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Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure. Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness.

Targeted killing (or extrajudicial punishment/execution) is also used as a euphemism for the government-sanctioned killing of opponents or a dysphemism for legitimate attacks on high-profile enemy combatants.[1]

In figurative language usage, the word "assassination" may also be used in colloquial speech as a hyperbole, as in the phrase character assassination, meaning an attempt to impugn another's character, and thus kill, or "assassinate" his reputation and credibility.



The term 'Assassin' derives from the Arabic word Hashshashin (Arabic: حشاشون \ جماعة الحشاشين[2]), a militant Ismailite Persian sect, also called the Nizari, active in the Northern parts of Iran (Alamut) from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. This mystic secret society killed members of the Abbasid and Seljuq élite for political and religious reasons.[3]

It is commonly believed that the assassins were under the influence of hashish and opium during their killings or during their indoctrination, and that assassin derives from hasishin. There is continued debate within the historical community whether these claims have any merit, as direct evidence from any contemporary source, Nizari or otherwise, is non-existent.

The earliest known literary use of the term "assassination" is in The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).[4][5]

Definition problem

The definition of "assassination" varies among sources. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "to assassinate" thus:

... to murder [a prominent person] by surprise attack, as for political reasons;[6]

however, the Oxford English Dictionary's definition is:

The action of assassinating; the taking the life of any one by treacherous violence, esp. by a hired emissary, or one who has taken upon him to execute the deed.[7]

There is dispute[citation needed] whether the term assassination should include killings wherein the primary motivation is attracting attention to a political cause, and wherein the victim is of secondary importance (and might be famous, but unrelated to the dispute, or even an unknown). This leads to a number of possible definitions - which may however not all apply in any specific case:

  • the killing of someone by treacherous violence
  • the killing of someone in the public view (i.e. someone notable)
  • the killing of someone for political, moral, or ideological reasons

For the purposes of this article, the third definition predominates, even though the second is often used, and the first would often be found in colloquial use.

Use in history

Ancient to medieval times

Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics, dating back at least as far as recorded history. Perhaps the earliest recorded instance is the murder around 586 BC of Gedaliah, described by Jeremiah and lamented by Jews to this day in the Fast of Gedaliah. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar are famous victims. Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Shia Imams. The practice was also well-known in ancient China. An example of this is Jing Ke's failed assassination of Qin Shi Huang. The ancient Indian military adviser Chanakya wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra. In 1192 (28th of April) Conrad of Montferrat was assassinated by two hashishin.

The apocryphal Old Testament story of Judith illustrates how a woman frees the Israelites by tricking and assassinating Holofernes, a war-lord of the rival Assyrians with whom the Israelites were at war.

In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare, but with the Renaissance, tyrannicide – or assassination for personal or political reasons - became more common again. The reigns of French kings Henry III and Henry IV, and William the Silent of the Netherlands ended with assassination.

In modern history

As the world moved into the modern day, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves, and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed. In Russia alone, four emperors were assassinated within less than 200 years: Ivan VI, Peter III, Paul I, and Alexander II.

, artist's depiction from 1865. Assassin John Wilkes Booth on the right.]]

In the U.S., four presidents, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy died at the hands of assassins. There have been at least 90 known other attempts on US presidents' lives.

In Europe the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist insurgents is blamed for igniting World War I after a succession of minor conflicts, while belligerents on both sides in World War II used operatives specifically trained for assassination. Reinhard Heydrich was killed by Czech partisan killers, and knowledge from decoded transmissions allowed the U.S. to carry out a targeted attack, killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while he was travelling by airplane. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, was almost killed by his own officers, and survived various attempts by other persons and organizations (such as Operation Foxley, though this plan was never put into practice).


Cold War and beyond

During the Cold War, there was a dramatic new increase in the number of political assassinations, likely due to the ideological polarization of most of the First and Second worlds, whose adherents were often more than willing to both justify and finance such killings.[citation needed]

Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated by Saad Akbar, a lone assassin in 1951. Conspiracy theorists believe his conflict with certain members of the Pakistani military (Rawalpindi conspiracy) or suppression of Communists and antagonism towards the Soviet Union, were potential reasons for his assassination.


