==Huh?  Government forces can't be classified as terrorists ?== 

 The second sentence of this article says: 

 :They differ from terrorist groups in that they are endorsed by governments, usually in order to eliminate political opponents; some are directly created by such governments, others are supported, protected, or merely not discouraged. 

 That sounds like nonsense.  The whole point of using extra-judicial death squads, instead of the legal path of gathering evidence, then laying charges, then giving a suspect a fair trial is that  those behind the  death squads don't really care if their suspects are guilty. 

 They are prepared to kill people merely because their background suggests they might be sympathetic to the regime's opponents.  This is terrorism.  The regime that uses death squads kills those suspected of opposing the regime, and those they suspect might be sympthathetic to opponents the regime.  Killing innocent bystanders for giving the appearance that they might sympathize with the regime's opponent may be more effective than killing an actual opponent, because the terror induced among their neighbouring innocent bystanders by the arbitrariness will more effectively cow them then if they knew the death squads were selective, and only singled out real opponents.  

 So, the assertion that regime-backed death squads differ from terrorists seems specious to me.  If they use terror then they are terrorist, n'est pas?