List of terrorist incidents in 1978

This is a timeline of incidents in 1978 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).

Guidelines

• Types of incidents are selected from the Tactics of terrorism page.
• Casualties figures in this list are the total casualties of the incident including immediate casualties and later casualties (such as people who succumbed to their wounds long after the attacks occurred).
• Casualties listed are the victims. Perpetrator casualties are listed separately (e.g. x (+y) indicate that x victims and y perpetrators were killed/injured).
• 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 (e.g. 10+ indicates that at least 10 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:

  0 people were killed/injured by the incident.

  1–19 people were killed/injured by the incident.

  20–49 people were killed/injured by the incident.

  50–99 people were killed/injured by the incident.

  100+ people were killed/injured by the incident.

List

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
January 7	Shooting	2	1	Rome, Italy	A leftist terrorist group attacked the office of Italian Social Movement in Rome, Italy, killing three people in an event known as the Acca Larentia Massacre.	Nuclei Armati di Contropotere Territoriale
February 1	Poisoning	0	5	Netherlands	Members of the Arab Revolutionary Council poison Israeli oranges with mercury, injuring five children.	Arab Revolutionary Council	Israel-Palestine conflict
February 4	Ambush	10	Unknown	Carare-Opon region, Colombia	Guerrillas from the IV front of the FARC ambush two Army trucks in Campo Capote, Carare-Opon region. A second lieutenant and 9 soldiers are killed.	FARC	Colombian conflict
February 13	Bombing	3	11	Sydney, Australia	A bomb placed in a garbage bin at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney explodes while the bin was being emptied into a garbage truck. Two garbage collectors and a police officer were killed and eleven others were wounded. The perpetrators were never identified, but the hotel was hosting the first ever Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was the likely target.	Unknown
February 17	Bombing	12	30	County Down, Northern Ireland	The Provisional Irish Republican Army plants an incendiary bomb outside the La Mon restaurant in Gransha, County Down. The bomb exploded before the restaurant could be evacuated after PIRA phoned in a threat.	PIRA	The Troubles
February 18	Shooting	1	20	Nicosia, Cyprus	Two assassins had killed prominent Egyptian newspaper editor Youssef Sebai and then rounded up several Arabs who were attending a convention in Nicosia as hostages. As Cypriot forces were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers at the airport, Egyptian troops decided to launch their own assault without authorization from the Cypriots. The unauthorized raid led to the Egyptians and the Cypriots exchanging gunfire, killing or injuring more than 20 of the Egyptian commandos.
February 24	Bombing	1	0	Tenerife, Spain	The police officer Rafael Valdenebro attempted to deactivate a bomb placed by the group in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife) on February 24, 1978, which was intended to assassinate a local lawyer. The artifice, 27, was hit in the head, arms and legs and died on March 8.	MPAIAC	Terrorism in Spain
March 3	Bombing	1	3	Port Elizabeth, South Africa	Bomb explodes outside Government offices.	Umkhonto We Sizwe	Internal resistance to apartheid
March 11	Massacre	39 (+9 terrorists)	71	Tel Aviv, Israel	11 PLO terrorists hijack a bus on Coastal highway and take dozens of civilians hostage. 38 civilians and one Israeli soldier are killed when Israeli police attempt to raid the bus, which burst into flames.	PLO	Israel-Palestine conflict
March 13–14	Hostage-taking	2	1	Assen, Netherlands	Three South Moluccans took 70 hostages at the Assen province hall, demanding the release of Molucccan prisoners. Two hostage were executed and a photographer was wounded.	South Moluccan freedom fighters
March 16 – May 9	Kidnapping, murder	6	0	Italy	Former Italian prime minister and leader of the Democrazia Cristiana party, Aldo Moro, is kidnapped by Red Brigades terrorists on March 16. The terrorists kill his five bodyguards. Moro is found murdered after 55 days of captivity.	Red Brigades
March 17	Bombing	2	2	Lemoiz, Spain	ETA planted a bomb in the under-construction Lemóniz nuclear reactor, killing two workers (Andrés Guerra and Alberto Negro), wounded two more, and causing substantial damage to the reactor itself. Further ETA actions ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the project.	ETA	Basque conflict, Anti-nuclear movement in Spain
