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By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 23, 2001
The U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations includes many in addition to al-Qaida, the Afghanistan-based group associated with Osama bin Laden. Here are details of four that are considered the most active:
A loosely structured organization with an unknown number of hard-core members, but tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers, whose goal is to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel.
Operates mostly in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Israel and Jordan.
Formed in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Receives funding from Palestinian expatriates, Iran, private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab states. Some fundraising and propaganda activity takes place in Western Europe and North America.
Its spiritual leader, Shaykh Ahmad Yassin, was released from an Israeli prison in October 1997. Musa Abu Marzuq and alleged U.S. fundraiser Mohammad Salah are major figures in the organization.
An Islamic militant group based in Pakistan that has said it will take revenge on the United States for casualties it lost in the U.S. missile strikes in Khost, Afghanistan, in August 1998.
Based in Pakistan and operates primarily in Kashmir, trains its militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Leader: Fazlur Rehman Khalil.
Designated a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997; at that time it was called Harakat ul-Ansar.
Receives donations from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf and Islamic states, and from Pakistanis and Kashmiris.
Radical Shiite Muslim group, formed in Lebanon and dedicated to the creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences in the area. Members are strongly anti-West and anti-Israel, and are often directed by Iran.
Operates in the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon, but has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America and elsewhere.
Believed to have been in existence since October 1983, when they are thought to have been associated with terrorist attacks in Beirut.
Receives substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic and organizational aid from Iran and Syria.
Led by secretary general Hasan Nasrullah, 43.
A series of loosely affiliated factions rather than a cohesive group, it is committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war.
Originated among militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s.
Has threatened to retaliate against Israel and the United States for the murder of leader Fathi Shaqaqi in October 1995.
It operates primarily out of Israel and occupied territories and other parts of the Middle East, including Jordan and Lebanon, with the largest faction based in Syria.
Receives financial assistance from Iran and limited assistance from Syria.
Led since 1995 by Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and ideologist Abd al-Aziz Awda. Shallah, 43, is a former academic and adjunct professor at the University of South Florida.
Sources: Cox News Service; U.S. Department of State; Background Information on Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Times researcher Barbara Oliver also contributed to this report.