#News: Number Of People Killed In Militant Attacks Jumps More Than 60 Percent

[HuffingtonPost]

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By Peter Apps                

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The number of people killed  in militant attacks worldwide jumped more than 60 percent last  year to a record high of nearly 18,000 and the figure could rise  further in 2014 due to an escalation of conflict in the Middle  East and Nigeria, a report showed on Tuesday.                

Four Islamist groups operating in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan,  Pakistan and Nigeria were responsible for two thirds of the 2013   attacks and the vast majority of the deaths occurred in those  countries, the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics  and Peace (IEP) said in its Global Terrorism Index.                

However, militant attacks are on the rise more broadly, with  two dozen countries seeing more than 50 deaths in 2013, it said.                

The four most active militant groupings are Islamic State in  Iraq and the Levant (now renamed Islamic State), Nigeria's Boko  Haram, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and transnational al  Qaeda-affiliated networks.                

"There is no doubt it is a growing problem. The causes are  complex but the four groups responsible for most of the deaths  all have their roots in fundamentalist Islam," said IEP founder  Steve Killelea.                

"They are particularly angry about the spread of Western  education. That makes any attempt at the kind of social  mobilizing you need to stop them particularly difficult - it can  just antagonize them more," he said.                

The number of attacks themselves rose 44 percent in 2013  from the previous year to almost 10,000.                

Deaths in such attacks are now five times higher than in  2000, the report showed, citing analysis of data in the  University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database.                

Most but not all militant attacks were religiously  motivated. Attacks in India - the sixth most affected country -  rose 70 percent in 2013 largely due to attacks by communist  insurgents. The majority remained non-lethal.                

Increased targeting of police by the militant groups makes  managing the problem even harder, Killelea said, sometimes  fueling rights abuses that compound existing grievances.                

The report showed 60 percent of attacks involved explosives,  20 percent firearms and 10 percent other actions such as arson,  knives or attacks with motor vehicles. Only five percent of all  incidents since 2000 have involved suicide bombings.                

The report showed some 80 percent of the militant groups  which had ceased their activity since 2000 did so following  negotiations. Only 10 percent achieved their goals, while seven  percent were eliminated by military action.     (Editing by Gareth Jones)
Source: huffingtonPost