There are various typologies of terrorism the Wilkenson typology (cited in Shultz, 1978) divide terrorism into three generalized categories. Revolutionary terrorism, sub-revolution”, terrorism and repressive terrorism. revolutionary terrorism is aimed at “bringing about political revolution” sub-revolutionary terrorism” is employed for political motives other than revolution” while repressive terrorism is government directed terror aimed at “restraining certain groups, individuals or forms of behaviours deemed to be undesirable.
For Madunagu (2005) two types of terrorism exist-state terrorism and civil society terrorism” the former directed against the civil population while the later against the state. At another level, there is inter-state terrorism and intra-civil society terrorism where the former characterizes a state divided against it and the later described what is known in Nigeria as communal /inter ethnic clashes other are
1. State –sponsored terrorism- used by radical states as foreign policy tools; Blodgett(1999) traced state – sponsored terrorism to world war I when Germany launched over 110,000 chemical shells filled with phosgene in their final offensive against the French in Verdun during the summer of 1916. It is estimated by historians that the Germans reliance on chemical weapon resulted in deaths that ranged from 300,000 to 900,000 individuals during the World War I (Ciampi, 2005). This implies that terrorism may occur both in the context of violente resistant to a state as well as in the service of state interests. (Crenshaw, 1981).
2. National terrorism- used by group seeking to form a separate state for their own national group, often by drawing attentions to a fight for national liberation eg Irish republican army, Basque fatherland and liberty etc.
3. Religious terrorism-= Certain religious groups have been associated with terrorism. they usually seek to use violence to achieve a divine casue eg. Al- Qaeda network, Palestinian Sunni Moslim organization HAMAS, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, the radical Jewish group affiliated with late Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli extremists, branch Gold stein (who machine ground muslim worshippers in a Hebron Mosque in 1994) etc.
4. Left wing terrorism – left wing developed following the contradictions of capitalism. The major of this kind is outright elimination of capitalism and subsequent replacement with a communist or socialist regime eg. the Baader Mainhef group (Germany), Japanese Red Army, the Weathermen (1070’s America ) and the Red Brigades (Italy) with the fall of the Soviet Union and the end to Cold War, left –wing terrorism is now uncommon.
5. Right-wing terrorism – These groups seek to do away with liberal democratic government and create fascist states in their place neo-fascist terrorists frequently attack immigrants and refugees from the developing world and are both racist and anti-Semitic.
6. Transnational and domestic terrorism or insurgent terrorism (Barkan and Snowden, 2001) is another typ9ology. the 1995 truck bombing of a nine-story building in Oklahoma city resulting in 168 deaths and more than 200 injured is a typical example of domestic terrorism while 1988 bombing of pan-am flight 103 in Lockshire which took the live of 270 people is transnational terrorism (CNN 2001). others include:
7. Agro-terrorism: the malicious use of plant or animal pathogens to cause devastating disease in the agricultural sector.
8. Bio-terrorism: it is a terrorism by internal release or disseminating of biological agents (bacteria virus or toxins).
9. Eco-terrorism: These are threats or acts of violence both against people and property, sabotage, vandalism and intimidation committed in the ideological system.
10. Nuclear –terrorism- This denotes the use of nuclear weapons, radiological weapons(duty bombing ) or attacks against facilities that handle nuclear materials with the at mass destruction.
Cyber-terrorism: this is unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computer networks and information stored therein to intimidate or force the government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives.
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