Trains have been derailed, electric power supplies sabotaged, and rails have been barricaded, but in the last five years only one death has been reported. In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA is seeking an autonomous Basque state. While directing it's attacks mainly against the Spanish government and police, ETA has firebombed public buses, usually in the middle of the night when they are parked in a lot, to avoid civilian casualties. ETA has, however, placed bombs on train tracks, and was most likely responsible for the bombing of the French TGV train.
Africa―In Africa, more than half the transportation incidents involved piracy. Ships of all flags, both in port and offshore, and on both the east and west coasts, were the target of sea robbery. Ships were reportedly attacked as far as 20 miles off the coast of Somalia. In Nigeria, Ijaw militants boarded oil platforms, took hostages, including at least one American, and hijacked tug boats and helicopters attached to the platforms. Several people were killed and wounded during these attacks. Also in Africa there were several significant aviation incidents. Sixty-eight people were killed in four separate attacks on civilian aircraft, representing eighty-eight percent of the fatalities occurring against civil aviation worldwide. On October 10, 1998 Congolese rebels used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down a Congo Airline (CAL) Boeing 727 aircraft, killing all 40 passengers on board. On December 14, 1998 in Angola, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebels shot down a civilian aircraft with anti-aircraft fire, killing ten people. This was followed on December 26, in Vila Nova, Angola, by reports from United Nations officials that a transport plane carrying four crew and ten officials went down in an area where there was intense fighting between UNITA rebels and government troops. National radio services reported the plane was shot down by UNITA. Highways and buses were also targets of terrorism. In Uganda, on August 25, 1998 simultaneous terrorist bombs detonated aboard three Ugandan bused en route to Kasese, Kigali, and Gulu. More than fifty people were killed in the blasts. The bombings came four days after President Museveni gave strong public support to the United States on retaliatory strikes against terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan. Civil and tribal unrest, insurgency, civil wars, combined with weak economies has led to a poor security environment. Insurgent wars in Sierra Leone, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC)-also involving Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Uganda--Angola, Sudan fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and no central government in Somalia contribute to the general state of lawlessness throughout much of the continent.
Eurasia―Eurasia had the second lowest number of attacks for any region. Nevertheless bridges, tunnels, rail lines, buses, aviation, highways, and pipelines were all attacked in 1998. Following the break-up of the former Soviet Union, security in the region remains tenuous as different ethnic and religious groups, as well as organized crime, vie for political and economic dominance; and more would-be break-away republics press for independence.
The United States. There were twenty-seven incidents against transportation reported in the United States. None of these involved international terrorism. Eleven of the incidents were against rail, including: an incendiary device placed on railroad tracks;
