Terror Attacks on U.S. Targets Set Record

International terrorists set a record for attacks on American targets in 1988, with anti-U.S. incidents up 24%, according to a State Department report released Tuesday.

The annual report, prepared by the department’s counterterrorism office, said that American deaths attributed to terrorism rose to 192 last year from seven in 1987. The increase was due largely to the Dec. 21 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which 189 of the 270 people killed were Americans.

The surge shows that terrorists “have the potential to continue the pace and deadliness of their activities,” the report said. It also noted that the Pan Am crash, believed caused by a bomb placed in a radio-cassette player, “vividly demonstrated the terrorists’ capability to overcome security precautions with careful preparations.”

The report noted 185 attacks on American targets, an increase from the previous high of 149 in 1987. Anti-American incidents increased in all five global regions covered in the analysis, “indicating that (the United States) remains a primary target for international terrorists,” the report said.

Latin America was the most dangerous area for Americans, accounting for 60% of the incidents.

The assessment portrayed a more hopeful picture about the pace of terrorism worldwide, however. Terrorist incidents against all targets in 1988 increased by only 3%.

A total of 856 incidents were reported in 68 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Western Europe, Africa and Latin America; in all, 658 people were killed and 1,131 were injured.

A number of factors limited the growth of terrorist activity, according to the State Department. On a technical level, security precautions improved and closer international cooperation led to the capture of some suspects and intimidation of others.

Also, the nations considered to be the leading sponsors of attacks, notably Iraq and Syria, “reduced their direct involvement in terrorism. We did not detect direct Syrian involvement in any international terrorist incidents” in 1988.

Sanctions in 1986

The report said that U.S. and European sanctions imposed in late 1986 against sponsors of terrorism appeared to contribute to that decline in activity. It added, however, that both Damascus and Baghdad “continue to provide safe haven and training to terrorist organizations.”

” . . . Most regimes that sponsor or otherwise support terrorism have become less active or have hidden their activities more successfully since 1986,” the report said.

Afghanistan, Iran and Libya were cited as the most active sponsors of international terrorism in 1988.

Iran was linked to 32 international incidents last year, down from 45 in 1987, a drop apparently related to the cease-fire in its war with Iraq and stepped-up efforts to cultivate better relations with the West. Most of the Iranian attacks were carried out against Saudi interests.

Although Tehran’s postwar overtures to the West have offered hope, the State Department report noted: “We cannot rule out an increase in Iranian-sponsored terrorism in an attempt to promote its revolutionary image overseas in the face of its setback in the gulf war.”

Overall, the Middle East accounted for the greatest number of terrorist attacks, 313 incidents or 36%. Asia was second, followed by Western Europe, Latin America and Africa.

All three of the year’s major attacks were tied to the Middle East: the hijacking of a Kuwait Airways flight by Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists; the machine-gun and grenade attack on the “City of Poros,” a Greek excursion ship, in which nine were killed and almost 100 injured by the radical Palestinian Abu Nidal organization, and the Scotland crash, which investigators believe was the work of a combination of radical Palestinians and an Iranian faction.