List of terrorist incidents in 1978

This is a timeline of incidents in 1978 that have been labelled as "terrorism" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism).

Date	Type	Dead	Injured	Location	Details	Perpetrator	Part of
January 7	Shooting	2	1	Rome, Italy	A leftist terrorist group attacked the office of Italian Social Movement in Rome, Italy, killing three people in an event known as the Acca Larentia Massacre.
February 1	Poisoning	0	5	Netherlands	Members of the Arab Revolutionary Council poison Israeli oranges with mercury, injuring five children.[1]	Arab Revolutionary Council	Israel-Palestine conflict
February 13	Bombing	3	11	Sydney, Australia	A bomb placed in a garbage bin at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney explodes while the bin was being emptied into a garbage truck. Two garbage collectors and a police officer were killed and eleven others were wounded. The perpetrators were never identified, but the hotel was hosting the first ever Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was the likely target.	Unknown
February 17	Bombing	12	30	County Down, Northern Ireland	The Provisional Irish Republican Army plants an incendiary bomb outside the La Mon restaurant in Gransha, County Down. The bomb exploded before the restaurant could be evacuated after PIRA phoned in a threat.	PIRA	The Troubles
February 18	Shooting	1	20	Nicosia, Cyprus	Two assassins had killed prominent Egyptian newspaper editor Youssef Sebai and then rounded up several Arabs who were attending a convention in Nicosia as hostages. As Cypriot forces were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers at the airport, Egyptian troops decided to launch their own assault without authorization from the Cypriots. The unauthorized raid led to the Egyptians and the Cypriots exchanging gunfire, killing or injuring more than 20 of the Egyptian commandos.
March 11	Massacre	39 (+9 terrorists)	71	Tel Aviv, Israel	11 PLO terrorists hijack a bus on Coastal highway and take dozens of civilians hostage. 38 civilians and one Israeli soldier are killed when Israeli police attempt to raid the bus, which burst into flames.	PLO	Israel-Palestine conflict
March 13 - 14	Hostage-taking	2	1	Assen, Netherlands	Three South Moluccans take 70 hostage at the province hall of Assen, demanding the release of Molucccan prisoners. Two hostage were killed and a photographer was wounded.	Free South Moluccan Youths
March 16 - May 9	Kidnapping, murder	6	0	Italy	Former Italian prime minister and leader of the Democrazia Cristiana party, Aldo Moro, is kidnapped by Red Brigades terrorists on March 16. The terrorists kill his five bodyguards. Moro is found murdered after 55 days of captivity.	Red Brigades
May 20	Shooting	1 (+3 terrorists)	3	Paris, France	Three terrorists fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge of Orly Airport in Paris, resulting in the death of all three terrorists and one policeman, with three French tourists injured.[2]	Palestinians	Israel-Palestine conflict
May 25	Bombing	0	1	Evanston, Illinois, United States	Police officer Terry Marker is injured by a bomb sent to professor Buckley Crist at Northwestern University by Theodore Kaczynski.	Theodore Kaczynski
August 13	Bombing	175	80	Beirut, Lebanon	A bomb destroys an office building in West Beirut housing the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Front, killing more than 175 people and injuring another 80. The bombing was allegedly carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.[3]	PFLP-GC	Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon
August 19	Arson	400+		Abadan, Iran	A group of four Islamist militants bar the doors of a cinema and set the cinema on fire. Hundreds of people had packed into the cinema to watch the film The Deers. The exact number of deaths is unknown with estimates ranging from around 400 to over 800.	Four Islamists	Iranian Revolution
September 1–6	Bombings	0	2	Speedway, United States	A series of eight bombings occurs in the town of Speedway, Indiana. A Vietnam War veteran and his wife are seriously wounded in the last bombing. A local drug dealer named Brett Kimberlin is convicted of the bombings. The motive for the bombings was never determined but they may have been meant to serve as a distraction from a murder which Kimbelin was allegedly involved with.	Brett Kimberlin
September 3	Shooting	48	8	Karoi, Rhodesia	Members of ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825 from Kariba to Salisbury killing 48 civilians. 38 were killed in the crash and 10 survivors were shot with automatic weapons.	ZIPRA	Rhodesian Bush War
October 22	Shooting	3	1	Getxo, Spain	Four Civil Guards are shot by ETA while returning from a football match. Three die.	ETA	Basque conflict

References