Arab Revolutionary Brigades, Arab Revolutionary Council, Fatah Revolutionary Council, Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims

<a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=IZ">Iraq</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=LY">Libya</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=SY">Syria</a>

Government sponsorship from Syria, Libya, and Iraq

The Abu Nidal Organization was an infamous Palestinian terrorist group who split from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) when the latter proposed the creation of the Palestinian National Authority in 1974.  Group leader Sabri al-Banna aka Abu Nidal believed that no goal other than the total liberation of the Palestinian people was acceptable and that the only method by which to accomplish that goal was armed struggle.  Abu Nidal hated Israel ("It is a crime to allow the Zionists to leave our land alive"), the United States ("Were it not for American support, the Zionist ghost would have long vanished from the world arena") and Arab leaders who have engaged politically with Israel or the West.  Abu Nidal sometimes referred to these leaders as "Zionists who are not Jews," and they were the target of many of the ANO's attacks.<p><br />Abu Nidal Organization was not a religious group, and Sabri al-Banna was primarily motivated by anger over the displacement of his family from Palestinian land during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.  During the 1980s, Abu Nidal was considered by terrorism experts to be the most dangerous international terrorist group in the world.  However, Abu Nidal's extreme paranoia and frequent purges of those deemed disoloyal weakened the Abu Nidal Organization.

At its peak, the ANO had 400 members, but the organization has been losing strength since the 1980s, when many of its operatives were arrested in South America.  It has not attacked a Western target since the late 1980s.  In August of 2002, the Iraqi government claimed that Abu Nidal had committed suicide in Iraq.  Many believe that Saddam Hussein ordered the assassination, while others doubt that Abu Nidal is really dead.  The remaining leadership of the organization has publicly stated that the ANO did not die with its founder and that a new leader will be named.  In any case, it is highly unlikely that the group will reactivate.