WASHINGTON : The number of people killed by terrorists worldwide last year soared more than 40 percent to 20,498, due mainly to devastating sectarian attacks on civilians in Iraq, according to a US government report released Monday.
The State Department's annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" also skewered Iran and Syria as the worst state sponsors of terror, just days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could break a long-standing diplomatic boycott and meet her counterparts from the two nations.
According to figures provided by the US National Counterterrorism Center, which groups data from 16 US intelligence agencies, the number of terrorist incidents rose nearly 30 percent to 14,338 in 2006, from 11,153 in 2005.
The increase was due almost entirely to a doubling of attacks in Iraq, four years after the US-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein, it said.
The center counted 6,630 terrorist attacks during the year in Iraq, primarily linked to sectarian violence between majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis who controlled the country under Saddam.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment