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Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led since 1992 by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament.
Islamic Association of Palestine was an organization accused of raising money in the United States for Hamas established in 1981 and defunct since 2004. It described itself as "a not-for-profit, public-awareness, educational, political, social, and civic, national grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a just, comprehensive, and eternal solution to the cause of Palestine and suffrages of the Palestinians." For a time it also used the name American Muslim Society (AMS) and operated as the American Middle Eastern League for Palestine (AMEL).
The Islamic Jihad Organization, was a Lebanese Shia militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, alias al-Hajj Radwan, was a Lebanese militant leader who was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about Mughniyeh is limited, but he is believed to have been Hezbollah's chief of staff and understood to have overseen Hezbollah's military, intelligence, and security apparatuses. He was one of the main founders of Hezbollah in the 1980s. He has been described as "a brilliant military tactician and very elusive". He was often referred to as an ‘untraceable ghost’.
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Beginning in the mid 2000s, the military and diplomatic corps of the Russian Federation has had various contacts and relations with entities on both sides of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict. This is a component of Russia's broader foreign policy across the entire Middle East region.
Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors.
The abduction and killing of Nachshon Wachsman was a 1994 incident in which Palestinian Hamas abducted Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman from the Bnei Atarot junction in central Israel, and held him hostage for six days. The incident ended in a failed Israeli rescue attempt, during which Wachsman, three of his captors and an Israeli officer were killed.
The revolving door policy is the name for an alleged policy of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Under this policy, the PA would arrest terror suspects in order to appease the international community and Israel, but then either release them, facilitate their escape, or move them to very comfortable conditions. The term was used by the Israeli, British, and United States governments.
Hezbollah has a Foreign Relations Unit and maintains relations with a number of foreign countries and entities. These are particularly Shia states, but also Sunni groups like those affiliated with the Palestinian cause; and the group is also suggested to have operations outside the Middle East in places such as Latin America and North Korea.
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Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused by several countries of training, financing, and providing weapons and safe havens for non-state militant actors, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and other Palestinian groups such as the Islamic Jihad (IJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). These groups are designated terrorist groups by a number of countries and international bodies such as the EU, UN, and NATO; however, Iran considers such groups to be "national liberation movements" with a right to self-defense against Israeli military occupation. These proxies are used by Iran across the Middle East and Europe to foment instability, expand the scope of the Islamic Revolution, and carry out terrorist attacks against Western targets in the regions. Its special operations unit, the Quds Force, is known to provide arms, training, and financial support to militias and political movements across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.
Evan F. Kohlmann is an American terrorism consultant who has worked for the FBI and other governmental organizations.
On 12 April 1985, the El Descanso restaurant in Madrid, Spain was bombed in a terrorist attack. The explosion caused the three-story building to collapse, crashing down on about 200 diners and employees, killing 18 people, all Spanish citizens, and injuring 82 others, including eleven Americans working at the nearby Torrejón Air Base who frequented the restaurant. At the time it was the deadliest attack in Spain since the Spanish Civil War.
On September 20, 1984, the Shi'a Islamic militant group Hezbollah, with support and direction from the Islamic Republic of Iran, carried out a suicide car bombing targeting the U.S. embassy annex in East Beirut, Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack killed 23 people and 1 attacker.
The Quranic Literacy Institute was established as a non-profit organization based outside of Chicago, Illinois.
References
- ↑ Our Experts: Senior Fellows
- ↑ Our Experts: Senior Fellows
- ↑ Peled, Miko (2018) Injustice. The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five. Just World Books. ISBN 978-1-68257-085-2. pp.117-121
- ↑ Matthew Levitt (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. Hurst Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5.
- ↑ Matthew Levitt (1 October 2008). Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12901-4.
- ↑ Matthew Levitt (2002). Targeting Terror: U.S. Policy Toward Middle Eastern State Sponsors and Terrorist Organizations, Post-September 11 . Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ISBN 978-0-944029-81-7.
- ↑ Matthew Levitt (28 August 2008). Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7425-6566-1.
