See also: 1987 in terrorism, other events of 1988, 1989 in terrorism and the list of 'years in Terrorism'.
Events
edit- February 14 - Three senior PLO officers are killed in a car bomb explosion in Limassol, Cyprus.
- March 6 - Three unidentified IRA members, suspected of having a remote control explosive dentonator in their possession, are shot and killed by a team of British SAS agents in Gibralter.
- March 7 - Three Palestinean terrorists, after hijacking an Israeli bus near a nuclear power plant in Dimona, are killed along with three hostages in a later gun battle with Israeli commandos.
- March 11 - Tamil rebels, armed with automatic weapons and hand granades, attack a bus near Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka resulting in the deaths of at least 17 passengers.
- March 16 - During a funeral service for a recently killed IRA member, a member of the Protestant UVF tosses a bomb into the cround of 5,000 in attendance killing three and wounded dozens more.
- March 19 - After their vehicle is trapped by an angry crowd, two British soldiers are beaten to death by mourners at an IRA funeral
- March 20 - On the eve of the El Salvadorian national elections, six bombs are detonated by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front halting traffic and cutting power lines throughout the country.
- March 29 - Dulcie September, a member of the African National Congress, is killed near her office in Paris, France. Her murder is thought to be the work of South African assassination squads.
- April 5 - Shortly after leaving Thailand, a Kuwaiti airliner is hijacked by 8 Arab men who force the plane to land in Iran, and upon landing demand the release of 17 imprisoned Arab terrorists. Flying towards Cyprus, two Kuwaiti passegers are killed on April 8 and several days later, on April 13, the plane is flown to Algeria where the hostages are eventually released six days later and the hijackers allowed to leave the country.
- April 7 - In an attempt on his life (possibly by South African death squads), South African lawyer Albie Sache is wounded by a car bomb in Maputo, Mozambique.
- April 14 - Thought to have been caused by the Japanese Red Army, five people are killed in a car bomb explosion near a US servicemens club in Naples, Italy.
- April 16 - Abu Jihad, a PLO senior military officer, is killed at his home near Tunis, Tunisia possibly by Israeli commandos.
- April 23 - Over 40 people are killed after a truck bomb explodes in a marketplace in Tripoli, Lebanon.
- June 18 - Turgut Ozal, Prime Minister of Turkey, is wounded in an assassination attempt by Dartal Demirag, a member of the right-wing organization Grey Wolves.
- July 11 - A Greek ferry boat is attacked by Iranian terrorists resulting in the deaths of 9 passengers and over 80 others wounded.
- August 17 - Thirty passengers, thought to include Pakistani President Mohommed Zia-ul-Haq, are killed after a military transport plane crashes due to sabotage in Pakistan.
- August 30 - Three members of the Provisional IRA are killed in Northern Ireland after an ambush by SAS members.
- September - Four members of the Lesotho Liberation Army hijack a bus carrying 70 passengers en route to visit Pope John Paul II, resulting in the deaths of three of the hijackers and two hostages.
- December 21 - An explosion onboard a Pan Am flight from London to New York causes the deaths of its 259 passengers as well as 11 others on the ground after the plane crashes near a small village in Scotland. A later investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Scotland Yard trace the explosion to a plastic explosive.
Arts and literature
edit- The Price of Terror by Allan Gerson and Jerry Adler is published.
- John McTiernan's Die Hard starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia and Reginald VelJohnson is released.
- Patty Hearst starring Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe, Ving Rhames and Frances Fisher is released.