National Consortium for the

Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

Background Report: Terrorist Attacks in New York City

On the evening of Saturday, May 1, 2010, police in New York City’s Times Square neighborhood
discovered a private vehicle on West 45th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, filled
with explosive materials. At the time police discovered the vehicle—with the assistance of an astute
street vendor working in the neighborhood—the device had apparently begun to detonate but did
not explode.

This event is being treated as a potential terrorist attack, with a full investigation underway. The
report below provides background information on the history of terrorist attacks in New York City
since 1970, using data drawn from START’s Global Terrorism Database (www.start.umd.edu/gtd).

 Frequency of Terrorist Activity in New York City

284 terrorist attacks occurred in the five boroughs of New York City between 1970 and 2007.
Terrorist activity is not new to New York City, with almost three-fourths of these attacks occurring in
the 1970s.

 Casualties from Terrorist Activity in New York City

2813 individuals were killed by terrorist activity

between 1970 and 2007 in New York City, with 98%
of those fatalities occurring as a result of the dual
attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11,
2001 (see GTD ID#s 200109110004 and
200109110005 for more details on these incidents).
Prior to September 11th, the deadliest attack in New
York City involved a bombing at LaGuardia Airport in

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1975, resulting in 11 deaths (see GTD ID# 197512290003). These attacks on the Twin Towers
are not only the deadliest U.S. terrorist attacks of all time but are the deadliest terrorist attacks to
have occurred anywhere in the world.

The total number of terrorism casualties in New York City between 1970 and 2007, including both
those killed or wounded in attacks, exceeds 4000 people, with an average of 6 people wounded in
each attack.

 Concentration of U.S. Terrorism in New York City

New York City has been, by far, the most common target location of terrorists in the United States.

Of the 1347 total attacks in the United States from 1970-2007, more occurred in New York City
during this period than in the next 4 most frequently targeted U.S. cities combined (Miami, 70
attacks; San Francisco, 66 attacks; Washington, DC, 59 attacks; and Los Angeles, 54 attacks).
21% of all U.S. incidents during this period occurred in New York City, with a peak of 48% of all U.S.
terrorist attacks occurring in New York City in 1973.

(For more on U.S. terrorism trends, see

http://www.start.umd.edu/start/announcements/announcement.asp?id=185.)

 Perpetrators of Terrorism in New York City

While al-Qaeda has launched the deadliest attacks on New York City targets, almost 40 other
identified groups engaged in terrorism in this city from 1970 to 2007, representing a range of
different ideologies, backgrounds, and goals, with changing actors over time.

In the 1970s, the most active perpetrators of terrorism in New York City were Fuerzas Armadas de
Liberacion Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican separatist group, responsible for 40 NYC attacks in this
decade. The Jewish Defense League (JDL), which engaged in attacks against targets it perceived to
be anti-Semitic, launched 27 attacks during this period. And, both the Independent Armed

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Revolutionary Commandos (CRIA), another Puerto Rican separatist group, and Omega-7, an anti-
Castro Cuban organization, each were responsible for 16 attacks during this period.

Both FALN and the JDL continued their activity and attacks in New York into the 1980s, launching
another 8 and 14 attacks, respectively, during this decade.

Groups that had been active in New York in the 1970s and ‘80s faded away in the 1990s. During
this decade, more than 80% of the attacks in New York were attributed to unknown perpetrators.
Of the remaining incidents in the 1990s, no single group was known to be responsible for more
than one attack in New York City.

Al-Qaeda was responsible for two coordinated attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
To date, al-Qaeda has not been identified to be responsible for any additional attacks in New York
in this decade. In addition, five incidents of the delivery of anthrax via mail occurred in New York in
the first decade of the twenty-first century. If one perpetrator was in fact responsible for all 5 of
these incidents, this perpetrator would have committed the greatest number of NYC attacks in the
2000s.

 Terrorist Target Types in New York City

Just as different perpetrators have been active in New York City, a range of different targets have
been singled out for attack by terrorists. The most common type of target in New York has been
businesses, targeted in 36% of 1970-2007 attacks. 19% of attacks have targeted government
offices located in the city. Non-governmental organizations have been targeted in 11% of attacks.

Business and government offices/facilities are also the most common targets of terrorist activity in
the United States, writ large—not only in New York City—with 25% of U.S. terrorist attacks targeting
businesses and 18% targeting non-military government facilities.

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Target types that have been less frequently attacked in New York (included in the figure above as
“other”) include non-aviation transportation facilities (5 attacks), religious institutions (4 attacks),
food and water supply (1 attack), and telecommunication facilities (1 attack). In the country as a
whole, 18% of terrorist attacks have targeted abortion-related targets (including abortion clinics).
No such attacks are known to have occurred in New York City.

 Terrorist Weapon Types in New York City

The primary weapon used in 70% of terrorist attacks in New York City has been bombs/explosives.
(Among U.S. terrorist attacks during this same period, terrorists relied on bombs/explosives as the
primary weapon in 55% of attacks.) An additional 18% of NYC terrorist attacks involved
incendiaries (arson/fire) as the primary weapon, and 10% relied upon firearms as the primary
weapon.

Among the 195 bomb/explosive attacks in New York City, 58 incidents have been identified as
cases in which terrorists used an improvised explosive device (IED). This accounts for 34% of all
terrorist IED attacks in the United States during this period. While IEDs have become a major
concern in recent years due to their prominence in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a review of
events in New York reveals that terrorists have been using this type of weaponry—and using it in
New York City—for decades.

Of all terrorist IED cases in the United States, 10 are known to have been vehicle-borne IEDs
(VBIEDs), or car bombs. More than half of these VBIED attacks—6 of 10—occurred in New York.
Among these attacks is the 1993 attack by Ramzi Yousef on the World Trade Center. Yousef drove
a Ryder rental truck packed with more than 1500 pounds of fertilizer-based explosives into an
underground parking garage beneath the World Trade Center. The attack left 6 people dead and
resulted in more than 1000 injuries.

Prior to this attack, the last known terrorist usage of VBIEDs in New York occurred in the 1970s. In
the course of one week in March 1973, the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September
(best known for its attack on the 1972 Munich Olympic games) launched 3 attacks using VBIEDs
in New York City, targeting Israeli-owned businesses in the city as well as the El Al terminal at John

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F. Kennedy Airport (see GTD ID#s 197303030002, 197303040002, and 197303060001 for
more information on these attacks). In 1978, the New Jewish Defense League attacked an
Egyptian governmental office in New York using a car bomb, and in 1979, Omega-7 employed a
VBIED against TWA offices at Kennedy Airport (see GTD ID#s 197812180007 and
197903250002, respectively, for additional details).

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Notes on this Report:

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD, www.start.umd.edu/gtd) contains information on more than 80,000 terrorist
incidents that have occurred around the world since 1970. An updated version of this open-source database, with
information on incidents through 2008, will be released in late May 2010.

GTD is a project of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror (START), a U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. START, based at the University of Maryland, College Park,
aims to provide timely guidance on how to disrupt terrorist networks, reduce the incidence of terrorism, and enhance
the resilience of U.S. society in the face of the terrorist threat.

The material presented here is the product of START and does not express the official opinion of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security.

For additional information, please contact START at 301 405 6600 or kjsmarick@start.umd.edu. Questions
specifically on the GTD can be directed to gtd@start.umd.edu.

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© National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), College
Park MD, 2010.

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