Most major powers were not long in repudiating Cold War assassination tactics, though many allege that this was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel,[9][10] USA, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and other nations accused of still regularly engaging in such operations.[11] In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan (who survived an assassination attempt himself) ordered the Operation El Dorado Canyon air raid on Libya in which one of the primary targets was the home residence of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi escaped unharmed; however, his adopted daughter Hanna was one of the civilian casualties. In the Philippines, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr. triggered the eventual downfall of the 20-year autocratic rule of President Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino, a former Senator and a leading figure of the political opposition, was assassinated in 1983 at the Manila International Airport (now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) upon returning home from exile. His death thrust his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the limelight and, ultimately, the presidency following the peaceful 1986 EDSA Revolution.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s. At least 162 killings in 19 different countries have been linked to the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[12] This campaign came to an end after the Mykonos restaurant assassinations, because a German court publicly implicated senior members of the government and issued arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian, the head of the Iranian Intelligence.[13] Evidence indicates that Fallahian’s personal involvement and individual responsibility for the murders were far more pervasive than his current indictment record represents.[14]

On August 17, 1988 President of Pakistan Gen. M. Zia ul Haq died along with his staff and the American Ambassador to Pakistan when his C-130 transport plane exploded in mid-air after taking off from Bahawalpur because of an on-board bomb. The CIA, KGB and Indian secret service RAW all have been implicated by various conspiracy theorists.[who?]

Various dictators around the world, such as Saddam Hussein, have also used assassination to remove individual opponents, or to terrorize troublesome population groups.[citation needed] In return, in post-Saddam Iraq, the Shiite-dominated government has used death squads to perform countless extrajudicial executions of radical Sunni Iraqis, with some alleging that the death squads were trained by the U.S.[15][16][17]

In India, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi (neither of whom were related to Mohandas Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1948), were assassinated in 1984 and 1991. The assassinations were linked to separatist movements in Punjab and northern Sri Lanka, respectively.

In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995. Yigal Amir confessed and was convicted of the crime. Many questions were subsequently raised about the actual cause of and rationale for his death.

Israeli tourists minister Rehavam Ze'evi was also assassinated by a Palestinian assassin named Hamdi Quran in 2001

In Lebanon, the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, prompted an investigation by the United Nations. The suggestions in the resulting Mehlis report, that there was Syrian involvement, prompted the Cedar Revolution which drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon.


In Guinea Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in the early hours of Monday 2 March 2009 in the capital, Bissau. Unlike typical assassinations his death was not swift; first surviving an explosion at the Presidential Villa before being shot and wounded and finally butchered with machetes. His assassination was carried out by renegade soldiers who were apparently revenging the prior assassination of General Tagme Na Waie, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Guinea Bissau, who had been killed in a bomb explosion the day before.

Further motivations

As military doctrine

Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused - Sun Tzu, writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book The Art of War. Nearly 2000 years later Machiavelli also argued assassination could be useful in his book The Prince. In medieval times, an army and even a nation might be based upon and around a particularly strong, canny or charismatic leader, whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war. However, in modern warfare a soldier's mindset is generally considered to surround ideals far more than specific leaders, while command structures are more flexible in replacing officer losses. While the death of a popular or successful leader often has a detrimental effect on morale, the organisational system and the belief in a specific cause is usually strong enough to enable continued warfare.

There is also the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will "martyr" a leader and support his cause (by showing the moral ruthlessness of the assassins). Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, this possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in the attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War. There are a number of additional examples from World War II which show how assassination was used as a military tool at both tactical and strategic levels:

  • The American interception of General Isoroku Yamamoto's airplane during World War II, after his travel route had been decrypted.
  • The American perception that Skorzeny's commandos were planning to assassinate Eisenhower during the Battle of the Bulge played havoc with Eisenhower's personal plans for some time, though it did not affect the battle itself. Skorzeny later denied in an interview with The New York Times[citation needed] that he had ever intended to assassinate Eisenhower during Operation Greif and he said that he could prove it.[19]
  • There was a planned British commando raid to capture or kill the German General Erwin Rommel (also known as "The Desert Fox").[19]

Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts:

  • During the Vietnam War, partly in response to Viet Cong assassinations of government leaders, the USA engaged in the Phoenix Program to assassinate Viet Cong leaders and sympathizers, and killed between 6,000 and 41,000 persons, with official 'targets' of 1,800 per month.[20]
  • During World War II, underground factions sympathizing with the Allies were known to assassinate rival underground leaders to ensure their chances of governing their nation upon liberation from the Axis, as opposed to their rivals. Naturally, the reason given to the assassin would be that the rival leader was an Axis sympathizer.

As tool of insurgents


The Irish Republican Army guerrillas of 1919–1921 assassinated many RIC Police Intelligence officers during the Irish War of Independence. Michael Collins set up a special unit - the Squad - for this purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with the assassination of 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday in 1920.

