Library: Iran’s Annual Report On Terrorism

Terrorism is considered to be a phenomenon with specific goals, which is usually carried out with prior planning.

This phenomenon differs from other political phenomena such as revolutions, riots, coups, robberies, wars and guerrilla operations. Violence is an inseparable part of terrorism while intimidation and exercising power to achieve political goals also play an important role in it. Terrorist acts are not always directed at governments; Religious groups, political parties, and ordinary citizens have also been among targets of terrorist operations. Especially in the last decade, many of the victims of terrorist acts were civilians. Of course, terrorists are not always ethnic, religious and non-governmental groups. Governments have expanded the concept of terrorism by committing terrorist operations against opposing countries, rivals or political opponents.

Researchers believe that terrorist acts are inherent in human nature and their interest in power seeking, domination, torture and harassment of others, as well as intimidating them to achieve their goals and aspirations. Contemporary history, especially in the twentieth century, has been full of terrorist incidents, which have led to great changes. By examining terrorist events in the twentieth-century, one could find that terrorist acts have become more widespread in the last three decades of this century and terrorist attacks around the world have been on the rise since the early 1970s.

The number of victims of terrorism since 2015 has seen a relative decrease compared to its unprecedented peak in 2014. Although in 2017 the number of casualties decreased by 40% compared to 2014, the death toll that year was about 152 times higher than that of 1970. An examination of data related to terrorist operations over the past five decades shows that after the spread of terrorism in certain parts of the world, especially in Europe and the Americas, this phenomenon gradually spread to most parts of the world. Since the very beginning of the Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979, the Islamic Republic experienced the bitter taste of terrorist acts conducted by terrorist groups with a series of bombing operations in Sanandaj. Since then, dozens of terrorist groups with political or ideological goals and with the support of some regional and western countries, especially the United States, have intensified their attacks and operations against Iranian officials and citizens, killing more than 17,000 people.

Differences in political views and approaches are commonplace in the international system. however, since the Islamic Revolution of Iranian people was not within the framework of the equations of the state sponsors of terrorism, those governments not only provided full and continuous support to the terrorist groups, but they also flagrantly accused Iran of supporting terrorism.

This is while, despite domestic efforts to combat terrorism, dozens of terrorist incidents occur in different parts of Iran every year, mainly by terrorist or separatist groups who have official offices and headquarters in some western countries. Since its inception, Habilian, as the representative of families of the Iranian victims of terrorism, has collected numerous documents of the crimes and assassinations committed by terrorist groups and provided them to domestic and international competent Bodies. Following the compilation and publication of the country’s list of 17,000 terror victims, which was welcomed by some international organizations and personalities, it was decided to collect and report criminal operations committed by terrorist groups against Iranian citizens, as well as the country's significant actions in the fight against terrorism. All the contents of this report were collected from the country's press, being revised and reviewed in several stages to exclude incidents that were not related to terrorist acts.

The present report, the first annual report on terrorist activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, was produced by Habibilian, as a representative of families of the Iranian victims of terrorism and the leading research institute for monitoring terrorist groups in the country. Hoping to continue this project in the coming years, our wish is for the elimination of all terrorist groups so that we do not witness any terrorist acts anywhere in the world.