This is a timeline of incidents in 1978 that have been labelled as "terrorism" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism).
{{Expand list|date=August 2008}}| Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location | Details | Perpetrator | Part of
|
|---|
| January 7 | Shooting | 2 | 1 | Rome, Italy | A leftist terrorist group attacked the office of Italian Social Movement in Rome, Italy, killing three people in an event known as the Acca Larentia Massacre. | Nuclei Armati di Contropotere Territoriale |
| February 1 | Poisoning | 0 | 5 | Netherlands | Members of the Arab Revolutionary Council poison Israeli oranges with mercury, injuring five children.[1] | Arab Revolutionary Council | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| February 4 | Ambush | 10 | Unknown | Carare-Opon region, Colombia | Guerrillas from the IV front of the FARC ambush two Army trucks in Campo Capote, Carare-Opon region. A second lieutenant and 9 soldiers are killed.[2] | FARC | Colombian conflict |
| February 13 | Bombing | 3 | 11 | Sydney, Australia | A bomb placed in a garbage bin at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney explodes while the bin was being emptied into a garbage truck. Two garbage collectors and a police officer were killed and eleven others were wounded. The perpetrators were never identified, but the hotel was hosting the first ever Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was the likely target. | Unknown |
| February 17 | Bombing | 12 | 30 | County Down, Northern Ireland | The Provisional Irish Republican Army plants an incendiary bomb outside the La Mon restaurant in Gransha, County Down. The bomb exploded before the restaurant could be evacuated after PIRA phoned in a threat. | PIRA | The Troubles |
| February 18 | Shooting | 1 | 20 | Nicosia, Cyprus | Two assassins had killed prominent Egyptian newspaper editor Youssef Sebai and then rounded up several Arabs who were attending a convention in Nicosia as hostages. As Cypriot forces were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers at the airport, Egyptian troops decided to launch their own assault without authorization from the Cypriots. The unauthorized raid led to the Egyptians and the Cypriots exchanging gunfire, killing or injuring more than 20 of the Egyptian commandos. |
| February 24 | Bombing | 1 | 0 | Tenerife, Spain | The police officer Rafael Valdenebro attempted to deactivate a bomb placed by the group in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife) on February 24, 1978, which was intended to assassinate a local lawyer. The bomb expert, 27, was hit in the head, arms and legs and died on March 8.[3] | MPAIAC | Terrorism in Spain |
| March 3 | Bombing | 1 | 3 | Port Elizabeth, South Africa | Bomb explodes outside Government offices. | Umkhonto We Sizwe | Internal resistance to apartheid |
| March 11 | Massacre | 39 (+9 terrorists) | 71 | Tel Aviv, Israel | 11 PLO terrorists hijack a bus on Coastal highway and take dozens of civilians hostage. 38 civilians and one Israeli soldier are killed when Israeli police attempt to raid the bus, which burst into flames. | PLO | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| March 13–14 | Hostage-taking | 2 | 1 | Assen, Netherlands | Three South Moluccans took 70 hostages at the Assen province hall, demanding the release of Molucccan prisoners. Two hostage were executed and a photographer was wounded. | South Moluccan freedom fighters |
| March 16 – May 9 | Kidnapping, murder | 6 | 0 | Italy | Former Italian prime minister and leader of the Democrazia Cristiana party, Aldo Moro, is kidnapped by Red Brigades terrorists on March 16. The terrorists kill his five bodyguards. Moro is found murdered after 55 days of captivity. | Red Brigades |
| March 17 | Bombing | 2 | 2 | Lemoiz, Spain | ETA planted a bomb in the under-construction Lemóniz nuclear reactor, killing two workers (Andrés Guerra and Alberto Negro), wounded two more, and causing substantial damage to the reactor itself. Further ETA actions ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the project. | ETA | Basque conflict, Anti-nuclear movement in Spain |
| April 13 | Attempted Car Bombing | 0 | 1 | Guipuzcoa, Spain | The dawn of April 13, several individuals tried to put an explosive device at Adegui's headquarters in San Sebastian. The attack was partially unsuccessful. One of the commanders was wounded in deflating the bomb early and escaped from the scene of the attack in a car flight. The militant, identified as Vicente Aldalur, was hospitalized in France for severe burns.[4] | Comandos Autonomos Anticapitalistas | Basque conflict |
| May 20 | Shooting | 2 (+3 terrorists) | 5 | Paris, France | Three terrorists fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge of Orly Airport in Paris, resulting in the death of all three terrorists and one policeman, with three French tourists injured.[5] | Palestinians | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| May 24 | Assassination | 1 | 0 | Guipúzcoa, Spain | A taxi driver was beaten and shot dead by the Batallon Vasco Espanol which accused the taxi driver of having helped an ETA attack.[6] | Batallon Vasco Espanol | Basque Conflict |
| May 25 | Bombing | 0 | 1 | Evanston, Illinois, United States | Police officer Terry Marker is injured by a bomb sent to professor Buckley Crist at Northwestern University by Theodore Kaczynski. | Theodore Kaczynski |
| June 7 | Shooting | 2 | 2 | Figtree, Rhodesia | Two British women mission teachers were shot dead and two other missionaries wounded during a raid by ZIPRA guerrillas on the Salvation Army Usher Institute near Figtree, 20 miles south-west of Bulawayo. | Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) | Rhodesian Bush War |
