List of terrorist incidents, 1985
Encyclopedia
This is a timeline of incidents in 1985 that have been labeled as "terrorism
" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government
or its forces (see state terrorism
and state-sponsored terrorism
).
February 23: Paris Marks & Spencer shop, one bomb, one dead, 18 wounded, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah. February 28: IRA
mortar attack kills nine police officers in Newry. March 8: Car bomb explodes in Beirut
, killing 80, injuring 175; allegedly planned and executed by "rogue elements" of the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
. March 9: Paris, Cinema Rivoli, 18 injured, pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah March 9: Bunovo train station, 7 killed, 29 injured, Turkish Freedom Movement March 12: Three Armenian terrorists attack the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa
, killing the guard. March 14: A bomb explode in the Irnam Reza hall, Mashhad
, Iran
, kills 25 and injures 70. Which blame on People's Mujahedin of Iran
guerrilla group. June 14: TWA Flight 847
skyjacking
, Hezbollah, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
. Terrorists take passengers of an Athens-Rome flight hostage, murdering US Navy Seaman, Robert Stethem. April 2: During the Pizzolungo massacre
, were killed 3 people and were injured 4 people. April 9: A suicide car bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle into an Israeli army patrol, killing 2 soldiers. This was the world's first female suicide bomber, at just 17 years old. April 12: A bomb in a restaurant
in Madrid
by islamic terrorists kills 18. April 25: Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily Gibson are assassinated by an IRA radio-controlled bomb in Killeen, South Armagh
. May 14: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
massacre 146 Sinhalese civilians in the Anuradhapura massacre
. This remains one of the largest massacres of civilians carried out by any terrorist group to-date. This was also the deadliest terrorist attack in Sri Lankan history. May 20: Four British soldiers were killed in an IRA land mine attack in Armagh
, Northern Ireland
. June 19: At 2:42 PM a bomb exploded at the main Frankfurt air terminal, shattering windows and killing two persons, one of which was a child. June 19: Zona Rosa Attacks – Four United States Marines, two United States businessmen, a Guatemalan, a Chilean, and four Salvadorans were killed in a machine gun attack in the Zona Rosa
area of San Salvador, El Salvador. The groups responsible for carrying out the attack were the Central American Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRTC) and its terrorist arm, the Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commando (CMC)
June 22: Air India Flight 182
is blown up by a bomb put on board the flight from Canada
to India
by unknown terrorists. All 329 people on board, most of them Canadian citizens, are killed. At the time, the deadliest terrorist attack ever, and still the deadliest act of terrorism in Canadian history. A second Air India flight from Canada was targeted on the same day, but the bomb exploded at Narita Airport, in the luggage outside the aircraft, killing two baggage handlers, bringing the total death toll of the act to 331. July 10: Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior
is bombed in Auckland harbour by operatives from the French foreign intelligence agency (DGSE), killing one person. July 22: Two near-simultaneous bombs in Copenhagen
, at the Jewish synagogue
and at the offices of Northwest Orient, explode, killing one and injuring 32. The bombers are interrupted while placing a third, more powerful, bomb, which they later dispose of in the city's harbour. The bombs are later linked to Islamic Jihad
. July 24: A bomb blast, following to caught fire of Yangon
–Mandalay
passenger train, Toungoo, Myanmar
, which blamed on Karen National Union
guerrilla group, kills 61 and injures 112. September 16: When local resident watching Filipino
film title of One on One, following terrorist attack on New Rama, Cinema, Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte
, Philippines. Blame placed on Moro Islamic Liberation Front
terrorist group, which kills 31 people with injures 61. and
and 
United States October 7 – October 10: Achille Lauro
cruise ship hijacking by Palestinian Liberation Front, during which passenger Leon Klinghoffer
, a 69-year-old wheelchair-using Jewish American citizen, is shot dead and thrown overboard. October 11: Arab anti-discrimination group leader Alex Odeh
is killed when a bomb explodes in his Santa Ana, California
office. November 6: Palace of Justice siege
: M-19 guerrillas seize the Supreme Court building in Bogotá
, Colombia
. The next day, an operation to free the hostages leaves some 100 people dead. November 23: EgyptAir Flight 648
hijacked by Abu Nidal
group, flown to Malta
, where Egyptian commandos storm plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions. December 7: Paris, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps shops, two bombs, 51 injured, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hizbollah December 11: A computer rental store owner, Hugh Scrutton, is the first fatality of the Unabomber
's neo-luddite
campaign
December 27: Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks
. In all, the attacks killed 19, including a child, and wounded around 140. Investigators associated with the WHO
reported that U.S.-funded Contras repeatedly destroyed health-care facilities and murdered health-care workers in Nicaragua. December 23: Amanzimtoti South Africa
bombing by MK
cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo, detonated in a rubbish bin at the Sanlam shopping centre. Five people died in the blast and more than forty were injured.
