Al-Qaeda spawns behind increased attacks worldwide

The United States has warned against a new generation of global terrorists, citing the State Department’s 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism that showed the number of attacks around the world rising by some 43% from 2012 – from 6,700 to more than 9,700. The US has “degraded” Al-Qaeda’s core leadership, but says “2013 saw the rise of increasingly aggressive and autonomous AQ affiliates and like-minded groups in the Middle East and Africa.”  But officials cautioned that even though some 17,800 people had been killed – up from 11,000 in 2012 – most of the attacks were smaller and more localized than in past years. Many governments are “becoming increasingly concerned that individuals with violent extremist ties and battlefield experience will return to their home countries or elsewhere to commit terrorist acts,” the report noted. The decline of the Al-Qaeda leadership and its inability to finance terror activities has encouraged groups to turn to alternative sources of income – including a lucrative spate of kidnappings. Extremist violence last year was also increasingly marked by “sectarian motives,” which the US said was a “worrisome trend.”

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