Middle East terrorism declined sharply in 1989, in part because of a dramatic reduction in operations by groups affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the State Department said in a report it released Monday.
The department’s annual “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report recorded 193 terrorist incidents in the Middle East last year, down from 313 in 1988.
Of the 193 incidents, 155, or just over 80 percent, reflected violence in Israel and the administered territories. There were 250 such incidents in 1988.
The report found that dissension within Abu Nidal’s Fatah Revolutionary Council led to a decrease in the group’s operations. Previously, the organization was “one of the most active and deadly terrorist groups,” it said.
In addition, various states previously linked to terrorist groups, including Libya and Syria, “remained wary of getting caught sponsoring terrorists and reduced their support,” the report said. But it added that “Iran was a notable exception.”
As far as Israel is concerned, the report found a moderate increase in the number of Palestinians killed in the administered territories, but a decline in the number killed by Israeli security forces or settlers: from 335 in 1988 to 304 last year.
At the same time, there was a sharp increase in the number of Palestinians killed by fellow Palestinians, from 25 in 1988 to 128 in 1989.
Also in 1989, 13 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, compared to 11 the prior year.
OVER 12 CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS
During the year, “PLO hard-liners and Syrian-backed Palestinian groups outside the PLO attempted more than a dozen cross-border attacks on Israel,” the report said.
It attributed three of those incidents to “hard-line elements in the PLO” and noted that no Israeli civilians were killed in any of the attacks.
In overall terms, the level of international terrorism worldwide last year “declined sharply” from 1988.
The number of terrorist incidents dropped from 856 to 528, the report found.
The Middle East continued to experience the largest number of incidents of international terrorism, incurring 193 attacks, or 37 percent of the worldwide total.
The report warned that among the worldwide developments that could lead to an increase in terrorism in the future are “rivalries among Middle Eastern governments — particularly between Iran and Saudi Arabia.”
Also cited were “emerging alliances among Middle Eastern sponsors and groups, such as between Iran and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and other radical Palestinian groups.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
