List of terrorist incidents in 1972
This is a timeline of incidents in 1972 that have been labelled as "terrorism" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government or its forces.
Guidelines
- To be included, entries must be notable and described by a consensus of as "terrorism".
- List entries must comply with the guidelines outlined in the manual of style under.
- Casualties figures in this list are the total casualties of the incident including immediate casualties and later casualties.
- Casualties listed are the victims. Perpetrator casualties are listed separately.
- Casualty totals may be underestimated or unavailable due to a lack of information. A figure with a plus sign indicates that at least that many people have died – the actual toll could be considerably higher. A figure with a plus sign may also indicate that over that number of people are victims.
- If casualty figures are 20 or more, they will be shown in bold. In addition, figures for casualties more than 50 will also be underlined.
- Incidents are limited to one per location per day. If multiple attacks occur in the same place on the same day, they will be merged into a single incident.
- In addition to the guidelines above, the table also includes the following categories:
List
| Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location | Details | Perpetrator | Part of |
| Shootings, Assassinations | 10 | Unknown | Across Argentina | 10 people including soldiers and executives were killed in retaliation for the Trelew massacre at the Admiral Zar Base belonging to the Argentine Navy, which occurred on 22 August 1972. | FAR, Montoneros, and ERP | Dirty War | |
| January 26 | Bombing | 27 | 1 | Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia | Yugoslavian Airlines Flight 364 is brought down by an explosion, killing everyone on board expect one Serbian flight attendant named Vesna Vulović. Officially a bomb was placed on the plane by Ustasa agents, but speculation exists that the plane was downed by two Czechoslovak SA-12 surface-to-air missiles because it has entered a restricted military area without permission. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airplane is destroyed and 27 of 28 passengers die. One stewardess survives a 10,160 meter drop. | Ustasa | |
| January 27 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | New York City, United States | Two policemen, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are shot in the back by at least three persons; four suspects in the case are members of the Black Liberation Army; one suspect is later killed in a street battle with St. Louis police; the recovered pistol matches Laurie's. | Black Liberation Army | |
| February 19–28 | Hostage taking | 3 | 12 | Karuizawa, Japan | A standoff between five Japanese United Red Army and Japanese police, riot controller begin taking the 31-year-old wife has hostaged lodge house at Karuizawa. Aftermath, nine-days, the Japanese authorities attempt to rescue a female hostage ends with a standoff between five Japanese United Red Army and the authorities, in which two policemen are killed and 12 injured. | United Red Army | |
| February 22–23 | Hijacking | 0 | 0 | Aden, Yemen | Lufthansa Flight 649 was hijacked by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members half an hour after the aircraft had departed Delhi-Palam Airport. Eventually, all hostages on board the seized Boeing 747-200 were released when the West German government paid a ransom of US$5 million. | PFLP | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| February 22 | Car bombing | 7 | 18 | Aldershot, United Kingdom | The Official Irish Republican Army kills seven civilians in Aldershot after it bombs a British Army military barracks. | OIRA | The Troubles |
| April 4 | Bombing | 1 | Montreal, Canada | Cuban official Sergio Pérez Castillo is killed by an explosion at the Cuban consulate at Montreal. | Unknown | ||
| April 6 | Bombing | 0 | 0 | Sōji-ji, Japan | Bombing of a cemetery for Japanese people who lived in Korea under Japanese rule. | East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front | |
| April 18 | Shooting | 4 | Unknown | Montevideo, Uruguay | Four Uruguayan Army soldiers killed by machine gun fire while watching over the house of the commander-in-chief of the Army, General Florencio Gravina. | Tupamaros | |
