The hand-guns (pistols and revolvers) are sometimes known as sidearms. Small arms also include so-called assault rifles, which are in fact either submachine gun mechanisms or mechanisms providing the same firing facilities in the body, stock or woodwork of a short rifle or carbine. They include pistols (which are now all semi-automatic or self re-loading), revolvers, rifles, submachine guns and light machine guns. Small Arms: most firearms under the level of medium machine guns, or as a loose rule, belt-fed machine guns. Firearms are sometimes referred to as 'bored weapons', indicating the barrel from which the bullet or projectile is fired, or the tube from which the projectile is launched. The term manufactured designates those arms made professionally by arms factories, while improvised describes those manufactured by non-professional arms manufacturers, or by illicit workshops. Terrorists use both manufactured and improvised firearms. The use of missiles is rare but a few groups are known to be in possession of surface-to-air shoulder-fired missiles that can bring down helicopters, fighter aircrafts and civilian airliners. Grenades - from hand grenades to rocket-propelled - are also part of the terrorist arsenal. Terrorists use guns, pistols, revolvers, rifles and (semi-) automatic weapons in assassinations, sniping, armed attacks and massacres. They also make use of letter and parcel bombs. Terrorists use both explosive bombings and incendiary bombings (e.g.

Among the former, car- and truck-bombs have become very powerful weapons, especially in suicide attacks. Terrorists are, on the whole, conventional in their use of weapons bombs and guns are their favourites. Weapons of Mass Destruction Conventional Terrorist Weapons

Modern german anti-tank weapons