Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

134 • DA’WA, ALHussein retained the position of prime minister even though he hadalso become president of Iraq. Reprisals included making Da’wamembership a capital offense, the expulsion of over 15,000 Shi’itessuspected of pro-Da’wa sympathies, and the summary execution ofAyatollah Baqir al Sadr and his sister during the week followingthe assassination attempt. In what amounted to a declaration of war,Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini responded to the news of al Sadr’sexecution by issuing a decree of takfir on 18 April 1980 against SaddamHussein and the Ba’thist regime of Iraq and calling on the IraqiArmed Forces to overthrow their Ba’thist rulers. By the end of 1980more than 500 Da’wa members had been summarily executed in Iraq,although assassinations of government officials and sabotage againstthe Iraqi military continued even after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraqwar in September 1980. Al Da’wa reportedly attempted to assassinateSaddam Hussein once on 8 July 1982 in Jubail, an al Da’wastronghold, and again in 1987. On 5 November 2006, following athree-month-long trial, Saddam was found guilty of the murders of148 villagers of Jubail who had been executed in reprisal for the 1982assassination attempt, and he was executed on 30 December 2006.Members of the al Da’wa group have joined Hezbollah in Lebanonand formed cells in other Arab lands, particularly Kuwait, wherethey have received arms and explosives through Iranian diplomaticoffices. The spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Muhammad HusseinFadlullah, was a former member of a Lebanese branch of theal Da’wa Party. At least three of those involved in the 12 December1983 attempted truck bombings against the U.S. and French embassiesin Kuwait were al Da’wa members who claimed also to beIslamic Jihad members. On 25 May 1985 an al Da’wa member attemptedto assassinate the Emir of Kuwait in a suicide bomb attack.The kidnapping of U.S. citizens in Lebanon began in earnest afterthe conviction of the 17 perpetrators of the Kuwait City truck-bombingattempts. The hijackers of TWA Flight 847 on 14 June 1985 andof Kuwait Airlines Flight 422 on 5 April 1988 also included releaseof the convicted truck bombers among their demands. During the2 August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, prison authorities therereleased the remaining 15 convicted bombers, the other two havingalready completed their sentences. These and other al Da’wa membersparticipated in the partisan resistance against the Iraqi occupiersof Kuwait. Later, al Da’wa members aided by Iranian Islamic