Tagged: terrorist attacks

October 18th, 2018 Related News

India, Pakistan, Philippines among 5 countries with most terrorist attacks in 2017

(GULF NEWS) — Almost 59 per cent of all terrorist attacks in 2017 took place in five Asian countries, including India and Pakistan, a US report said Thursday. The other three countries, according to the The annual State Department Country Report on Terrorism, include Afghanistan, Iraq and the Philippines.

The total number of terrorist attacks worldwide last year decreased by 23 per cent. Similarly, the total deaths due to terrorist violence decreased by 27 per cent, according to the report.

The decline in terrorist violence was largely due to dramatically fewer attacks and deaths in Iraq, Nathan Sales, State Department Coordinator of Counter-terrorism, said during a conference call with reporters on Thursday.

“Although terrorist attacks took place in 100 countries in 2017, they were concentrated geographically. Fifty-nine percent of all attacks took place in five countries. Those are Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Similarly, 70 per cent of all deaths due to terrorist attacks took place in five countries, and those are Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, and Syria,” he said.

The report, he added, notes a number of major strides that the United States and its allies made to defeat and degrade terrorist organizations in 2017. “We worked with allies and partners around the world to expand information sharing, improve aviation security, enhance law enforcement and rule of law capacities, and to counter terrorist radicalization with a focus on preventing recruitment and recidivism,” Sales said.

However, despite these many successes, the terrorist landscape grew more complex in 2017, he said. “ISIS [Daesh – the extremist terrorist group], Al-Qaida, and their affiliates have proven to be resilient, determined, and adaptable,” Sales added. He said foreign terrorist fighters were heading home from the war zones in Iraq and Syria or traveling to third countries to join Daesh branches there.

“We also are experiencing an increase in attacks by home-grown terrorists – that is, people who have been inspired by Daesh but have never set foot in Syria or Iraq. We’ve seen Daesh-directed or Daesh-inspired attacks outside the war zone on soft targets and in public spaces like hotels, tourist resorts, and cultural sites,” Sales said.

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September 3rd, 2017 Breaking News

Intel chief – Germany must expect attacks by lone wolves & terrorist groups at ‘any time’

(RT) — Germany is likely to see more terrorist attacks conducted by Islamist jihadists, the country’s domestic intelligence chief has said while presenting an annual report which analyses threats to the state from all forms of extremism.

“We must expect further attacks by individuals or terror groups,” the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV) chief, Hans-Georg Maassen said Tuesday. “Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the BfV and we see it as one of the biggest threats facing the internal security of Germany.”

The statement followed the agency publishing its annual report on constitution protection and threats to the state. It said some 24,400 Islamists remain in Germany, including around 10,000 Salafists, an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, followers of which have been prone to terrorism.

“The attacks have substantiated the IS threat scenario in Germany. IS can be held responsible for all attacks mounted in Germany in 2016,” the report reads. “Germany is the focus of Islamist terrorism. Terrorist incidents are possible in Germany at any time in the future.”
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Maassen said jihadists managed to carry out five attacks in 2016 while security services thwarted another seven.

The report classified the 2016 attacks in Germany as part of whats been termed, “phenomenon of the individual jihad,” acts which are committed by individuals or “micro groups.”

Germany is currently monitoring some 680 Islamist radicals who could potentially carry out an attack, according to Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

The intelligent assessment said young people remain vulnerable to terrorist recruitment schemes as the youth “are particularly susceptible to jihadist propaganda, especially spread via social media.”

The report noted that the younger generation can easily be indoctrinated to “develop a readiness to consequently obey the order to kill unbelievers.”

New potential terrorists “possibly entering Europe under cover as part of the migration movement” as well as those returning from war zones in Syria and Iraq, remain under the radar of the security agencies, the report notes.

Maassen estimated that some 930 people left Germany to fight in Syria or Iraq, 20 percent of whom were women. From that number, the BfV chief believes 145 people have been killed in action.

Besides the jihadist and Islamist terrorism threat, the constitution protection report also analyzed the activities of various other groups, including far-right and far-left extremists.

With far-right extremism on the surge, events “directly or indirectly associated with Islam” have been frequently exploited by far-right sympathizers, the report notes. Last year, those accounted for 23,100 members while the number of violent offenses rose to 1,600. More than a half of those crimes particularly targeted asylum seekers and accommodation facilities.

Security has been stepped up in Germany following five lone-wolf terror attacks in the country last year. The most noted attack happened in December 2016, when a Tunisian asylum seeker, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, plowed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people.

Germany is now focusing all its efforts on this weekend’s G20 summit in Hamburg where around 20,000 security officers have been deployed.

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