Terror attacks lowest since 1969

Apr. 29 - The "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003" report shows that terrorist attacks are at their lowest level since 1969 (US Dept of State - Washington File Featured Item,)

The total number of international terrorist attacks in 2003 -- 190 incidents that killed 307 people -- was the lowest since 1969, according to the latest Department of State report on worldwide terrorism.

The annual report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003," shows the number of attacks last year was down slightly from the 199 attacks reported in 2002. At the same time, the 2003 figure is a 45 percent decline from the 346 attacks in 2001.

Yes, I realize that it doesn't seem that way. But honestly, how much attention did we pay to terrorist attacks before Sept. 11?

"A total of 307 persons were killed in the attacks of 2003, far fewer than the 725 killed during 2002," the report said. "A total of 1,593 persons were wounded in the attacks that occurred in 2003, down from 2,013 persons wounded the year before."

By geographic region, there were four terrorist attacks in Africa, 70 in Asia, two in Eurasia, 53 in Latin America, 37 in the Middle East, and 24 in Western Europe, according to the report. And the report indicated that the dominant type of terrorist event was bombing, with 137 occurrences in 2003.

"In 2003, the highest number of attacks (70) and the highest casualty count (159 persons dead and 951 wounded) occurred in Asia," the report said.

Attacks on soldiers in Iraq do not count because acts against combatants are not defined as terrorist attacks by the U.S.

Read the whole thing.

CNN has an article on the report here.

June 15 - 08:20: The report is erroneous. This is the State Dept. statement on the errors, and this is my post on the subject.

Posted by: Debbye at 10:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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