Which terrorist organisation was responsible for the hijacking of the cruise ship 'Achille Lauro'?
"Achille Lauro hijacking The ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking happened on October 7, 1985, when the Italian MS ""Achille Lauro"" was hijacked by four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt, as she was sailing from Alexandria to Ashdod, Israel. A 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. The hijacking sparked the ""Sigonella Crisis"". Several events before the October 7, 1985 hijacking provide a context for what took place. Since being driven out of Southern Lebanon by Israel in 1978 and out of Beirut in 1982, Palestine Liberation"
"Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair is a 1990 American-German-Italian-French made-for-television action-drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Eva Marie Saint, and is based on the 1985 ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking. The film was directed by Alberto Negrin. 1985, Alexandria. A group of Palestinian terrorists of the PLO embarks on the Italian cruise ship ""Achille Lauro"" with the purpose of reaching Haifa and perform a suicide mission against Israel. However, when they're found out during the trip, they decide to hijack the ship and take all passengers in hostage: Among them are Mr. Leon"
"fight against terrorism. On 7 October, members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) hijacked the Italian cruise liner ""Achille Lauro"". When the ship arrived in Syria the hijackers made their way to Egypt where they were promised free passage to Tunisia in return for the hostages' lives. The terrorists boarded an Egypt Air Boeing 737 on the night of 10 October. But based on US Intelligence, president Ronald Reagan ordered the Sixth Fleet to take action, to force down the 737 to Sigonella where US Special Forces could capture the hijackers. Four F-14s and an E-2C Hawkeye launched from Saratoga."
"circumstances. Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair is a 1990 American-German-Italian-French made-for-television action-drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Eva Marie Saint, and is based on the 1985 ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking. The film was directed by Alberto Negrin. 1985, Alexandria. A group of Palestinian terrorists of the PLO embarks on the Italian cruise ship ""Achille Lauro"" with the purpose of reaching Haifa and perform a suicide mission against Israel. However, when they're found out during the trip, they decide to hijack the ship and take all passengers in hostage: Among them are Mr."
"the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship MS ""Achille Lauro"" on October 7, 1985. The hijackers' original aim was to use the ship to slip into Israel. However, crew members discovered them cleaning weapons, and the group then seized control of the ship, murdering an elderly wheelchair-dependent Jewish New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer. US fighter planes later forced down the Egyptian aircraft in which Abbas was escaping following a negotiated end of the hijacking, and forced it to land at a USAF base on Sigonella, Sicily. The Italians let Abbas go, but subsequently sentenced him to five life sentences ""in absentia."""
"(PLF) hijacked the Italian MS ""Achille Lauro"" liner off the coast of Egypt, as she was sailing from Alexandria to Ashdod, Israel. The hijacking was organized by Muhammad Zaidan, leader of the PLF. One 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. The Egyptian airliner carrying the hijackers was intercepted by F-14 Tomcats from the VF-74 ""BeDevilers"" and the VF-103 ""Sluggers"" of Carrier Air Wing 17, based on the aircraft carrier USS ""Saratoga"", and directed to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella (a NATO air base in Sicily) under the orders"
"lawsuit seeking damages for the PLO's role in the hijacking (""Klinghoffer v. PLO"", 739 F. Supp. 854 (S.D.N.Y. 1990) and ""Klinghoffer v. PLO"", 937 F.2d 44, 50 (2d Cir. 1991). This lawsuit spurred passage of the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, which made it easier for victims of terrorism to sue terrorists and collect civil damages for losses incurred. PLF leader Muhammad Zaidan, a.k.a. Abu Abbas, was freed by the Italian government in the aftermath of the ""Achille Lauro"" affair, but was continually sought by the United States government. He was captured in Iraq in 2003 by U.S. forces during the"
"the group has committed to peaceful means following the coup d'état that toppled Mohamed Morsi. The group has been linked to the murder of Anwar Sadat in 1981 and a terrorist campaign in the 1990s that culminated in the November 1997 Luxor massacre. As a result, it is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. After the Egyptians declared the group illegal, Nasr sought asylum in Italy. During the 1990s he fought in Bosnia. On 17 February 2003, Nasr was abducted by CIA agents as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers, thus"
