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Red Army Faction (RAF)

The small and disciplined Red Army Faction (RAF) / Rote Armee Fraktion was the successor to the Baader-Meinhof Gang, which originated in the student protest movement in the 1960s. Ideology was an obscure mix of Marxism and Maoism; committed to armed struggle. Organized into hardcore cadres that carry out terrorist attacks and a network of supporters who provide logistic and propaganda support. Had survived despite numerous arrests of top leaders over the years.

The RAF had been decimated by the West German counter-terrorism programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A brief flurry of attacks on U.S. military-related targets in 1981 - among them a rocket attack which damaged the car in which General Frederick Kroesen, then U.S. Army Commander, Europe, was riding - ended with the arrests of several RAF fugitives, among them Christian Klar.

Activities included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and robberies. Targets were German Government and private sector and US interests. Among the latter, attempted assassination in Belgium of NATO Commander (1979); bombing of NATO Air Force headquarters in Ramstein (1981); rocket attack of USAREUR Commander in Heidelberg (1981); and bombing of Rhein-Main Air Force Base (1985). In February 1991, the RAF fired approximately 250 assault rifle rounds at the US Embassy in Bonn, and in April the group assassinated the German Trust Agency director, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder.

In 1984, West German officials estimated that the number of hard-core terrorist fugitives at large had dwindled to some ten people. By 1985 the authorities estimate there were twenty in the hard-core collective leadership (many of whom never met Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof or Gudrun Ensslin), who were supported by a group of some 400 active "sympathizers" who provide safe-houses, transportation, weapons and other services, including direct participation in terrorrist actions. Beyond the active terrorist core was another group of several thousand supporters scattered in more than twenty cities. Demonstrations in Berlin, Giessen, Gottingen and Hamburg drew 3,000 to show their "solidarity" with the Red Army Fraction.

The outfit was basically self-sustaining, but during Baader-Meinhof period received some support from Middle Eastern terrorist groups; some ties may still exist. The RAF received logistic support, sanctuary, and training from the German Democratic Republic during the early 1980s. At that time the RAF appeared to be developing closer ties to GRAPO in Spain.