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
or its forces (see state terrorism
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
and state-sponsored terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism is a term used to describe terrorism sponsored by nation-states. As with terrorism, the precise definition, and the identification of particular examples, are subjects of heated political dispute...
).
February 23: Paris Marks & Spencer shop, one bomb, one dead, 18 wounded, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah. February 28: IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
mortar attack kills nine police officers in Newry. March 8: Car bomb explodes in Beirut
1985 Beirut Car Bombing
On 8 March 1985, a car bomb exploded between 9 and 45 metres from the house of Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, in a failed assassination attempt organized by the American CIA and British intelligence...
, killing 80, injuring 175; allegedly planned and executed by "rogue elements" of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
. March 9: Paris, Cinema Rivoli, 18 injured, pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah March 9: Bunovo train station, 7 killed, 29 injured, Turkish Freedom Movement March 12: Three Armenian terrorists attack the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa
1985 Turkish embassy attack in Ottawa
The 1985 Turkish embassy attack was an attack on the Turkish embassy in Ottawa, Canada, on March 12, 1985.-The attack:The storming of the embassy began shortly before 7 a.m., when three terrorists in a rented moving truck arrived at the embassy gate. They scaled the security gate and began shooting...
, killing the guard. March 14: A bomb explode in the Irnam Reza hall, Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, kills 25 and injures 70. Which blame on People's Mujahedin of Iran
People's Mujahedin of Iran
The People's Mujahedin of Iran is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran....
guerrilla group. June 14: TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847 was an international Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked by Lebanese Shia extremists, later identified as members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, on Friday morning, June 14, 1985, after originally taking off from Cairo. The flight was en route from Athens to Rome and then...
skyjacking
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
, Hezbollah, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists is a list of fugitives who have been indicted by sitting Federal grand juries in the United States district courts, for alleged crimes of terrorism. The initial list was formed in late 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks...
. Terrorists take passengers of an Athens-Rome flight hostage, murdering US Navy Seaman, Robert Stethem. April 2: During the Pizzolungo massacre
Pizzolungo massacre
The Pizzolungo bombing was the result of a car-bomb attack on April 2, 1985, by the Mafia to kill the magistrate Carlo Palermo in Pizzolungo, suburb of Erice, in Sicily. Palermo was only injured, but a young woman, Barbara Asta, and her little sons, the twin-brothers Salvatore and Giuseppe, that...
, were killed 3 people and were injured 4 people. April 9: A suicide car bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle into an Israeli army patrol, killing 2 soldiers. This was the world's first female suicide bomber, at just 17 years old. April 12: A bomb in a restaurant
1985 El Descanso bombing
The 1985 El Descanso bombing was a bomb attack against the El Descanso restaurant just outside Madrid, Spain, late on April 12, 1985. The explosion killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82 others, including 11 American servicemen, who were believed to be the target of the attack...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
by islamic terrorists kills 18. April 25: Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily Gibson are assassinated by an IRA radio-controlled bomb in Killeen, South Armagh
Armagh
Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...
. May 14: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...
massacre 146 Sinhalese civilians in the Anuradhapura massacre
Anuradhapura massacre
The Anuradhapura massacre occurred in Sri Lanka in 1985 and was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This was the largest massacre of Sinhalese civilians by the LTTE to date; it was also the first major operation carried out by the LTTE outside a Tamil majority area.-Incident:The...
. This remains one of the largest massacres of civilians carried out by any terrorist group to-date. This was also the deadliest terrorist attack in Sri Lankan history. May 20: Four British soldiers were killed in an IRA land mine attack in Armagh
Armagh
Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. June 19: At 2:42 PM a bomb exploded at the main Frankfurt air terminal, shattering windows and killing two persons, one of which was a child. June 19: Zona Rosa Attacks – Four United States Marines, two United States businessmen, a Guatemalan, a Chilean, and four Salvadorans were killed in a machine gun attack in the Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa is a neighborhood in Mexico City which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its recently established Korean community...
area of San Salvador, El Salvador. The groups responsible for carrying out the attack were the Central American Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRTC) and its terrorist arm, the Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commando (CMC)
June 22: Air India Flight 182Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...
is blown up by a bomb put on board the flight from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
by unknown terrorists. All 329 people on board, most of them Canadian citizens, are killed. At the time, the deadliest terrorist attack ever, and still the deadliest act of terrorism in Canadian history. A second Air India flight from Canada was targeted on the same day, but the bomb exploded at Narita Airport, in the luggage outside the aircraft, killing two baggage handlers, bringing the total death toll of the act to 331. July 10: Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior
Rainbow Warrior (1978)
The Rainbow Warrior was a former UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food trawler later purchased by the environmental organisation Greenpeace...
