WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The new U.S. list of terrorist outfits, released Wednesday by the State Department, has many prominent names, such as al-Qaida, the Irish Republican Army, and the Peruvian group Shining Path.
But the largest category of the groups designated as terrorists hail from the Middle East and the Islamic world, particularly those based in the Palestinian territories.
The annual report on the "patterns of global terrorism" has 34 names, plus another 38 terrorist groups identified in the previous report.
The Middle Eastern and Islamic groups include such well-known names as the Palestinian groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. There are also smaller factions such as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
The Egyptian al-Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah are on the list. So is the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has carried out terrorist attacks in Turkey in the past.
An Iraqi religious group, Ansar al-Islam, shares the list with the Islamic movements of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Last year's biggest name, al-Qaida, is sandwiched between PFLP (General Command) and the Real IRA.
The original IRA is also there under "I" but Middle Eastern and Muslim groups appear under every heading. Even groups previously unheard of, such as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, have not been missed.
Harakat ul-Jihad Islami is there along with Harakat ul-Jihad Islami (Bangladesh).
Right on top are two well-known groups, Abu Nidal and Abu Sayyaf, one Palestinian and the other from the Philippines.
Several Pakistani and Kashmir organizations are on this list, too. They include Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangiv, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Hezbul Mujahideen, Harkatul Mujahideen and Al-Badr Mujahideen.
An Iranian group, Mujahideen-e-Khalq, also remains on the list though on Monday the group agreed to a cease-fire with the United States in Iraq from where it operated against Iranian interests. The White House said the move was "part of the ongoing immediate post-combat effort to enhance security on the ground."
Afghan leader Gulbadin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami also made it to the list along with other armed movements around the globe, such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Basque separatists ETA and Shining Path.
