Abu Nidal Organization

Also known as Arab Revolutionary Brigade, Black June, Black September, and Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), a Palestinian terrorist group, was the best-organized, best-funded, and most active terrorist network of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Sabri al Banna, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Nidal (meaning “father of struggle”), founded the ANO in 1974. Previously a high-ranking member of Yasir Arafat's Fatah, a part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Banna broke with that group in 1974 over what he perceived to be its abandonment of the armed struggle for Palestinian liberation in favor of political settlement. Both Banna and the ANO were influenced by the ideology of the Baath Party, which called for the unification of the Arab peoples into a single state. The ANO saw the elimination of Israel as a necessary precursor to Arab unity and hoped that fighting a common enemy (the Israelis) would help forge such unity. The ANO reviled Arafat and other pro-Western Arab leaders, who, at the time, were willing to support the continued existence of Israel in exchange for an independent Palestine. Accordingly, ANO has targeted moderate Arabs as frequently as it has Israelis.

While working as a recruiter for Fatah, Banna was based in Baghdad, Iraq, a Baath stronghold run by the dictator Saddam Hussein. Following Banna's 1974 defection, Hussein helped him to organize the ANO and provided him with funds in exchange for the use of the ANO's services, primarily against Syrian targets. (The Syrian division of the Baath had been feuding with the Iraqi Baath for years.)

The ANO, as created by Banna, would emerge as one of the most extensive and effective terrorist networks of the 1980s. Front organizations for the ANO were established in almost every Arab nation to attract recruits, who were then sent to training camps in the ANO's host country (at various times Iraq, Syria, and Libya). Once proficient in the necessary terrorist skills—weapons training, explosives, intelligence, and covert operations—members joined a small four- or five-person cell and awaited instructions. The ANO was estimated to have about 500 members at its peak, carrying out operations in more than 20 countries across Europe and the Middle East.

A striking feature of the ANO in its early years was its versatility and ability to adapt its tactics to various situations. ANO attacks took the form of car bombings, kidnappings, hijackings, suicide bombings, and assassinations. The ANO attacked the Syrian embassies in Rome, Italy, and Islamabad, Pakistan, and it assassinated PLO representatives in London, Paris, Kuwait, and Brussels. Its most significant action, however, was a June 1982 assassination attempt on the Israeli ambassador to England, Shlomo Argov, in London. This attack precipitated the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where the PLO had its headquarters, and was a serious blow to that organization.

In 1983, Hussein expelled Banna and the ANO, in the hope of acquiring Western support for his war with Iran (1980–1988). Banna resettled the ANO in Syria, displaying his willingness to abandon former enmities when it was to his advantage, a trait that has led some observers to characterize the ANO as merely a mercenary organization. The Syrians never fully trusted Banna, however, and less than two years later he moved the organization to Libya. This period, the mid-1980s, was the most active for the ANO. The ANO carried out a campaign against Jordan at this time, assassinating several Jordanian ambassadors. The ANO also attacked the El Al counters at the Rome and Vienna airports on December 27, 1985, killing 17 people and wounding more than 100. On September 6, 1986, the ANO massacred 22 worshippers at a synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, and on that same day ANO terrorists hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, eventually massacring 22 people when negotiations failed.

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