List of terrorist incidents, 1981

This is a timeline of incidents in 1981 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).

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

January

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
12 January	Bombing	0	0	San Juan, Puerto Rico	11 men disguised as soldiers penetrated into the Puerto Rico Air National Guard and placed bombs on several aircraft, destroying several of them.	Boricua Popular Army

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
28 March	Hijacking	2 (+4 attackers)	2	Indonesia	5 members of the islamic extremist group Komando Jihad hijack Garuda Indonesia Flight 206. They kill the pilot and an Indonesian commando before four of them are killed and one is arrested.	Komando Jihad

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
27 April	Kidnapping	2	0	Naples, Italy	Christian Democracy politician Ciro Cirillo is kidnapped and his two bodyguards are killed by the Red Brigades. Cirillo was held until 25 July when a ransom was paid.	Red Brigades

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
1 May	Assassination	1	0	Vienna, Austria	Austrian Socialist Party politician Heinz Nittel who was also the president of the Austrian-Israeli Friendship League. 21-year-old Iraqi Hesham Mohammed Rajeh was convicted for the shooting and was also linked to the 1981 Vienna synagogue attack	Hesham Mohammed Rajeh	Israel-Palestine conflict
16 May	Bombing	1		New York City, United States	One dead in an explosion in the toilets at the Pan Am terminal at New York's JFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army.^[1]	Puerto Rican Resistance Army

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
28 June	Bombing	73		Tehran, Iran	73 people are killed in a bombing targeting a meeting of leaders of the Islamic Republican Party at the party's headquarters.	People's Mujahedin of Iran

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
29 August	Shooting, grenade	2	30	Vienna, Austria	Machine gun and grenade attack on the Stadttempel synagogue in Vienna, 1981 Vienna synagogue attack killing two people and wounding 30. Marwan Hasan and Hesham Mohammed Rajeh were convicted.^[2]	Abu Nidal Organization	Israel-Palestine conflict

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
24–25 September	Shooting, hostage-taking	1	2	Paris, France	Four gunmen from the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia open fire on the Turkish consulate in Paris before taking 56 hostages. One guard was killed and two other people were wounded.	ASALA

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator
6 October	Assassination	11 (+1 attacker)	28 (+3 attackers)	Cairo, Egypt	A group of 4 Egyptian Islamic Jihad assassins led by Khalid Islambouli opened fire on a victory parade led by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, killing Sadat and 10 others and wounding 28. 1 gunman was killed and the three others were arrested and executed later.	Egyptian Islamic Jihad Egyptian Islamic Jihad
20 October	Bombing	3	106	Antwerp, Belgium	Truck bomb attack on a synagogue in Antwerp, Belgium. Three killed and 106 wounded in the 1981 Antwerp bombing.[1]	Unknown
20 October	Robbery, murder	3	0	Nanuet, United States	Members of the May 19th Communist Organization (made up of former Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground members) rob a Brink's armored car at Nanuet mall, killing the guard and two police officers who responded to the scene.	May 19th Communist Organization

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
29 November	Car bombing	200+		Damascus, Syria	A car bomb destroys four apartment buildings in the Azbakya district of Damascus, Syria, leaving more than 200 people dead. The Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners claimed responsibility for the attack, while the Syrian government put blame on the Muslim Brotherhood.^[3]^[4]	Syrian Muslim Brotherhood	Islamist uprising in Syria

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
15 December	Suicide car bombing	61	110	Beirut, Lebanon	A suicide bomber affiliated with the Iranian group Al-Dawa drove a truck into the Iraqi embassy, killing Lebanon's ambassador to Iraq, Abdul Razzak Lafta, and 60 others.	Al-Dawa	Iran-Iraq war
17 December	Kidnapping	0	0	/ Verona, Italy	US Army Brigadier General James L. Dozier is kidnapped from his apartment in Verona, Italy and held hostage for 42 days by the Red Brigades.^[5]	Red Brigades

v t e List of terrorist incidents by year
Up to 2010	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Post–2010	2011: Jan–Jun, Jul–Dec 2012: Jan–Jun, Jul–Dec 2013: Jan–Jun, Jul–Dec 2014: Jan–Jun, Jul–Dec 2015: Jan–Jun, Jul–Dec 2016: Jan–Jun