Organization of Armed Struggle

The Organization of (Arab) Armed Struggle, formerly known as the Arm of the Arab Revolution, was a terrorist network of German, Syrian, and Lebanese rebels that existed from 1975 to 1994. It was led by former PFLP members Carlos the Jackal and Kamal al-Issawi and Revolutionary Cells co-founder Johannes Weinrich, and it was funded by many progressive Arab countries during its campaign against imperialists in Western Europe. The group was small in number, with its main members being Carlos, Issawi, Weinrich, Carlos' wife Magdalena Kopp, and their associate Bruno Breguet, with a few surviving Revolutionary Cells members providing muscle for the group. At its height around 1980, the group had bases in Budapest, Hungary; Bucharest, Romania; and East Berlin, East Germany, but Hungary and East Germany later acted against Carlos due to accusations that he was planning attacks from their lands and that he was a Libyan agent. He let down Libya when his plan to kill Anwar Sadat was beaten to the chase by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1981, and he eventually lost the support of all of his allies. Syria expelled him in 1991 for talks with Ba'athist Iraq about another job, and in 1994, Carlos was extradited from his last hideout in Sudan to France, where he served a life sentence in prison.

History[]

Arm of the Arab Revolution[]

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as "Carlos the Jackal", was a student from Venezuela in the Soviet Union's Moscow University before joining the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and fighting in Black September in 1970. In 1973, he decided to leave George Habash's faction for Wadie Haddad's PFLP-EO faction due to agreeing with Haddad on the need for international operations, and he was sent to work alongside the Black September Organization's Paris chief Michel Moukharbal. Carlos became a celebrity for his attempted assassination of businessman Joseph Sieff in London on 30 December 1973, the failed Bank Hapoalim bombing, and RPG attacks on El Al airplanes at Paris' Orly Airport. Moukharbal was later accosted by the French domestic intelligence service DST and forced to identify Carlos, and Carlos killed Moukharbal and the two DST agents when they entered his apartment to identify him. Haddad reluctantly allowed for Carlos to remain in the group, even after he killed one of his men without his permission.

OPEC siege[]

In late 1975, Haddad decided to give Carlos the responsibility of leading the OPEC siege in Vienna, Austria, where he was to murder the Saudi Arabian delegate Ahmed Zaki Yamani and the Iranian delegate Jamshid Amouzegar to weaken OPEC and Saudi Arabia to allow Iraq to crush the Kurdish rebellion in its northern lands. Carlos, Anis Naccache, Gabriele Kroecher-Tiedemann, and Hans-Joachim Klein arrived in Vienna and met with Iraqi charge d'affairs Riyadh al-Azzawi, who outlined their plan. Carlos used the "Arm of the Arab Revolution" as th name for his group, and they secured all of the delegates, although Carlos killed Libyan delegate Yusuf al-Azmarly when he attacked him, angering Muammar Gaddafi. This led to Libya refusing to allow the terrorists to land in Tripoli, and when the terrorists were granted a plane by Austria in exchange for the safety of the hostages, they were forced to land in Algiers. They released all of the neutral hostages there to appease the government, which had threatened to storm the plane, but this removed their bargaining chips for a landing in Libya. The plane landed in Tripoli after it ran low on fuel, and the Austrian ambassador told the terrorists that the Libyans refused to make contact with them, and Carlos made the tough call of freeing the hostages in exchange for money. The plane returned to Algiers, and Abdelaziz Bouteflika negotiated the release of Yamani and Amouzegar for $20,000,000, and Naccache was arrested while attempting to kill the two men even after they were released. Carlos was expelled from the PFLP for failing the mission, and he decided to set up his own group.

Formation[]

Carlos returned to the PFLP safe haven of Aden in South Yemen, where he decided to form his own organization out of Lebanese, Syrian, and German rebels. He met Revolutionary Cells leader Johannes Weinrich and convinced him to join him with the remnants of the cells; many of its leaders were dead or in jail, with Operation Entebbe leaving both Wilfried Bose and Brigitte Kuhlmann dead. Weinrich, his girlfriend Magdalena Kopp, and former PFLP member Kamal al-Issawi agreed to work with Carlos to continue the revolution even after Haddad's death in March 1978; al-Issawi introduced Carlos to the Syrian Air Force's secret services under Mohammed al-Khouly and Haitham Said, and Khouly promised to give money, support, and diplomatic cover to the group if they would work for Syria as their mercenaries in Western Europe. Syria wanted to be respected, and it wanted to fight against France, which opposed Syria's role in the Lebanese Civil War. Carlos agreed to work for Libya, an ally of Syria, in assassinating President Anwar Sadat of Egypt as well, and from 1978 to 1981 Libya gave Carlos $2,000,000, a lot of money to fund his operations with. However, in 1981 the Muslim Brotherhood killed Sadat first, and Carlos let Libya down.

Europe bombing campaign, 1982-1983[]

Carlos worked with Syria in their affairs surrounding Lebanon at the time; in 1981, the Syrians assassinated the French ambassador to Lebanon Louis Delamare as well as embassy clerk Guy Cavallo in May 1982. They wanted for Carlos to help them in attacking the al-Watan al-Arabi newspaper's office in revenge for France's plans to make a documentary on Syria's assassination of Delamare, and they also attempted to kill its contributor Assem al-Joundi for selling him out to Iraqi newspapers as well as to al-Watan. al-Joundi was blinded in one eye by a headshot, but he survived the attack. However, Carlos' attack on al-Watan al-Arabi succeeded, although Magdalena Kopp and his associate Bruno Breguet were both captured by police. Carlos decided to issue an ultimatum to France, warning them that the group would wait only 30 days for the two to be released. Two days after the deadline ended, he bombed a TGV train containing Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, and several more terrorist attacks against the French were launched in 1982-1983. In 1981, President Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania paid Carlos $2,000,000 to bomb Radio Free Europe in Munich, as most Romanians wanted to listen to The Rolling Stones on RFE rather than Romanian state media.

Decline and dissolution[]

Carlos 1985 — Carlos in Damascus in 1985

The Organization of Armed Struggle's several attacks in Europe gave Carlos notoriety, and Hungary decided to ban him from their country after spying on him; East Germany confiscated some of his shipments before forcing him away as well, and Libya also forced him out due to his uselessness after the end of the Cold War. He sought refuge in Syria, and he was forced to cease all militant activities in 1990 following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which made him useless. From then on, Carlos, Weinrich, Kopp (released on parole in 1985), and Issawi lived in exile, and they were expelled from Syria in 1991 due to Syria's enemy of Ba'athist Iraq contacting Carlos about a possible job offer. The last country willing to give Carlos sanctuary was Sudan (which had been persuaded by Iran), and Kopp and the couple's six-year-old daughter Elba decided to leave for Venezuela rather than constantly be on the run and deny their daughter a regular life and education. Carlos and Weinrich spoke together at a party with prostitutes and other Sudanese people, and Weinrich said that he was going to leave for Yemen in hopes of fleeing the DST, CIA, and other international organizations who were looking for them. Carlos was abandoned in Sudan with his new wife Lana Jarrar, and they were moved to a villa next to Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi's residence in order to keep them safe from an alleged plot. In 1994, Carlos was kidnapped after testicular surgery by Sudanese forces and was handed over to the DST, which had tracked him down to the Taifa neighborhood of Khartoum. Carlos was extradited to France, and he was sentenced to life in prison; Weinrich was arrested in 1994 in Yemen and also sentenced to life in prison; Kopp had no charges against her, and she moved back to Germany before dying there in 2015; Issawi went on the run after 2001.