U.S. Risk of Being Targeted by World Terrorists Greater Now, Officials Say : Violence: Authorities fear that ‘suicidal’ extremists are no longer deterred by likelihood of capture.

The United States faces a greater risk from international terrorists than ever before, largely because factions from the Middle East and elsewhere have recruited extremists who no longer seem to fear getting caught, senior U.S. intelligence officials warned Thursday.

At a time when the Oklahoma City bombing has increased awareness in this country of domestic threats, intelligence officials said they fear that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing may have convinced state-sponsored international terrorists that attacks against the United States can succeed, if those involved are willing to face arrest.

Officials said the effectiveness of U.S. law enforcement agencies once appeared to inhibit attacks aimed at the United States. But new, “suicidal” terrorists are no longer deterred by the likelihood of capture.

New extremist groups also no longer seem restrained by political concerns that attacks against Americans inside the United States might harm their interests.

Many of these new groups are ad hoc units, extraordinarily difficult to infiltrate, officials said. Despite their small numbers, their members are capable of using sophisticated chemical and biological weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, officials said.

In a wide-ranging review of the global terrorist threat, intelligence officials noted that there have been 132 international incidents so far in 1995--not counting those inside the United States, such as in Oklahoma City.

That tally is up sharply over last year. And this year’s incidents--such as the gas attack on Tokyo’s subways, which killed 12--are proving more deadly than those in 1994.

Increasingly, officials said, they are concerned that new terrorist cells can draw on resources from private financial networks that are supplementing support from Iran and other nations. Officials asserted, for example, that Osama ibn Ladin--a wealthy Saudi emigre living in Sudan--has become a major backer for Islamic terrorist groups in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ladin, who was stripped by the Saudi government of his citizenship because of his extremist activities, is said to be virulently anti-American and representative of a new breed of Islamic fundamentalists who believe in targeting the United States. “The pattern is that people like Ladin support a kind of radical Islamic fundamentalism that sees the U.S. as an oppressor of Muslims,” a senior intelligence official said.

Wealthy Arabs often mask their support for terrorists by funneling money through legitimate businesses or charities, making it difficult for U.S. investigators to track, officials said. For example, some funding for Islamic terrorists has been laundered through groups providing relief for besieged Muslims in the Balkans.

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U.S. officials said Sudan, where Ladin has an import-export business, plays host to terrorists who were forced out of their own countries. As a result, U.S. intelligence ranks Sudan No. 2 in supporting terrorism, behind Iran, on which the Clinton Administration has just placed comprehensive trade sanctions for its terrorist activities.

Officials noted that some nations that once were aggressive supporters of terrorism in the Middle East have lessened their activities. Syria, for instance, is not known to have sponsored a major terrorist initiative since 1986--although it has not prevented activities conducted from within its sphere of influence in Lebanon by groups such as Hamas, the Palestinian group bitterly opposed to Israel’s peace accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Intelligence officials said they have found no links between the Oklahoma City bombing and any international terrorist groups.