Red Brigades

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The Red Brigades (Italian: Brigate Rosse, BR) was a Communist terrorist organization based in Italy, responsible for numerous violent attacks, including assassinations, such as the murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. The Red Brigades were also involved in kidnappings and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead". It was active around 1970–1988.

The organization has been estimated to have committed 14,000 acts of violence in the first ten years of the group's existence. According to statistics by the Ministry of Interior, a total of 75 people are thought to have been murdered by the BR. A majority of the murders were politically motivated, but a number of murders of random police and carabinieri officers took place, as well as a number of murders occurring during criminal ventures such as bank robberies and kidnappings

The Red Brigades’ primary foreign support came from Communist Czechoslovakia and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Soviet and Czechoslovak small arms and explosives came from the Middle East via heroin traffickers along well established smuggling routes.

See also

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