What major attacks has al-qaeda been responsible for?

The group has targeted American and other Western interests as well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it sees as corrupt or impious—above all, the Saudi monarchy. Al-Qaeda linked attacks include:

The March 2004 bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains, which killed nearly 200 people and left more than 1,800 injured.

The May 2003 car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The November 2002 car bomb attack and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner with shoulder-fired missiles, both in Mombasa, Kenya.

The October 2002 attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen.

Several spring 2002 bombings in Pakistan.

The April 2002 explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia.

The September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The October 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing.

The August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Al-Qaeda is suspected of carrying out or directing sympathetic groups to carry out the May 2003 suicide attacks on Western interests in Casablanca, Morocco; the October 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia; and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

HOW IS AL-QAEDA CONNECTED TO THE 1993 WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING?

There are strong links. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the militant cleric convicted in the 1993 plot, once led an Egyptian group now affiliated with al-Qaeda; two of his sons are senior al-Qaeda officials. And Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 attack, planned al-Qaeda's foiled attack on American airliners over the Pacific Ocean. He is also the nephew of the former senior al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is now in U.S. custody.

1.	Answer the questions.

1. What is al-Qaeda?

2. What are al-Qaeda’s origins?

3. Who are al-Qaeda’s leaders?

4. Where does al-Qaeda operate?

5. What major attacks has al-Qaeda been responsible for?

2.	Translate words and word combinations into English

Міжнародна терористична мережа, ісламський режим, вторгнення, священна війна, звинувачення, викрадення людей, штаб, ісламські фундаменталісти, захоплення літаків, підозрювати.

TEXT 18

What is eta?

ETA is a leftist group that uses terrorism in hopes of forming an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwest France. ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means “Basque Fatherland and Liberty” in the Basque language. The State Department lists ETA as a foreign terrorist organization, and the United States and the European Union have frozen ETA assets since the September 11 attacks. Spain has long fought ETA and opposes an independent Basque homeland, though its 1978 constitution designated an autonomous Basque region with responsibility for education, health care, policing and taxation.

The Basques are a linguistically and culturally distinct Christian group that has lived since the Stone Age in the mountainous region that straddles the border between modern-day Spain and France. The Basques have never had their own independent state, but have enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy over the centuries under Spanish and French rule. About half of the 2.1 million residents of the three provinces that make up the autonomous Basque region speak fluent Basque or understand some of the language. Basque nationalists include other areas with smaller Basque-speaking minorities—the Spanish province of Navarre and three departments in southwest France—in their vision of a Basque homeland.

Mostly national and regional officials and government buildings in Spain. In 1973, ETA operatives killed the aging dictator Francisco Franco’s apparent successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, by planting an underground bomb below his habitual parking spot outside a Madrid church. In 1995, an ETA car bomb almost killed Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the conservative Popular Party, who later served as Spain’s prime minister. The same year, investigators disrupted a plot to assassinate King Juan Carlos. And in 1999, Spanish investigators foiled a truck bombing of Madrid’s Picasso Tower, a skyscraper designed by the architect of the World Trade Center.

In addition to these ambitious targets, ETA has also targeted many regional officials and institutions in Basque regions, and in later years ETA has targeted journalists and civilians. Spanish officials arrested two ETA militants in December 2003, broke up plots to detonate two bombs at Madrid train stations, and discovered two bombs at Aragon train stations. About eight hundred people have been killed as a result of ETA violence since the 1960s.

In 1959, young activists angered by the dictator Franco’s suppression of the Basque language and culture and frustrated with moderate Basque nationalist organizations came together to form ETA. The group soon embraced a revolutionary Marxist ideology and that same year, planted bombs in several cities in Spain.