Global terror death tolls soared in 2014

WASHINGTON DC, USA – Jihadists fuelled a bloody spike in terror attacks last year, with the global death toll soaring by 81 percent, the US said in a stark report Friday.

There were 13,463 attacks in 95 countries in 2014 – up by a third from 9,700 the year before – with Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan bearing the brunt of the deadly assaults.

There was also a jump in attacks in Nigeria, where Boko Haram’s Islamist militants have been spreading terror in the north, where some 7,512 people were killed in 662 attacks.

Despite ongoing talks aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Islamic republic had also failed to halt its backing for militant groups such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Iran continued to sponsor terrorist groups around the world,” said top US counterterrorism envoy Tina Kaidanow as she unveiled the 2014 Country Reports on Terrorism.

“We must do more to address the cycle of violent extremism and transform the very environment from which these terrorist movements emerge,” said Kaidanow, denouncing the “savagery” seen in some of last year’s attacks, which had led to the high death toll.

In one grim statistic, the State Department’s report said there was an average of 1,122 attacks per month, with the bloodiest weeks being in May, June and July.

Kidnappings also rose by a third, with more than 9,400 people taken hostage, three times as many as in 2013.

The report tracks events coinciding with the march of the Islamic State group (ISIS), and its “unprecedented seizure” of a swathe of territory across Iraq and Syria last year.

“Despite the fragmentation of al-Qaeda and its affiliates, weak or failed governance continued to provide an enabling environment for the emergence of extremist radicalism and violence, notably in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Nigeria, and Iraq,” the report says.

In a stark assessment, the report said the number of global attacks was up 35 percent and “total fatalities increased 81 percent compared to 2013, largely due to activity in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.”

In total 32,727 people were killed compared to 17,800 in 2013, according to the figures prepared by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

A further 34,700 people were injured in attacks in some 95 countries, largely due to activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Ruthless 

“Terrorist groups employed more aggressive tactics in their attacks,” the report says.

Islamic State militants “have brutally repressed communities under its control,” said Kaidanow.

She said it employed “ruthless methods of violence such as beheadings and crucifixions intended to terrify opponents.”

“The ongoing civil war in Syria was a significant factor in driving worldwide terrorism events in 2014,” the report said.

In Iraq there were a total of 3,360 attacks in which almost 10,000 people died – almost a third of all those killed around the world in terror attacks.

But Kaidanow insisted the statistics did not tell the whole story, saying there had been progress made in some areas such as choking off funding to terror groups. – Rappler.com