The Red Brigades (BR) are a radical left-wing militant group that, at their zenith during the 1970s and 80s, terrorised Italy with a series of brutal kidnappings and murders. Formed in early 1970 by a number of radical left-wing students determined to overthrow the Italian state, the Brigades began their political careers kidnapping industrialists and attacking Italian fascist groups. The original founders were arrested in 1974, and in response the second generation of leaders stepped up their attacks, kidnapping and murdering the Italian Christian Democrat Prime Minister Aldo Moro. The crackdown that followed Moro's killing saw the majority of the Brigades' leaders jailed although attacks continued throughout the 1980s. There was further violence in 1999 and 2002 when two government advisers were killed