This tactic was used again by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969-present). Assassination of RUC officers and politicians was one of a number of methods used in the Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997. The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by bombing the Conservative Party Conference in a Brighton hotel. Loyalist paramilitaries retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating Irish nationalist politicians.

Basque terrorists ETA in Spain have assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973. Since the early 1990s, they have also targeted academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with them, meaning that many needed armed police bodyguards.


Middle Eastern groups, such as the PLO and Hezbollah, have all engaged in assassinations, though the higher intensity of armed conflict in the region compared to western Europe means that many of their actions are either better characterized as guerrilla operations or as random attacks - especially the technique of suicide bombs.

In the Vietnam War, assassinations were routinely carried out by communist insurgents against government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival the revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Diem regime to collapse before the US intervention.[22]

For money or gain

Individually, too, people have often found reasons to arrange the deaths of others through paid intermediaries. One who kills with no political motive or group loyalty, only for money, is known as a hitman, or contract killer. Note that by the definition accepted above, while such a killer is not, strictly speaking, an assassin, if the killing is ordered and financed towards a political end, then that killing must rightly be termed an assassination, and the hitman an assassin by extension.

Entire organizations have sometimes specialized in assassination as one of their services, to be gained for the right price. Besides the original hashshashin, the ninja clans of Japan were rumored to perform assassinations, though it can be pointed out that most of what was ever known about the ninja was rumor and hearsay.

In the United States, Murder, Inc., an organization partnered to the Mafia, was formed for the sole purpose of performing assassinations for organized crime. In Russia, the vory (thieves), Russian organised crime syndicates, are often known to provide assassinations for the right price, as well as engaging in it themselves for their own purposes. A professional hitman is called "cleaner" in Russia; he is used to clean away the target. The Finnish as well as the Swedish underworld uses the word "torpedo" for a contract killer.

Targeted killing

Nils Melzer defines targeted killing as "the use of lethal force attributable to a subject of international law with the intent, premeditation and deliberation to kill individually selected persons who are not in the physical custody of those targeting them". The concept and term "targeted killing" has been adopted by a large part of the legal doctrine, the media and international organizations such as the United Nations.[23]

The use of assassinations for political or military reasons by sovereign states is an extremely contentious subject, with opinions ranging from people considering it a legitimate form of defense, especially against non-state actors like terror groups, to people calling targeted killings state terrorism itself. Both those for and against targeted killings are also often faced with accusations of being clearly partisan to one side of the particular struggle discussed.

  • Pro: Various groups and individuals have supported assassinations such as those undertaken by Israel against opposed terror groups, claiming that the killing of people like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is justified due to the fact that people like him provide "both religious and political cover" (for terrorist groups to operate), and that the fact that they may not have been physically involved in such crimes does not reduce their role. Arguing that the killings may produce leadership vacuums and disorganise their organisations.[24][25] They also oppose the use of the term assassination, as it denotes murder, where targeting such leaders is seen as a move in self-defence, and thus killing, but not a crime.[25] Some even argue that targeted killing should be continued for 'retribution and revenge', even though they accept that the killing has little effect on the number and severity of terrorist attacks, or may even increase them in the short and mid-term.[26]
  • Con: Criticism of targeted killings focuses on a number of aspects, from being claimed to be against international law to being destabilising to local situations and thus causing more violence,[27] an opinion also held by such intermediaries as Álvaro de Soto, former UN Middle East peace envoy.[28] Criticism often also focuses on the murder of innocent victims of the more heavy-handed or failed targeted killings, in which civilians are often murdered in large numbers.

Targeted killings are also sometimes called 'extrajudicial punishment',[29] though some states require some form of judicial trial in absentia before such an undertaking.


A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely a case of 'impulsive' action.[30]

However, about 25% of the actual attackers were found to be delusional, a figure that rose to 60% with 'near-lethal approachers' (people apprehended before reaching their target). This incidentally shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern-age assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempt. The report also found that around two thirds of the attackers had previously been arrested for (not necessarily related) offenses, that around 44% had a history of serious depression, and that 39% had a history of substance abuse.[30]


Ancient methods

It seems likely that the first assassinations would have been direct and simple: stabbing, strangling or bludgeoning. Substantial planning or coordination would rarely have been involved, as tribal groups were too small, and the connection to the leaders too close. As civilization took root, however, leaders began to have greater importance, and become more detached from the groups they ruled. This would have brought planning, subterfuge and weapons into successful assassination plans.[citation needed]

The key technique was likely infiltration, with the actual assassination by stabbing, smothering or strangulation. Poisons also started to be used in many forms. Death cap mushrooms and similar plants became a traditional choice of assassins especially if they could not be perceived as poisonous by taste, and the symptoms of the poisoning did not show until after some time.[citation needed]


Modern methods

With the advent of effective ranged weaponry, and later firearms, the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to hold back determined killers, who no longer needed to directly engage or even subvert the guard to kill the leader in question. Moreover, the engagement of targets at greater distance dramatically increased the chances for an assassin's survival. The Regent Moray of Scotland was the first prominent figure to be assassinated by a firearm in 1570, and the first head of state was William the Silent of the Netherlands in 1584.