April 13	Attempted Car Bombing	0	1	Guipuzcoa, Spain	The dawn of April 13, several individuals tried to put an explosive device at Adegui's headquarters in San Sebastian. The attack was partially unsuccessful. One of the commanders was wounded in deflating the bomb early and escaped from the scene of the attack in a car flight. The militant, identified as Vicente Aldalur, was hospitalized in France for severe burns.	Comandos Autonomos Anticapitalistas	Basque conflict
May 20	Shooting	2 (+3 terrorists)	5	Paris, France	Three terrorists fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge of Orly Airport in Paris, resulting in the death of all three terrorists and one policeman, with three French tourists injured.	Palestinians	Israel-Palestine conflict
May 24	Assassination	1	0	Guipúzcoa, Spain	A taxi driver was beaten and shot dead by the Batallon Vasco Espanol which accused the taxi driver of having helped an ETA attack.	Batallon Vasco Espanol	Basque Conflict
May 25	Bombing	0	1	Evanston, Illinois, United States	Police officer Terry Marker is injured by a bomb sent to professor Buckley Crist at Northwestern University by Theodore Kaczynski.	Theodore Kaczynski
June 7	Shooting	2	2	Figtree, Rhodesia	Two British women mission teachers were shot dead and two other missionaries wounded during a raid by ZIPRA guerrillas on the Salvation Army Usher Institute near Figtree, 20 miles south-west of Bulawayo.	Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA)	Rhodesian Bush War
June 23	Massacre	12	0	Vumba Mountains, Rhodesia	Eight British missionaries and four young children – including a three-week-old baby – were beaten, stabbed and axed to death at Elim Mission near Umtali (now Mutare) on Rhodesia's eastern border. Most of the women had also been sexually assaulted.		Rhodesian Bush War
June 27	Shooting	2	0	Hartley district, Rhodesia	Two German-born missionaries, Father Gregor Richert (48) and Brother Bernhard Lisson (68), were shot by a small group of terrorists near their quarters at St. Rupert's Mission, 60 km north-west of Hartley (now Chegutu).		Rhodesian Bush War
August 13	Bombing	175	80	Beirut, Lebanon	A bomb destroys an office building in West Beirut housing the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Front, killing more than 175 people and injuring another 80. The bombing was allegedly carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.	PFLP-GC	Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon
August 14	Shooting	12	0	Cimitarra, Colombia	FARC members murder 12 peasants in rural Cimitarra, Santander.	FARC	Colombian conflict
August 19	Shooting	6	Unknown	Boyacá, Colombia	FARC guerrillas attack troops from the battalion of engineers "Baraya", and kill 6 soldiers in rural Otanche (Boyacá)	FARC	Colombian conflict
August 19	Shooting	2	2	Managua, Nicaragua	Two people who collaborated in the government of General Anastasio Somoza were shot dead and two other policemen injured in another incident in Managua, Nicaragua.	Sandinists
August 19	Arson	400+		Abadan, Iran	A group of four Islamist militants bar the doors of a cinema and set the cinema on fire. Hundreds of people had packed into the cinema to watch the film The Deers. The exact number of deaths is unknown with estimates ranging from around 400 to over 800.	Four Islamists	Iranian Revolution
August 20	Shooting, grenade attacks	1 (+1 terrorist)	9	London, United Kingdom	A crew bus of El Al airlines in London was attacked by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). A flight attendant and one suspected terrorist were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured.	PFLP	Israel-Palestine conflict
September 1–6	Bombings	0	2	Speedway, United States	A series of eight bombings occurs in the town of Speedway, Indiana. A Vietnam War veteran and his wife are seriously wounded in the last bombing. A local drug dealer named Brett Kimberlin is convicted of the bombings. The motive for the bombings was never determined but they may have been meant to serve as a distraction from a murder which Kimbelin was allegedly involved with.	Brett Kimberlin
September 3	Aircraft shootdown	48	8	Karoi, Rhodesia	Members of ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825 from Kariba to Salisbury killing 48 civilians. 38 were killed in the crash and 10 survivors were shot with automatic weapons.	ZIPRA	Rhodesian Bush War
October 22	Shooting	3	1	Getxo, Spain	Four Civil Guards are shot by ETA while returning from a football match. Three die.	ETA	Basque conflict
December 31	Theft	0	0	Bogotá, Colombia	Members of the M-19 enter a tunnel to the north canton in Bogotá and steal more than 5000 weapons. The robbery of the North Canton, main deposit of arms of the Military Forces of Colombia, meant a mockery for the government before the public opinion.	Movimiento 19 Abril	Colombian conflict