ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IS THE WORLD'S LEADING STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IS THE WORLD'S LEADING STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026)] [House] [Page H2374] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IS THE WORLD'S LEADING STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM. (Mr. Baumgartner of Washington was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. BAUMGARTNER. Mr. Speaker, for nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, has brutally targeted and killed Americans. Through its own forces and its network of proxy militias, Iran has killed and injured thousands of Americans: diplomats, servicemembers, and civilians alike. No other terrorist regime has claimed more American lives. When the Ayatollahs of Iran chant ``death to America,'' they mean it. President Trump's bold and decisive actions have helped protect American lives and defended our national interests. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind this body of the Iranian regime's ongoing and bloody campaign against the American people. The following is only a partial record. November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized our embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans for 444 days. April 1983: an Iran-backed terrorist group bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 77 Americans. October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists bombed the marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines. March 1984: Iran-backed terrorists kidnapped CIA Station Chief William Buckley in Beirut. He later died in captivity. July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists murdered U.S. Marine Colonel William Higgins after kidnapping him while he was serving on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Throughout the 1990s, Iran-backed terrorists repeatedly targeted Americans in Israel and the Palestinian territories. April 1995: a car bomb in the Gaza strip killed eight people, including one American citizen. 1995 through 1997: a series of suicide bombings on buses and shopping districts and public places in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv killed and wounded American citizens and dual nationals. June 1996: Hezbollah terrorists directed by Iran bombed the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. airmen and wounding hundreds more. August 1998: al-Qaida suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including dozens of Americans. In the 2000s, Iran and its proxies continued targeting Americans, including multiple bombings in Jerusalem and at Hebrew University that killed and wounded American citizens. October 2003: Iran-backed terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza. Between 2003 and 2011, Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq, roughly one in six of every Americans killed in combat and fatalities in that war, including some of my friends. March 2007: former FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran and is believed to have died in an Iranian prison, becoming one of the longest held American captives in history. In the last decade, the pattern has continued. December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American contractor and wounded U.S. servicemembers in a rocket attack in Iraq. January 2020: Iranian ballistic missile attack on Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq left 109 U.S. troops with traumatic brain injuries. February 2021 and July 2021: Iran-backed militias launched rocket and drone attacks that wounded U.S. servicemembers and American contractors in Iraq and Syria. September 2022 and November 2022: Iran and IRGC-linked operatives killed American citizens in Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad. March 2023: an Iranian drone strike on a coalition base in Syria killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. servicemembers and another contractor. October 7, 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists murdered 46 Americans and kidnapped at least a dozen more in the October 7 massacre. Between 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks on U.S. Forces in the Middle East, wounding over 180 American servicemembers and killing three. January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. servicemembers and wounded more than 40 in a drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan. November 2024: an Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged in a plot to assassinate President Trump on behalf of the Iranian regime. June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked multiple U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq, again targeting American troops. Mr. Speaker, this is only a partial list of Iran's bloody war on American citizens. For decades, administrations of both parties have understood this threat. President Trump's actions are part of a necessary effort to defend American lives. I spent a lot of time in the Middle East in a lot of places, and there has been one constant: Iranian-backed terrorist groups have always been trying to kill Americans. That ends now. ____________________