Gunpowder and other explosives also allowed the use of bombs or even greater concentrations of explosives for deeds requiring a larger touch; for an example, the Gunpowder Plot could have 'assassinated' almost a thousand people had it not been foiled.

Explosives, especially the car bomb, become far more common in modern history, with grenades and remote-triggered landmines also used, especially in the Middle East and Balkans (the initial attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand's life was with a grenade). With heavy weapons, the rocket propelled grenade (RPG) has become a useful tool given the popularity of armored cars (discussed below), while Israeli forces have pioneered the use of aircraft-mounted missiles for assassination,[31] as well as the innovative use of explosive devices.


Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable, and consequentially much more commonly used than rifles. Of 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, while 15% of the attempts used knives and 8% explosives (usage of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases).[30]

In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning offers the greatest level of deniability[citation needed] (the allegations are rarely proven[citation needed]). Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident was assassinated by ricin poisoning. A tiny pellet containing the poison was injected into his leg. Widespread allegations involving the Bulgarian government and KGB have not led to any legal results. The CIA has allegedly made several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, many of the schemes involving poisoning his milkshakes. A 2006 case in the UK concerned the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was given a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210, possibly passed to him in aerosol form sprayed directly onto his food. Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, had been granted asylum in the UK in 2000 after citing persecution in Russia. Shortly before his death he issued a statement accusing then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin of involvement in his assassination. President Putin denies he had any part in Litvinenko's death.[33]


Early forms

One of the earliest forms of defense against assassins was employing bodyguards. Bodyguards act as a shield for the potential target, keeping lookout for potential attackers (sometimes in advance, for example on a parade route), and literally putting themselves 'in harm's way'--both by simple presence, showing that physical force is available to protect the target,[30][34] and by shielding the target during any attack. In order to neutralize any attacker, bodyguards are typically armed as much as permitted by legal and practical concerns.




Modern strategies


As the 20th century dawned, the prevalence of assassins and their capabilities skyrocketed, and so did measures to protect against them. For the first time, armored cars or armored limousines were put into service for safer transport, with modern versions rendering them virtually invulnerable to small arms fire and smaller bombs and mines.[35] Bulletproof vests also began to be used, though they were of limited utility, restricting movement and leaving the head unprotected - as such they tended to be worn only during high-profile public events if at all.

Access to famous persons, too, became more and more restrictive;[36] potential visitors would be forced through numerous different checks before being granted access to the official in question, and as communication became better and information technology more prevalent, it has become all but impossible for a would-be killer to get close enough to the personage at work or in private life to effect an attempt on his or her life, especially given the common use of metal and bomb detectors. This is, of course, assuming that the assassin does not decided to simply use his or her bare hands, either by strangulation, pressure points, or forcing the nasal cartilage into the target's brain.

Most modern assassinations have been committed either during a public performance or during transport, both because of weaker security and security lapses, such as with US President John F. Kennedy and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, or as part of coups d'état where security is either overwhelmed or completely removed, such as with Patrice Lumumba and likely Salvador Allende.[37]

The methods used for protection by famous people have sometimes evoked negative reactions by the public, with some resenting the separation from their officials or major figures. One example might be traveling in a car protected by a bubble of clear bulletproof glass, such as the Popemobile of Pope John Paul II (built following an attempt at his life). Politicians themselves often resent this need for separation - which has at times caused tragedy when they sent their bodyguards from their side for personal or publicity reasons, as U.S. President William McKinley did during the public reception at which he was assassinated.[36]

Other potential targets go into seclusion, and are rarely heard from or seen in public, such as writer Salman Rushdie. A related form of protection is the use of body doubles, a person built similar to the person he is expected to impersonate. These persons are then made up, as well as in some cases altered to look like the target, with the body double then taking the place of the person in high risk situations. Saddam Hussein is known to have used body doubles.[38] According to Joe R. Reeder, Under Secretary of the Army from 1993–1997 writing in Fox News, Fidel Castro had also used body doubles, though no details were specified.[38]

