The Arab Revenge Organization (in both its 1984 and 1991 form) is inactive.

Government sponsorship from Syria, Libya and Iraq

The Arab Revolutionary Brigades is one of several names once used by the Fatah Revolutionary Council aka the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) to claim responsibility for its attacks. The ANO is a group of Palestinian separatists with a long history of terrorist attacks against Israel, Arab governments, and western targets.

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.<P>

The Arab Revolutionary Front was a group that claimed responsibility for an April 1986 bombing of a building in Lyon, France, that housed offices for three American companies, Black and Decker, American Express, and Control Data.  The group responsible for the bombing also spray-painted anti-American slogans on the outside of the structure. <P><br /><br />At the time of this incident, there had been numerous bombings against Western targets in Europe and the Middle East.  This slew of bombings was in retaliation for an April 15, 1986, US air strike against Libya. <P> <br /><br />On the surface, the incident in Lyon seemed to fit this pattern, especially given a claim of responsibility by an "Arab" terrorist group.  However, less than 24 hours earlier in Lyon, Kenneth Marston, the British manager of Black and Decker in France was murdered by a masked gunman.  While a caller with an Arab accent claimed responsibility for the killing, it is noteworthy that Marston had been responsible for uncovering a large fraud ring at Black and Decker earlier that year.  Because of Marston's discovery, several important underworld figures were sentenced to lengthy jail sentences.  Given this information, it seems possible that the bombing was simply a terrorist smokescreen to deflect attention from a mob hit against Marston.  Lending credibility to this theory is the fact that Marston was killed with a French hunting gun, not a typical weapon employed by Arab terrorists.  <P><br /><br />Both the bombing at Lyon, and the killing of Marston went unsolved, and authorities were never able to verify claims of responsibility for either attack.<br /><br />