is bombed in Auckland harbour by operatives from the French foreign intelligence agency (DGSE), killing one person. July 22: Two near-simultaneous bombs in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, at the Jewish synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and at the offices of Northwest Orient, explode, killing one and injuring 32. The bombers are interrupted while placing a third, more powerful, bomb, which they later dispose of in the city's harbour. The bombs are later linked to Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad may refer to:* Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine* Islamic Jihad Organization, active mostly in Lebanon* Islamic Jihad of Yemen* Turkish Islamic Jihad* Egyptian Islamic JihadSee also:* Islamic jihad, theological concept of jihad...
. July 24: A bomb blast, following to caught fire of Yangon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
–Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
passenger train, Toungoo, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, which blamed on Karen National Union
Karen National Union
The Karen National Union is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army that represents the Karen people of Burma. It operates in Eastern Burma, and has underground networks in other areas of Burma where Karen people live. In Karen, this Karen area is called...
guerrilla group, kills 61 and injures 112. September 16: When local resident watching Filipino
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
film title of One on One, following terrorist attack on New Rama, Cinema, Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte
Lala, Lanao del Norte
Lala is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Lanao del Norte, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 58,395 people.-Geography:...
, Philippines. Blame placed on Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is an Islamist group located in the southern Philippines. It is one of two Islamic militant groups, the other being the Abu Sayyaf, that are fighting against Government of the Philippines...
terrorist group, which kills 31 people with injures 61. and
and United States October 7 – October 10: Achille LauroMS Achille Lauro
MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. Built between 1939 and 1947 as MS Willem Ruys, a passenger liner for the Rotterdamsche Lloyd. It is most remembered for its 1985 hijacking...
cruise ship hijacking by Palestinian Liberation Front, during which passenger Leon Klinghoffer
Leon Klinghoffer
Leon Klinghoffer was a disabled American appliance manufacturer who was murdered and thrown overboard by Palestinian terrorists in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985.-Hijacking and murder:...
, a 69-year-old wheelchair-using Jewish American citizen, is shot dead and thrown overboard. October 11: Arab anti-discrimination group leader Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh was an Arab-American anti-discrimination activist who was killed in a bombing as he opened the door of his office at 1905 East 17th Street, Santa Ana, California...
is killed when a bomb explodes in his Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
office. November 6: Palace of Justice siege
Palace of Justice siege
The Palace of Justice siege was a 1985 attack against the Supreme Court of Colombia, in which members of the M-19 guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Colombia, and held the Supreme Court hostage, intending to hold a trial against President Belisario Betancur...
: M-19 guerrillas seize the Supreme Court building in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. The next day, an operation to free the hostages leaves some 100 people dead. November 23: EgyptAir Flight 648
EgyptAir Flight 648
EgyptAir Flight 648 was a Boeing 737-200 airliner, registered SU-AYH, hijacked on November 23, 1985 by the terrorist organization Abu Nidal. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops resulted in dozens of deaths, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in...
hijacked by Abu Nidal
Abu Nidal
Abu Nidal , born Sabri Khalil al-Banna , was the founder of Fatah–The Revolutionary Council , a militant Palestinian group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization...
group, flown to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, where Egyptian commandos storm plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions. December 7: Paris, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps shops, two bombs, 51 injured, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hizbollah December 11: A computer rental store owner, Hugh Scrutton, is the first fatality of the Unabomber
Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski , also known as the "Unabomber" , is an American mathematician, social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois,...
's neo-luddite
Neo-luddism
Neo-Luddism is a personal world view opposing any modern technology. Its name is based on the historical legacy of the British Luddites which were active between 1811 and 1816...
campaign
December 27: Rome and Vienna Airport AttacksRome and Vienna airport attacks
The Rome and Vienna airport attacks were two major terrorist strikes carried out on December 27, 1985.- The attacks :At 08:15 GMT, four gunmen walked to the shared ticket counter for Israel's El Al Airlines and Trans World Airlines at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport outside Rome, Italy, fired...
. In all, the attacks killed 19, including a child, and wounded around 140. Investigators associated with the WHO
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
reported that U.S.-funded Contras repeatedly destroyed health-care facilities and murdered health-care workers in Nicaragua. December 23: Amanzimtoti South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
bombing by MK
Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe , translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress which fought against the South African apartheid government. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961...
cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo, detonated in a rubbish bin at the Sanlam shopping centre. Five people died in the blast and more than forty were injured.