See also


  1. ^ Commentary: Targeted killing... - Cohen, Ariel, Washington Post, Thursday 25 March 2004
  2. ^ American Speech - McCarthy, Kevin M. Volume 48, pp. 77–83
  3. ^ Secret Societies Handbook, Michael Bradley,Altair Cassell Illustrated, 2005. ISBN 978-1844034161
  4. ^ "Assassination". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, second edition, 1989
  5. ^ Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language, Seth Lerer, 2007
  6. ^ Assassination (from the American Heritage Dictionary)
  7. ^ Cited from - "Assassination". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, second edition, 1989.
  8. ^ Church Committee - Interim Report: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders Part III.B, page 71 (from the '' website. Accessed 2008-08-22.)
  9. ^ HaaretzIsrael targets senior Hamas, Islamic Jihad commanders in fresh Gaza strikes 30 December 2008
  10. ^ BBC Air raids kill militants in Gaza 5 March 2009
  11. ^ John Dingles (2004) The Condor Years ISBN 1-56584-764-4
  12. ^ No Safe Haven
  13. ^ Murder at Mykonos: The Anatomy of a Political Assassination
  14. ^ Condemned by Law: Assassination of Political Dissidents Abroad
  15. ^ "The Salvador Option" - The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq - Newsweek, Friday 14 January 2005
  16. ^ CBS: Death Squads In Iraqi Hospitals - CBS Evening News, Wednesday 4 October 2006
  17. ^ Is the U.S. Training Iraqi Death Squads to Fight the Insurgency? - Democracy Now, Thursday, December 1, 2005
  18. ^ Benazir Bhutto shot dead at suicide bombing of rally; 20 feared dead - The Canadian Press, Thursday 27 December 2007
  19. ^ a b Commando Extraordinary - Foley, Charles; Legion for the Survival of Freedom, 1992, page 155
  20. ^ CIA and Operation Phoenix in Vietnam - McGehee, Ralph; from a usenet discussion citing numerous references, 19 February 1996
  21. ^ George A. Crawford, Manhunting: Reversing the Polarity of Warfare, 2008, ISBN 1-60441-332-8
  22. ^ Viet Cong - Pike, Douglas, The MIT Press; New Ed edition, Wednesday 16 December 1970
  23. ^ Melzer, Nils (2008). Vaughan Lowe. ed. Targeted Killing in International Law. Oxford Monographs in International Law. Oxford University Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-0199533169. 
  24. ^ "The Targeted Killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin". Archived from the original on 2007-12-12.  - Snow, Jonathan L., Foundation for Defense of Democracies policy institute, Washington DC, United States, March 26, 2004
  25. ^ a b Targeted killing is a necessary option - Sofaer, Abraham D., Hoover Institution, Friday 26 March 2004
  26. ^ Fatal Choices: Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing - David, Steven R. ; Johns Hopkins University, United States, 2002
  27. ^ Israel's Targeted Killings Threaten Peace in Entire Region, say Arab Leaders - Epoch Times, 18 April 2004
  28. ^ Palestinian PM-designate Not Immune: Mofaz - 'Islam Online' website
  29. ^ The Logic of Israel's Targeted Killing - Luft, Gale; Middle East Quarterly, Volume X: Number 1, Winter 2003
  30. ^ a b c d Assassination in the United States: An Operational Study - Fein, Robert A. & Vossekuil, Brian, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Volume 44, Number 2, March 1999
  31. ^ Hamas leader killed in Israeli airstrike - CNN, Saturday 17 April 2004
  32. ^ Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran - The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 13 February 2007
  33. ^ Putin 'Deplores' Spy Death - Sky News Friday 24 November 2006
  34. ^ Lincoln - Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
  36. ^ a b The Need For Protection Further Demonstrated - Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
  37. ^ Salvador Allende Gossens (biography from the Encarta website)
  38. ^ a b It's Bin Laden ... or Is It? - Fox News, Thursday 20 December 2001

External links


Up to date as of January 15, 2010

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary



Wikipedia has an article on:



  • (UK) IPA: /əˈsæs.ɪnˌeɪ.ʃən/, SAMPA: /@"s{s.In%eI.S@n/
  • Rhymes: -æsɪneɪʃǝn




assassination (plural assassinations)

  1. killing or murder for political reasons
    The assassination of the king occurred at night.

Related terms


Citable sentences

Up to date as of December 23, 2010

Here are sentences from other pages on Buttocks, which are similar to those in the above article.

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