| June 23 | Massacre | 12 | 0 | Vumba Mountains, Rhodesia | Eight British missionaries and four young children – including a three-week-old baby – were beaten, stabbed and axed to death at Elim Mission near Umtali (now Mutare) on Rhodesia's eastern border. Most of the women had also been sexually assaulted. | | Rhodesian Bush War |
| June 27 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | Hartley district, Rhodesia | Two German-born missionaries, Father Gregor Richert (48) and Brother Bernhard Lisson (68), were shot by a small group of terrorists near their quarters at St. Rupert's Mission, 60 km north-west of Hartley (now Chegutu). | Rhodesian Bush War |
| August 13 | Bombing | 175 | 80 | Beirut, Lebanon | A bomb destroys an office building in West Beirut housing the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Front, killing more than 175 people and injuring another 80. The bombing was allegedly carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.[7] | PFLP-GC | Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon |
| August 14 | Shooting | 12 | 0 | Cimitarra, Colombia | FARC members murder 12 peasants in rural Cimitarra, Santander. | FARC | Colombian conflict |
| August 19 | Shooting | 6 | Unknown | Boyacá, Colombia | FARC guerrillas attack troops from the battalion of engineers "Baraya", and kill 6 soldiers in rural Otanche (Boyacá)[8] | FARC | Colombian conflict |
| August 19 | Shooting | 2 | 2 | Managua, Nicaragua | Two people who collaborated in the government of General Anastasio Somoza were shot dead and two other policemen injured in another incident in Managua, Nicaragua.[9] | Sandinists |
| August 19 | Arson | 400+ | | Abadan, Iran | A group of four Islamist militants bar the doors of a cinema and set the cinema on fire. Hundreds of people had packed into the cinema to watch the film The Deers. The exact number of deaths is unknown with estimates ranging from around 400 to over 800. | Four Islamists | Iranian Revolution |
| August 20 | Shooting, grenade attacks | 1 (+1 terrorist) | 9 | London, United Kingdom | A crew bus of El Al airlines in London was attacked by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).[10] A flight attendant and one suspected terrorist were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured.[11][12] | PFLP | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| September 1–6 | Bombings | 0 | 2 | Speedway, United States | A series of eight bombings occurs in the town of Speedway, Indiana. A Vietnam War veteran and his wife are seriously wounded in the last bombing. A local drug dealer named Brett Kimberlin is convicted of the bombings. The motive for the bombings was never determined but they may have been meant to serve as a distraction from a murder which Kimbelin was allegedly involved with. | Brett Kimberlin |
| September 3 | Aircraft shootdown | 48 | 8 | Karoi, Rhodesia | Members of ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825 from Kariba to Salisbury killing 48 civilians. 38 were killed in the crash and 10 survivors were shot with automatic weapons. | ZIPRA | Rhodesian Bush War |
| October 22 | Shooting | 3 | 1 | Getxo, Spain | Four Civil Guards are shot by ETA while returning from a football match. Three die. | ETA | Basque conflict |
| December 31 | Theft | 0 | 0 | Bogotá, Colombia | Members of the M-19 enter a tunnel to the north canton in Bogotá and steal more than 5000 weapons. The robbery of the North Canton, main deposit of arms of the Military Forces of Colombia, meant a mockery for the government before the public opinion.[13] | Movimiento 19 Abril | Colombian conflict |
1. ^Palestinian Terrorists Inject Mercury into Israeli Oranges; 5 Dutch Children Poisoned After Eating Them
2. ^https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1706&dat=19780220&id=PpYqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P2YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7025,1830895&hl=es
3. ^http://elpais.com/diario/1978/03/09/espana/258246018_850215.html
4. ^http://hemeroteca-paginas.lavanguardia.com/LVE08/HEM/1978/04/14/LVG19780414-013.pdf
5. ^{{cite news|title=3 TERRORISTS KILLED IN ATTACK IN PARIS ON EL AL PASSENGERS; 3 French Tourists Bound for Israel Are Injured and One Policeman Is Killed in 25-Minute Fight|date=May 21, 1978|first=Flora|last=Lewis|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/21/archives/3-terrorists-killed-in-attack-in-paris-on-el-al-passengers-3-french.html|accessdate=9 October 2011}}
6. ^http://elpais.com/diario/1978/05/30/espana/265327231_850215.html
7. ^A Fraternal Bombing, Time (August 28, 1978)
8. ^https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=N2osnxbUuuUC&dat=19780820&printsec=frontpage&hl=es
9. ^https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=N2osnxbUuuUC&dat=19780820&printsec=frontpage&hl=es
10. ^{{Cite book|first1=Barry|last1=Rubin|first2=Judith Colp|last2=Rubin|title=Chronologies of Modern Terrorism|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ynNsBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&hl=no&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q&f=false|publisher=Routledge|page=193|isbn=9781317474654}}
11. ^{{Cite news|title=1978: Two dead after El Al crew ambushed|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/20/newsid_2546000/2546593.stm|work=BBC News|date=20 August 1978}}
12. ^{{Cite news|title=Terrorist Attack on El Al Mini-bus Kills Airline Stewardess, injures 8|url=https://www.jta.org/1978/08/21/archive/terrorist-attack-on-el-al-mini-bus-kills-airline-stewardess-in-jures-8|agency=JTA|date=21 August 1978}}
13. ^http://www.radiosantafe.com/2007/10/19/si-hubo-vacio-de-poder-en-colombia-durante-el-holocausto-del-palacio-de-justicia/
{{Lists of Terrorist Incidents}}