"border. One such attack by the PLO's Force 17 on September 25, 1985 on an Israeli yacht in Larnaca, Cyprus where three Israelis were killed, triggered the Israeli Air Force to bomb the PLO headquarters in Tunis in (Operation Wooden Leg) on October 1, 1985. The headquarters were completely destroyed in this attack, and 60 PLO members were killed. Speculation arose that the hijacking of ""Achille Lauro"" was an act of retaliation for the Israeli bombing of the PLO headquarters in Tunis. This was disputed by Abbas' widow, Reem al-Nimer in 2013. According to al-Nimer, the hijacking had been planned"
"known. The ANO carried out attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring almost 1,650 persons. Targets include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab and European countries. The group has not attacked Western targets since the late 1980s. Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks in December 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the ""City of Poros"" day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988. The ANO has been especially noted for its uncompromising stance on"
"October 7, 1985, four PLF militants hijacked ""Achille Lauro"" off Egypt. The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. The Palestinians had hidden their weapons in the gas tank of a car parked in Italy in preparation for boarding the ship. Their smuggled weapons still with gasoline residue on them, gave off a smell that the crew had noticed but had not acted on. A cabin steward, with the hijackers' stateroom in his responsibilities, surprised the four Palestinians (as they were trying to use a hairdryer to clean the residue off their weapons) by entering the"
"to extradite the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. After protracted negotiations, the hijackers were given safe passage to Egypt by plane. Three United States Navy F-14's forced the plane down to the United States Naval Air Facility (NAF) of Sigonella. According to the version of political circles in Washington, Craxi first gave the United States Forces permission to detain the terrorists, but he later reneged on the deal. He ordered Italian troops to surround the US Forces protecting the plane. This move was supposedly dictated both by security concerns about terrorists targeting Italy if the United States had"
"home by Samir Kuntar. Throughout the 1980s, the PLF launched attacks on both civilian and military targets in the north of Israel, across the Lebanese border. In 1985 he masterminded the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship ""Achille Lauro"". During the hijacking, 69-year-old wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer, was shot dead and thrown overboard. The four hijackers, fearful of United States military intervention, surrendered to Egypt in return for safe passage out of Egypt, based on the pretext that they had done no harm to any of the passengers. Four F-14 aircraft from the U.S. 6th Fleet intercepted the"
"of having extensive links to international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram and Taliban. The Washington Post and World Policy Institute however have considered MONUSCO's single source as dubious an Islamic State financier (Waleed Ahmed Zein) is also said to have paid the group at least once according to a report of the New York University’s Congo Research Group. Allied Democratic Forces The Allied Democratic Forces (; abbreviated ADF) is a rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government."
"the abductions. The GSPC is one of two Islamic terrorist groups that have been fighting to topple Algeria's military-backed government in a brutal insurgency over many years that has cost 100,000 lives. In 2007 the GSPC subsequently rebranded themselves as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and were responsible for the two car bombs in Algiers on 12 December 2007 aimed at the Supreme Court and the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees. This was the first such kidnapping of foreigners for ransom in the Sahara, but over the next decade scores more tourists, as well as others"
"exceeding the death toll and damage caused by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier. 15 of the 19 hijackers in the attacks came from Saudi Arabia, as did the leader of the hijackers' organization, (Osama bin Laden). In the U.S., there followed considerable negative publicity for, and scrutiny of, Saudi Arabia and its teaching of Islam, and a reassessing of the ""oil-for-security"" alliance with the Al Saud. A 2002 Council on Foreign Relations Terrorist Financing Task Force report found that: ""For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds"
"bombers who killed Israelis. In 2001, the Israeli's caught two PLF cells that Abbas had recruited and trained after they had murdered an Israeli teenager. Bassam al-Ashker, one of the four ""Achille Lauro"" hijackers, had risen to be Abbas' top deputy in the PLF and was in charge of one of the cell's training, planning, and logistics. Cell members were arrested in the areas of Ramall and Jenin. One of them confessed that the PLF had trained them to use automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and bomb building at the Al-Quds military camp outside Baghdad. By the time the Israelis had"
