many attacks in different parts of their origin countries. Their motives receive vast support and operate from certain identified areas. Keywords: Terrorists, Extremist, Al Qaeda, Al Jihad, Tamil, Hamas, Kach and Kahane Chai, Attacks, Suicide Bombs, Military, Governments, Destruction, Muslims, Arabs, Protests Al-Qaida: It is portrayed as the most distinguished and successful organized group of terrorists in the international scene that has been able to execute its destructive plans within the Middle East, and deep in the hearts of other continents. Its was established by Osama bin Laden and his co-defendant Muhammad Atef , with a main objective of forming a pan Islamic group in the Muslim regions, to oppose the non-Muslim governments in the West, especially the USA, who had its military involved in Saudi Arabia and Somali issues (“Al Qaeda,” 2013). The plan was to expel the western influence from the Muslim countries, and the US being the main focus made the Al Qaeda desire to attack it and its interest elsewhere. However, the Al Qaeda has transformed to adapt new strategies and have proved resilient over the years. It has been working close with other supportive terrorist groups, to recruit more staff across the globe, plan, and execute more attacks on nations. Since its formation, people within and outside the Muslim world have come to realize the danger the extremist group poses in the global societies. The numerous reports of their massive destruction began from within the Middle East, which saw countries like Iraq loose an alarming number of innocent Muslims citizens, and intense bombing of several hotels in Amman (Rollins, 2010). However, its severe attacks were internationally felt in events of the US commercial jets crashes into the World Trade centre in New York, Washington DC’s pentagon, and Pennsylvanian Shankvilles’ fields resulting in deaths of approximately 3000 people, and the Kenyan US embassy bombing killing over 200 individuals (NCTC, n.d). Before and after the twin towers 9/ 11 strike, numerous attacks in the US and western regions have been attributed to the Al Qaeda group. This led to the US reaction towards the movement and has since been clear to destroy the group; the yields were the capture of Sadam Husein, Osama bin laden and other high commanders of the group. However, the remnants have gone into hiding, but traces of their existence can be proved by the numerous attacks and strength of affiliate terrorists groups. Al-Jihad: The Egyptian Islamic terrorist group was formed in late 1970s by an alliance of two groups under Mohammed Abd al-Salam Farraj of Cairo and Karam Zuhdi of Saidi (Upper Egypt) branch, but later split again to leave Farraj as the founder of the extremist group, whose core manifesto was to steer the original Muslim brotherhood ideology of violence (“Egyptian Islamic,” 2008). The group was formally led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri before being sentenced to death for organizing the fatal terrorist attacks in Luxor back in 1997. However, he had managed to merge the group with Al Qaeda, which had been the potential supply of funds to the destruction facilitated by this group. Its main aim has been to overthrow the Egyptian government and establish an Islamic state, but since its involvement with the Al Qaeda, the mission extended to incorporate attacks on US and Israeli interests within and outside Egypt. Its historical activities are associated with assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981, attempted murder of Interior Minister Hassan al-Alfi and Prime Minister Atef Sedky in August and November in 1993 respectively (“Egyptian Islamic,” 2013). There are other attacks which the group claims to have organised, but the overall performance of the group reduced after their crack down in Cairo, which was their area of operation. Most of them have been incorporated in the large Al Qaeda group and function from foreign countries. Kahane Chai (Kach): Initially, the Kach and Kahane chai were two separate extremist groups, but came together under the leadership of Binyamin (son of the radical Israeli-American rabbi named Meir Kahane, who founded Kach group) (“Kach and Kahane,” n.d). The group is not very wide and its scope of activities has been quite minimal, struggling to expand the Jewish rule and restore the biblical state of Israel. As a result, their impact has been severe in the West Bank and conflicts have come up as they try to expel the Palestinians. Kach is an Israeli militant group that advocates for eviction of Arabs from Israel and was the initial foundation of Meir Kahane before his son formed Kahane Chai. Both the groups were founded through the anti Arabic teachings of Meir Kahane and condone violence as their plan to establish a religious homogenous state (“Kach, Kahane,” 2008). As a result, several Israelites (Binyamin Kahane and his wife among others), Palestinians, and Arab Muslims died in the instigated violence. Terrorist attacks linked to the groups are the Goldstein’s attack of 1994 against the al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, which left 28 people dead and others wounded after the open fire by the Kach affiliate. The 2005 attack conducted by a 19 year old Israeli army soldier was associated with the Kahane Chai, where 4 Arab Israelis were killed. Kahanist attacks are conducted through shooting, stabbing, and grenade explosives to the Palestinians (“Kach, Kahane,” 2008). They also organized protests against the Israeli government, and often operate from Israel and the west banks settlements in Hebron. Its funding and support comes from members and foreign supporters. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE): It is a powerful terrorist group in Sri Lanka, which threatens to establish an independent Tamil state, due to the government’s act that appear to have marginalized the Tamil group since Sri Lanka’s independence. The group developed as a reaction to the betrayal of the government, which had decreed the Sinhala to be the official language of the country, later Tamils became the targets for numerous riots that occurred in the nation, forcing the group to seek protection for their rights as they were marginalized and politically disenfranchised (GMT, 2009). It has a political and military structure in its organisation, and is associated with pioneering the suicide bomb jacket and involving women to execute attacks. In its active destruction, the group was led by Vellupillai Prabhakaran until his death in 2009, following a military attack that saw the group concede defeat. The Extremist is known for its notorious nature in suicide bombing and political assassinations of its former president (Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993), ministers, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and injured president Chandrika Kumaratunga through suicide bombing in 1999. They are accused of high level assassinations in Sri Lanka, more than 200 suicide attacks, and the raged war with government has cost over 70,000 lives, others been left homeless and helpless (Bhattacharji, 2009).The group has been dominant in the north and eastern coast of Sri Lanka, where it has been operating a civilian government, but their operations could be categorized as nationwide, being enforced by their civil administration. It is an organised group with armed combatants and trained fighters, with significant foreign support for financial needs supplements and procurement of weapons. However, its financial structure is considered the most complex and secretive of any terrorist groups, with little information showing evidence of investment and funds from illegal means (GMT, 2009). Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement): The movement was founded on jihad principle, which is all about fighting for holy purposes, giving their loyalty to Allah and believe that in the absence of Islam, discord would occur. It was founded by the late Sheikh Ahmad Yasinat in 1987, during the inception of the first Palestinian uprising whose main intention was to support the Muslim brotherhood, and establish a Muslim Palestinian state in place of Israel (Zulu, 2011). It also seeks to deliver the Palestinian people from tyranny. The movement won most of the parliamentary seats in 2006 elections, which gave it more strength to oppose any negotiations with Israel and recognize it as a country. However, the government formed under the president Abbas of Fatah party and Hamas movement struggled through a series crisis, affecting its economic performance before causing war in Palestine. The prime minister, who was from Hamas movement, was sacked as one strategy to lead the country to recovery and allow the Middle East quartet to restore their support. The move had come quite late since the movement has expanded its military capabilities, while in power. It has conducted numerous attacks targeting the Israeli military and civilians through large scale suicide bombings, small arms attacks, and improvised explosives, shootings, and rockets attacks in Israel. According to Zulu, Iran has been quite supportive through training, funding and weapons supply; the other aid comes from Palestinian expatriates (2011). It has been receiving extreme support from its paramilitary arm (Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades), and other executive forces after clinching power and its massive supporters. Its vast operations have been curtailed after holding peace talks, but the group seems to have enlarged after the 2006 triumph, currently being experienced in Gaza. Reference List Al Qaeda. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/alqaeda.html Bhattacharji, P. (2009, May 20). Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (aka Tamil Tigers) (Sri Lanka, separatists). Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations/liberation-tigers-tamil-eelam-aka-tamil-tigers-sri-lanka-separatists/p9242 Egyptian Islamic Jihad. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/egyptian_islamic_jihad.htm Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). ( 2013). Retrieved from http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3611 GMT. (2009, April 28). The History of the Tamil Tigers. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2008/11/2008112019115851343.html Kach and Kahane Chai. (n.d). retrieved from http://212.150.54.123/organizations/orgdet.cfm?orgid=19 Kach, Kahane Chai (Israel, extremists). (2008, March 20). Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/israel/kach-kahane-chai-israel-extremists/p9178 NCTC( n.d). Al Qa’ida. Retrieved from http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/al_qaida.html Rollins, J. (2010, February 5). Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy. Retrieved from http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/137015.pdf Zulu. (2011, July 9). Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement). Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas.htm Read More