In 1998, ANO leader Sabri al-Banna (Abu Nidal) moved to Iraq, where the group may still be based. The organization has also kept an operational presence in several Palestinian refugee camps. In 1999, Libya and Egypt shut down most of the group's operations within their respective borders. However, the ANO has demonstrated an ability to operate throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Current strength is unknown. The group historically had a few hundred hard-core fighters with a limited overseas support structure.

Until 1987, Abu Nidal enjoyed considerable support -- including sanctuary, training, financial aid and logistics -- from Libya, Syria and Iraq.

The ANO is believed to be largely defunct. It is not known to have staged a major attack against Western targets since the late 1980s. Abu Nidal himself was found dead in Baghdad in August 2002. Some Western officials believe he was killed for refusing to reactivate his terror network.

The ANO has engaged in bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and extortion. It has carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring more than 900 people. Targets have included the U.S., Britain, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO and various Arab countries.

The late Sabri Khalil al-Banna (Abu Nidal) was born in 1936 to a well-to-do Palestinian family. He was found dead in Baghdad in 2002. As an adult, he worked in Saudi Arabia until being exiled for his affiliation with the Fatah movement. Nidal soon found a home in Iraq where he is thought to have developed a working relationship with the Iraqi intelligence service. In 1974, Fatah and the PLO learned of this relationship and removed him from their membership. In retaliation, Abu Nidal formed his own organization and ordered the deaths of PLO deputy chief Abu Lyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul. Fatah subsequently sentenced Abu Nidal to death.

ANO no longer has a single stated mission. Abu Nidal told a Western magazine that he started his campaign to first eliminate Zionism, then to also destroy the regimes in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. However, when the ANO was headquartered in Damascus in 1983, it conducted several operations for the Syrian air force. Subsequently, the ANO became little more than a militia for hire that adopted the cause of the highest bidder.

The extent to which the ANO is still active is under debate. Its last confirmed violent act was in the mid-1990s. After Abu Nidal’s death in 2002, senior ANO members stated publicly that a new leader would be named and that the group would carry on. Current leadership is unknown.

In 2008, a Jordanian official reported the apprehension of an ANO member who planned to carry out attacks in Jordan, possibly pointing to a resurgence of the group. The group is not known to have carried out any attacks since then.

Early 1970s
Abu Nidal split from Fatah after becoming disillusioned with its leadership, especially Yasser Arafat.

1973
Nidal went to Baghdad, Iraq, after ordering the murder of several Palestinian leaders.

1974
Oct. 8: An airliner flying from Israel to Greece was blown up by the ANO, killing 88 people.

1975
ANO began operations in the Lebanese civil war, representing both personal and Iraqi interests.

1978
Jan. 5: ANO operatives killed PLO representative Said Hammami in his London office.

1981
June 1: Naim Khader, the PLO representative to the European Community in Brussels, was killed by ANO gunmen.

1982
June 18: Kamel Hussein, head of PLO office in Rome, was killed in an ANO car bombing.

Aug. 9: Six people were killed and 22 wounded by ANO gunmen in a Jewish restaurant in Paris.

1983
Abu Nidal moved to Damascus, Syria, after rise of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Oct. 23: A suspected ANO suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into a U.S. Marine compound outside of Beirut, killing more than 200 Marines.

1985
Nov. 23: ANO operatives hijacked an Egyptian airliner heading to Malta, killing six passengers. Sixty more passengers were later killed in a shootout with Egyptian commandos.

Dec. 27: ANO terrorists opened fire on airline passengers waiting in line at the Rome and Vienna airports, killing 18 people and wounding 120 others. Their primary targets were American citizens.

1986
Sept. 5: Four ANO operatives hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, killing at least 20 passengers.

Sept.6: ANO operatives killed 22 Turkish Jews and wounded six others during a Sabbath service at the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey.

1987
ANO was brought to Libya by Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the regime's leader.

1988
July 11: Three ANO gunmen stormed a Greek ferry called City of Poros, killing nine tourists. A speedboat then recovered the terrorists. A car bomb, possibly targeting the vessel, had exploded on the ferry's pier earlier in the day. This was probably a premature blast, since only the vehicle's occupants were killed.

1989
Terrorist leaders revolted, and ANO's top lieutenant formed the War Emergency Leadership.

1991
Abu Nidal allied himself with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Jan. 14: PLO deputy chief Abu Iyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul, top aides to Yasser Arafat, were assassinated in Tunis by suspected ANO operatives.

1992
Abu Nidal began to purge the organization.

ANO set up bases in Libya and re-established Iraqi connections.

1992-1996
ANO conducted several assassinations in Libya on behalf of Qaddafi.

1994
Jan. 29: ANO members assassinated senior Jordanian diplomat Naeb Imran Maaytah in Beirut.

1995
ANO attempted to assassinate Yasser Arafat.

1998
Abu Nidal moved group headquarters back to Iraq.

2002
August: Abu Nidal was found dead in an apartment in Baghdad, where he had been living in Iraq as a guest of Saddam Hussein. He was being treated for skin cancer. Iraqi authorities claimed he had killed himself, but multiple gunshot wounds to the head suggested that murder was more likely.

2008
October: A report from former Iraqi "Special Intelligence Unit M4" was obtained by Brith journalist Robert Fisk of the Independent. The report said that the Iraqis had been interrogating Abu Nidal as a suspected spy for Kuwait and Egypt. He was reportedly found dead in August 2002 after the first set of interrogations.