DON'T PANIC!

• What is terrorism?
• Who are the terrorists?
• Terror tactics
• When panic attacks
• Holidays in hell
• Find out more
• Credits

Conventional

Political pressure groups do not use terrorist tactics; neither do guerrilla armies. Typically, terrorist groups are committed to a violent confrontation with a much stronger enemy. As a result, they have usually favoured forms of attack that cause maximum damage to the enemy with the minimum of risk to themselves.

In these circumstances the obvious weapon is the bomb. This may be nothing more sophisticated than the round bomb with fizzing fuse, traditionally carried by cartoon anarchists. The Russian 'populist' terrorist who killed Tsar Alexander II in 1881 threw a bomb that landed between the Tsar and himself, killing them both.

More recently, terrorists have used time bombs, bombs rigged to detonate when they are moved and bombs detonated by remote control. The recent Madrid bombs were even detonated by mobile phone. Relatively few terrorist groups can afford or obtain sophisticated mechanisms such as the mercury tilt switch used in the 1979 assassination of Airey Neave by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). In Israel, a combination of limited resources, police pressure and religious fervour has led to the spread of suicide bombing, bringing the development of terrorist bombs full circle. They are as lethal now to the terrorist as they once were when technology was less reliable.

Creating the maximum effect does not necessarily mean causing the maximum casualties. Many groups, particularly those on the Left, pride themselves on warning the authorities before a bomb goes off. The aim is to ensure that damage is done to property rather than people, or to military personnel rather than members of the public. The disruption caused by bomb warnings can also be counted as a success from the terrorist group's point of view, even if the warning itself is a hoax.

At the other end of the scale, some terrorist groups simply want to cause as much terror as possible. Groups such as these rarely give warnings or do anything to minimise 'collateral damage'.

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Haifa

Israeli policemen inspect the wreckage of an Israeli bus following a suicide bomb attack near Yagur junction, east of Haifa, Israel, in April 2002. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 8 people and injured 22