Abu Sayyaf, Bearer of the Sword - a small gang of terrorist thugs claiming to seek a separate Islamic state for the Muslim minority in the Philippines; uses bombing and assassination and extortion and kidnapping; "In 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people and beheaded one of the American captives"

Aksa Martyrs Brigades, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Martyrs of al-Aqsa - a militant offshoot of al-Fatah that is the newest and strongest and best equipped faction active in the West Bank; responsible for many deadly attacks in Israel in 2002

ABB, Alex Boncayao Brigade, Revolutionary Proletarian Army, RPA-ABB - an urban hit squad and guerrila group of the Communist Party in the Philippines; formed in the 1980s

al-Asifa, al-Fatah, Fatah - a Palestinian political and military organization founded by Yasser Arafat in 1958 to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state; during the 1960s and 1970s trained terrorist and insurgent groups; "al-Fatah carried out numerous acts of international terrorism in western Europe and the Middle East in the 1970s"

al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Islamic Group - a terrorist organization of militant Islamists organized into tiny cells of extreme fundamentalists; emerged during the 1970s mainly in Egyptian jails; "al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya uses force to push Egyptian society toward Islamic rule"

AIAI, al Itihaad al Islamiya, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, Islamic Unity - a fundamentalist Islamic group in Somalia who initially did fundraising for al-Qaeda; responsible for ambushing United States Army Rangers and for terrorist bombings in Ethiopia; believed to have branches in several countries

al-Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Vanguards of Conquest, Islamic Jihad - an Islamic extremist group active since the late 1970s; seeks to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state; works in small underground cells; "the original Jihad was responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981"

al-Ma'unah - a radical insurgent Islamist group consisting of disaffected middle-class professionals in Malaysia who want to overthrow the government by violent means and set up an Islamic state

al-Muhajiroun - a hard-line extremist Islamic group in Great Britain who support bin Laden and other terrorist groups

Al Nathir - a Palestinian terrorist organization formed in 2002 and linked to Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat

al-Qa'ida, al-Qaeda, al-Qaida, Qaeda, Base - an intensely anti-western terrorist network that dispenses money and logistical support and training to a wide variety of radical Islamic terrorist group; has cells in more than 50 countries

al-Rashid Trust - a terrorist group organized in 1996 after the Taliban took over Afghanistan and part of Osama bin Laden's international system; provides financial support for the Taliban and al-Qaeda and Jaish-i-Mohammed and assists Muslim militants around the world; established a network of madrasas and mosques in Afghanistan

Al Tawhid, al-Tawhid, Divine Unity - an Islamic terrorist cell that originated in Jordan but operates in Germany; goal is to attack Europe and Russia with chemical weapons

al-Ummah - a terrorist group formed in India in 1992; is believed to be responsible for bombings in southern India in 1998

Ansar al Islam, Ansar al-Islam, Supporters of Islam - a radical Islamic group of terrorists in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan who oppose an independent secular nation as advocated by the United States; some members fought with the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan; said to receive financial support from Saddam Hussein

Armata Corsa, Corsican Army - a terrorist organization founded in 1999 to oppose the link between nationalists and the Corsican mafia; "the attacks of Armata Corsica are aimed at symbolic targets of colonialism in Corsica"

Armed Islamic Group, GIA - a terrorist organization of Islamic extremists whose violant activities began in 1992; aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state; "the GIA has embarked on a terrorist campaign of civilian massacres"

3rd October Organization, Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, ASALA, Orly Group - a militant Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization formed in 1975 to force Turkey to acknowledge killing more than a million Armenians and forcibly removing them from border areas in 1915; wants Turkey to pay reparations and cede territory to Armenia; "ASALA bombing at Orly Airport in Paris in 1983 killed 8 and wounded 55 people"

ALIR, Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, FAR, Former Armed Forces, Interahamwe - a terrorist organization that seeks to overthrow the government dominated by Tutsi and to reinstitute Hutu control; "in 1999 ALIR guerrillas kidnapped and killed eight foreign tourists"