Did Wikipedia remove the word "terror" from the Kurdistan Brigades article?

Yes. "terror" appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 4. We saved the article's opening paragraph at 4 moments between 2020 and 2025, and the counts come from those saved copies.

When did the Kurdistan Brigades article stop using the word "terror"?

The word appeared 2 times in the opening at its peak in 2020. It is absent from today's opening, the part search engines quote and AI systems train on, checked against the live article on 2026-08-01.

How can I verify what Wikipedia's Kurdistan Brigades article used to say?

Each snapshot on this page links the Wikipedia revision it came from, so you can open their own history and compare. We also keep our own copy of the text, which stays readable if the article changes again.

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Case file

Kurdistan Brigades

The Kurdistan Brigades, al-Qaeda's official Kurdish branch, was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department in 2012. Through 2020 the opening stated, "The group was classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department on January 1, 2012." Today's opening describes it only as a "militant Islamist organization" and the official Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda, with terror surviving four times elsewhere in the article, not the opening. A reader arriving now does not learn that the US State Department formally designated the group a terrorist organization.

Read line by line and written up by hand.

Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “terror” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 4.

We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2020 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. ¹ tap a number or a side note to jump between them

The opening as it read in 2020

al-Qaeda's Kurdish Battalions (AQKB) is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in the northern Iran–Iraq border .¹ It is the Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda that has launched several attacks on the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.² The group was classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department on January 1, 2012.³

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 951519691.

Today

“terror” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 4. Read the current article and compare.

Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
	2015	2020	Oct '23	2025
terror	1	1	0	0
militant	1	1	2	2
islamist	1	1	2	3

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 6 October 2023 and 2025.

Then

militant islamist organization

Now

kurdish militant islamist organization

image & license · Wikimedia

1. Removed: “al-Qaeda's Kurdish Battalions (AQKB) is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in the northern…” In the article until October 6, 2023 (rev), gone by 2025 (rev).

The opening's original identification of the group by its full name, al-Qaeda's Kurdish Battalions, reworded rather than removed in substance.

2. Rewrote: “It is the Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda that has launched several attacks…” Changed after our 2025 snapshot. Now reads: “It has also launched several attacks on the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq ( Iraqi Kurdistan ).”

A passage identifying it as the Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda that launched attacks, reworded rather than removed in substance.

3. Removed: “The group was classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department on…” In the article until 2020 (rev), gone by October 6, 2023 (rev).

The sentence stating the US State Department classified the group as a terrorist organization in 2012, dropped from the opening entirely.

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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