German Red Army Faction disbands

The German guerrilla group, the Red Army Faction, has announced that it has disbanded.

The group, which carried out a series of bombings and assassinations in the 1970s and '80s, made the announcement to Reuters news agency.

It said it had made a strategic error in not building up a political organisation alongside the armed one -- as a result, it was now part of history.

The Red Army Faction killed its last victim in 1991.

Before that it was responsible for killing about thirty prominent Germans and American military personnel in its violent campaign against what it called monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

The German authorities say the authenticity of the statement had yet to be verified.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service