Brigada Antiteroristă

Counter-Terrorism Brigade
A detachment of the BAT.
Active	1977 (re-organized in 1990)
Country	Romania
Branch	Romanian Intelligence Service
Type	Special Forces
Garrison/HQ	Bucharest

Brigada Antiteroristă (Romanian pronunciation: [briˈɡada antiteroˈristə], the Counter-terrorism Brigade, BAT) is a tactical special operations unit of the Romanian Intelligence Service (Serviciul Român de Informaţii).

The unit was established on December 15, 1977 under the name of Unitatea Specială de Luptă Antiteroristă (Special Counter-terrorism Unit, USLA) as a result of the emergence of terrorist threats that were directly or indirectly aimed at Romania.

USLA confronted attempts by members or sympathizers of different terrorist organizations to enter Romania. These organizations did not limit themselves to precursory acts of preparing violent actions, but they also tried to organize terrorist attacks, the targets generally being foreign official representatives in Bucharest.

On May 26, 1985, two Arab terrorists placed explosive devices under the cars belonging to Syrian students' leaders, in the Grozăveşti Campus parking lot in Bucharest. Two USLA officers were killed by the blast of the device while trying to defuse it.

USLA units were involved in the violent crackdown of anti-communist demonstrations during the December 1989 Romanian Revolution, first in the city of Timişoara, then in the capital Bucharest. Between December 16 and December 20 USLA troops secretly infiltrated among Army troops (called up in Timişoara to quell the revolt) and fired on the peaceful demonstrators. On December 21, 1989, and the following night, the USLA together with the Army and the Securitate troops tried several times and finally succeeded in clearing out the center of Bucharest of non-violent anti-communist protesters. The result of the operation was 49 dead, 463 wounded and 698 arrested.