"due to a lack of arrests. Only the claim by the Islamic Jihad Organisation was included in the closing summary. In 1992 judge Baltasar Garzón made interrogations into the Marbella-based Syrian arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar who was linked to numerous crimes including the ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking, without results. In 2005, Spain requested the Muslim Brotherhood and alleged al-Qaeda operative Mustafa Setmariam Nasar's extradition from Pakistan for his alleged role in the bombing after a witness report following Nasar being a suspect in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In addition to witness accounts following the Madrid attacks, a composite sketch of"
"Trieste and Izmir, results in view of a more tight collaboration in between MSC and Messina Line. Following an engine room explosion and subsequent fire on 30 November 1994 the MS Achille Lauro was abandoned and eventually sank on 2 December 1994. Several years earlier, in October, 1985, the Achille Lauro was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists while cruising off Egypt. One passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, who was confined to a wheelchair, was deliberately murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard with his wheelchair. ""MSC Napoli"" operated by MSC under charter from its owner, had to be abandoned in the English Channel"
"the ""MS Achille Lauro"", an Italian cruise ship, demanding that Israel release Kuntar along with 50 Palestinian prisoners. Kuntar was the only prisoner specifically named. The hijackers killed Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound Jewish-American passenger, and threw his body and wheelchair overboard. In 2003, Israel agreed to release around 400 prisoners in exchange for businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers held by Hezbollah since 2000. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah refused to accept the deal unless it included Samir Kuntar. ""Hezbollah's conditions have become clear and defined, and we are sticking to them in all circumstances"", Nasrallah declared in"
"Prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the government of Iran of directing the bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out. The prosecution claimed that Argentina had been targeted by Iran after Buenos Aires' decision to suspend a nuclear technology transfer contract to Tehran. Al-Qaeda's stated aim is the use of jihad to defend and protect Islam against Zionism, Christianity, Hinduism, the secular West, and Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia, which it sees as insufficiently Islamic and too closely tied to the United States. Formed by Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef in the aftermath"
"FARL were pretty weak, and that the main entity behind the group was Iran. Iran's involvement led to some to describe the attacks as having a dimension of Shia Islamic terrorism. Investigations of the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 and Air Afrique Flight 56 were among the factors that helped lead investigators towards Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, and the cell behind the attacks. In early 1987, following the arrest of Mohammed Ali Hammadi in West Germany, the DST identified Fouad Ali Saleh as the leader of a group of eighteen terrorists directed by Hezbollah from Beirut as being behind"
"12 Americans. The U.S. launched cruise missile strikes on a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, yet this failed to destroy al-Qaeda's vast network. On October 12, 2000, al-Qaeda militants bombed the USS ""Cole"" off the coast of Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors and severely damaging the ship. On the morning of September 11, 2001, four airliners were hijacked by 19 members of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. The first hijacked airliner, American Airlines Flight 11, struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 A.M. (EST) in New York City; with a second, United Airlines Flight 175, striking the"
"and 3 crew members died. The surviving passengers were able to tell authorities what transpired on the aircraft. The hijacking was one of the deadliest ever, and was one of many in 1985 and 1986. Shortly after the hijacking, the pro-Iranian group Islamic Jihad Organization (a widely used name for Hezbollah) claimed responsibility. One of the dead hijackers was later identified by the Central Intelligence Agency as a Lebanese national named Ribal Khalil Jallul, whose passport photo was matched to a Hezbollah martyr poster found near a mosque in Beirut. Iraq accused Iran of being behind the attack. Iraqi Airways"
"claim that no one had been murdered during the hijacking. The Administration announced that they would be convening a Federal grand jury to consider an indictment against the four hijackers and Abbu Abbas who was believed to have fled to South Yemen (a pro-Soviet Arab nation with no diplomatic relations to the U.S.). There were several stages of court and legal actions taken against the hijackers of the ""Achille Lauro"" and Abu Abbas. The US had originally planned to charge the terrorists with piracy under its Criminal Code of 1909 ""whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy"
