The U.S. State
Department says the number of terrorist attacks worldwide increased by 35
percent in 2014, with an 81 percent rise in the number of deaths, largely due
to more terror activity in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.
"In 2014, a total
of 13,463 terrorist attacks occurred worldwide, resulting in more than 32,700
deaths and more than 34,700 injuries," the State Department said in its
annual global terrorism report Friday.
The rise in deaths was
attributed to attacks that were "exceptionally lethal."
"In 2014, there were 20 attacks that killed more than 100 people, compared
to two such attacks in 2013," the report said. It also noted that more
than 9,400 people were abducted by terrorists in 2014, three times as many as
in 2013.
The report says that
Iraq had the highest number of terror-related deaths and kidnappings, which
coincided with the expansion of the Islamic State. It noted the group's
"unprecedented seizure" of territory in Iraq and Syria.
In Nigeria, nearly
1,300 people were kidnapped or taken hostage in terrorist attacks in 2014,
compared to fewer than 100 in 2013, the report said, noting that Boko Haram was
responsible for most, if not all of the abductions. This includes the
kidnapping of several hundred girls from a school in Chibok.
In Afghanistan, the
report said "attacks carried out by the Taliban in 2014 killed more than
3,400 people, including perpetrators, and wounded more than 3,300."
The Islamic State was
blamed for the largest number of terror-related deaths in 2014, followed by the
Taliban, the Somali militant group al-Shabab and Nigeria's Boko Haram. (Source VOA)