| May 8 | Hijacking | 1 | 3 | Lod, Israel | Four PLO terrorists hijacked the aeroplane of Sabena Flight 571 carrying 99 passengers and ten crew members en route from Brussels to Tel Aviv. In a mission titled "Operation Isotope", 16 members of Sayeret Matkal posed as refueling and technical personnel and stormed the plane, killing the terrorists and releasing the passengers. | PLO | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| May 30 | Mass shooting | 26 | 79 | Lod, Israel | Lod Airport Massacre by the Japanese Red Army terrorists, killing 26 and injuring 79. | Japanese Red Army PFLP-EO | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| May 31 | Car bombing | 3 | 2 | Savogna d'Isonzo, Italy | A group of Carabinieri fell into an ambush in Savogna d'Isonzo, Italy: a car bomb Fiat 500 killed 3 officers and other 2 were injured. The attack was carried out by militants of Ordine Nuovo. | Ordine Nuovo | |
| July 21 | Bombings | 9 | 130 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Bloody Friday: Nine are killed and 130 injured as Provisional Irish Republican Army sets off 22 bombs. | PIRA | The Troubles |
| July 31 | Car bombings | 9 | 30 | Claudy, United Kingdom | Claudy bombings; three car bombs are detonated in Claudy, killing nine people. No group has claimed responsibility. | PIRA | The Troubles |
| August 15 | :es:Vuelo 811 de Austral Líneas Aéreas|Hijacking | 0 | 0 | Trelew, Argentina | Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 811 from Comodoro Rivadavia to Buenos Aires was hijacked by terrorists in Trelew. The plane was diverted to Puerto Montt, Chile and finally Santiago, where the all hostages were released and terrorists surrendered. A week later, on August 22, the terrorists were killed by the Argentine Navy in the Trelew massacre. | FAR, Montoneros, and ERP | Dirty War |
| August 29 | Assassination | 1 | 0 | Vizcaya, Spain | Eloy García Cambra a municipal police with family were shot dead by ETA militants in bus station. | ETA | Basque Conflict |
| September 5–6 | Massacre | 12 | Munich, West Germany | Black September kidnaps and kills eleven Israeli Olympic athletes and one German policeman in the Munich Massacre. | Black September | Israel-Palestine conflict | |
| September 16 | Bombings | 0 | 16 | Sydney, Australia | Bombings of Yugoslavian travel agency. Believed to have been in retaliation for the execution of two Croatian Australians in Yugoslavia. | Croatian nationalists | |
| September 19 | Mail bombing | 1 | 0 | London, United Kingdom | The group Black September post a letter bomb to the Israeli embassy in London killing an Israeli diplomat. | Black September | Israel-Palestine conflict |
| October 4 | Bombing, false flag | 0 | 2 | Paris, France | Bombing of a PLO bookstore in Paris. The bombers claimed to be Zionists extremists but were actually neo-Nazis hoping that the bombing would incite confrontations between French Arabs and Jews | French neo-Nazis | |
| October 23 | Bombings | 0 | 0 | Asahikawa, Japan | Bombings of a monument depicting Japanese soldiers surrounding an elderly Ainu and the Ainu research center at Hokkaido University | East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front | |
| October 27 | Car bombing | 0 | 0 | Los Angeles, United States | Police car bombing in Los Angeles claimed by Black Liberation Army. | Black Liberation Army | |
| October 31 | Car bombing | 2 | 12 | Belfast, United Kingdom | Car bombing of a Catholic-owned pub in Sailortown by the Ulster Defence Association. Two girls aged 6 and 4 are killed. | Ulster Defence Association | The Troubles |
| November 8 | Hijacking | 0 | 0 | Monterrey, México | The abduction of Flight 705 from Mexicana de Aviación occurred on November 8, 1972. It was a passenger plane that flew from Monterrey to the capital. This act of air piracy was executed by members of the League of Armed Communists, led by Germán Segovia. | Communist Militants | Dirty War |
| December | Bombing | 0 | 0 | New York City, United States | A travel agency in Queens, New York, is bombed; the incident is attributed to FIN, a Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro. | Cuban exiles | |
| December 7 | Attempted hijacking | 0 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Attempted hijacking of an airliner by the Eritrean Liberation Front. All 7 hijackers were killed by security guards on board the plane and were the only fatalities. | Eritrean Liberation Front | Eritrean War of Independence | |
| December 11 | Bombing | 0 | 0 | New York City, United States | New York City. The VA-Cuba Forwarding Company is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected. | Cuban exiles | |
| December 28 | Assassination | 1 | 0 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Four FAR guerrillas killed Admiral Emilio Rodolfo Berisso outside a supermarket in Lomas de Zamora. | FAR | Dirty War |
| December 28 | Kidnapping | 0 | 1 | Brooklyn, United States | A Brooklyn, New York bartender is held for $12,000 ransom by the Black Liberation Army. | Black Liberation Army | |
| December 28 | Hostage-taking | 0 | 0 | Bangkok, Thailand | Four members of Black September cause the Israeli Bangkok Embassy hostage crisis. | Black September | Israel-Palestine conflict |