"captured by the coalition and claimed his associates made the bomb used in this attack. On December 16, 2005, Iraqi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mullah Halgurd al-Khabir, a commander of Ansar al-Sunna, in connection with the attack. The Italian newspaper ""Corriere della Sera"" identified the suicide bomber as Algerian national Fahdal Nassim. Other suspects included Baathists, militant Sunni and Shiite groups, organized crime, and tribal elements. Blame was initially thought to lie with Ansar al-Islam, which was thought at the time to be Zarqawi's group. An otherwise unknown group called the ""Armed Vanguards of the Second Mohammed Army"""
"several European countries. The Italian branch of the organisation was led by Sami ben Khemais Essid, and was dismantled by law enforcement in April 2001. Essid's group was connected to the ""Frankfurt group"", which was responsible for the Strasbourg Cathedral bombing plot in December 2000. Several members of the TCG in Italy were convicted for terror-related activities in 2003. The Belgian branch of the TCG was led by Maaroufi, and was responsible for organising the travel to Afghanistan of the two terrorists who assassinated the anti-Taliban Afghan political leader Ahmad Shah Massoud on 9 September 2001. The Belgian branch has"
"who opposed Arafat and was supported by Syria. (Yacoub would immediately denounce the hijacking.) The second PLF faction was headed by Abd al-Fatah Ghanim, who also opposed Arafat. The last faction was headed by Abbas, who was loyal to Arafat and sat on the PLO Executive Committee. His faction of the PLF had already carried out a series of armed raids in Israel and the West Bank since the late 1970s. The hijackers of the ""Achille Lauro"" in their demands to be met before they freed their hostages specified only one by name Samir Kuntar. The Lebanese Kuntar was a"
"Italy. He remained in Iraq and commanded the PLF (reunited in 1989) until the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Italy sentenced Zaidan ""in absentia"" to five terms of life imprisonment for his role in the ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking. He was also wanted in the US for crimes including terrorism, piracy, and murder. In 1996, he apologized for the ""Achille Lauro"" hijacking and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer and advocated peace talks between Palestinians and Israel; the apology was rejected by the US government and Klinghoffer's family. On 14 April 2003, Zaidan was captured by American forces in Iraq while"
"the incident. ""We have been there for 25 years,"" he said. ""Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue."" On 13 February, eleven days after the incident, the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, in an email statement, claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it was ""retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia."" Al-Shabaab also said that it targeted Turkish Airlines because Turkey is a NATO state supporting Western operations in Somalia and that they were targeting Western intelligence officials and Turkish"
"lie on the deck. Containers said to contain fuel were placed around them with threats from the terrorists that they would shoot the cans if provoked. One of the terrorists told hostage Evelyn Weltman that if commandos tried a rescue all the hostages would be executed. At this point it became clear to the hostages and Captain De Rosa that one of the four hijackers was their leader – twenty-three year-old Youssef Majed Molqi (recruited by Abbas from a crowded Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan). The ""Achille Lauro"" arrived off Tartus at 11:00 a.m. and Molqi broke radio silence. He"
"officially listed the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as a terrorist organisation. Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, known by the French acronym GICM (""Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain""), is a Salafi jihadist terrorist organisation affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The GICM is one of several North African terrorist franchises spawned in Afghanistan during the tenure of the Taliban. The organisation and its associated members have been linked to major terrorist attacks including the 2003 Casablanca bombings that killed 33 people and wounded more than 100, and the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded over 2,000. A"
"Organization (PLO) guerrillas had dispersed (under international guarantees of safety) to Tunisia, Yemen, Southern Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and the Sudan. (The presence of PLO strongholds in some of these countries would play a part in where the hijackers of ""Achille Lauro"" felt they could find safe haven.) While in Lebanon PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had run into problems with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad who in 1983 sought to wrest effective control of the group from him by backing a mutiny within the PLO. Arafat was backed by the Soviet Union and was helped to escape Lebanon by the"