U.S. takes 5 groups off terror blacklist, retains al-Qaida

The United States has removed five extremist groups, all believed to be defunct, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations. In notices published in the Federal Register on Friday, the State Department said it had removed the groups after a mandatory five-year review of their designations.

Al-Qaida, which was also up for review, was kept on the list.

“Our review of these five FTO designations determined that, as defined by the INA the five organizations are no longer engaged in terrorism or terrorist activity,” the State Department said.

“Therefore, as required by the

INA, these FTO designations are being revoked.”

The organizations removed are the Basque separatist group ETA , the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, the radical Jewish group Kahane Kach and two Islamic groups that have been active in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt.