U.S. designates 4 European Antifa groups as terrorist organizations

The United States will designate four foreign Antifa-linked groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, accusing them of carrying out violent anarchist attacks across Europe, according to the State Department.

The announcement was made on Thursday and follows President Donald Trump’s earlier executive order labeling Antifa a domestic terrorist organization inside the United States.

According to the State Department, the designations apply to Antifa Ost in Germany, the International Revolutionary Front in Italy, and two Greece-based groups: Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense.

The department said all four groups have carried out or attempted attacks involving explosives, shootings, and assaults targeting civilians, law enforcement, and government facilities.

Antifa Ost, described by the State Department as a hammer-wielding extremist cell, was previously labeled a terrorist organization by Hungary after attacks on nine people in Budapest.

Italian authorities have attributed a shooting of an engineering executive in Genoa and multiple bomb attacks to the International Revolutionary Front.

Armed Proletarian Justice has pledged armed conflict with police in Greece and used dynamite in a failed bombing near a riot police headquarters, while the Revolutionary Class Self Defense has claimed responsibility for explosive attacks on the Greek Ministry of Labor and a major rail operator, according to the State Department.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will continue using “all available tools” to counter what he called “anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian terrorist groups.”