More than half the world's terrorist attacks happen in just three countries

Saturday, December 21, 2013

While the total number of terrorist attacks around the world has been steadily rising, it is also an increasingly concentrated phenomenon.

New data released this week by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism based at the University of Maryland shows that just three countries for the year 2012 - Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan - accounted for 54 per cent of attacks and 58 per cent of fatalities that year. India, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and Thailand were the next five most frequently targeted.

All in all, there were 8,400 terrorist attacks killing more than 15,400, both record numbers, though some of this may be due to improvements in data collection.

The data also shows that the post-Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda Central seems to be largely a spent force in the world, but al-Qaeda offshoots continue to wreak havoc.

"These include the Taleban (more than 2,500 fatalities), Boko Haram (more than 1,200 fatalities), al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (more than 960 fatalities), Tehrik-e Taleban Pakistan (more than 950 fatalities), al-Qaeda in Iraq (more than 930 fatalities) and al-Shabaab (more than 700 fatalities)."