DCG posted: " NYDailyNews: A surge in the number of aggressive al-Qaida
affiliates and like-minded groups the Middle East and North Africa poses a
serious threat to U.S. interests and allies, the State Department said
Wednesday in reporting a more than 40 percent i" Respond to this post by
replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/dcgere/> Terrorism, number of Al
Qaeda affiliates both surged from 2012 to 2013: State
Department<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/02/terrorism-number-of-al-qaeda-affiliates-both-surged-from-2012-to-2013-state-department/>
by
DCG <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/dcgere/>
NYDailyNews<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/terrorism-number-al-qaeda-affiliates-surged-2013-state-department-article-1.1775509>:
*A surge in the number of aggressive al-Qaida affiliates and like-minded
groups the Middle East and North Africa poses a serious threat to U.S.
interests and allies*, the State Department said Wednesday in reporting a
more than 40 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide between 2012
and 2013.
The department also singled out Iran as a major state sponsor of terrorism
that continues to defy demands it prove its atomic ambitions are peaceful
even as Washington pursues negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear
program.
In its annual global terrorism report, *the department said that losses in
al-Qaida’s core leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan “accelerated” the
network’s decentralization in 2013*. That has resulted in more autonomous
and more aggressive affiliates, notably in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, northwest
Africa, and Somalia, it said.
“*The terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2013*, with an
increasing number of groups around the world — including both AQ affiliates
and other terrorist organizations — *posing a threat to the United States,
our allies, and our interests*,” according to the strategic assessment of
the “Country Reports on Terrorism.”
*The report identified a 43 percent increase in the number of terrorist
attacks in 2013 from 2012*, according to statistics provided by the
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
[image: rop] <http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/rop.jpg>
It counted 9,707 terrorist attacks around the world in 2013,* resulting in
more than 17,800 deaths and more than 32,500 injuries*. Most of those
occurred in Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Somalia, Syria, Thailand and Yemen. In 2012, the figures were 6,771
terrorist attacks, with more than 11,000 deaths and more than 21,600
injuries. Most of those where in the same 10 countries as in 2013.
Despite the spike in the number of attacks, the report pointed out that
nearly half of them caused no fatalities and 53 percent caused no injuries.
The most lethal attacks in 2013 were conducted by the *Taliban* in
Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban, Nigeria’s Boko Haram, *al-Qaida* in
Iraq, *al-Qaida* in Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and *al-Qaida* in
the Arabian Peninsula, according to the report.
“While the international community has severely degraded AQ’s core
leadership, *the terrorist threat has evolved*,” it said. “Leadership
losses in Pakistan, coupled with weak governance and instability in the
Middle East and Northwest Africa, have accelerated the decentralization of
the movement and led to the affiliates in the AQ network becoming more
operationally autonomous from core AQ and increasingly focused on local and
regional objectives.”
Those groups have subsequently taken advantage of conditions on the ground
“to broaden and deepen their operations,” it said, noting deadly attacks
against religious pilgrims in Iraq, hospital staff and patients in Yemen by
al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and a popular shopping mall in Kenya last
year by the Somali-based al-Shabab organization.
In addition to spurring more and deadlier activity, *al-Qaida’s
decentralization has led to its affiliates increasing their financial
independence from the core by staging a growing number of kidnappings for
ransom and other crimes*, like extortion and credit card fraud, the report
said. It said the Yemeni affiliate and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb,
which is active in North Africa, have become “particularly effective” at
such activities.
*And, it said, 2013 saw groups like these boost their presence on social
media platforms*, although with mixed results, as various online voices
often led to “confusion and contradictions” in their messaging.
Nevertheless, it said, the wider audience reached through new media
compounds the extremist threat.
The report also pointed out a “worrisome trend” in that a significant
amount of terrorism in 2013 was sectarian in nature, especially in Syria,
Lebanon, and Pakistan.
It noted that thousands of al-Qaida inspired extremists flooded into Syria
to join that country’s civil war, ostensibly to protect Sunni Muslims from
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Alawite-dominated government. Despite
divisions among themselves and with al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, *these
groups, including al-Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant remain a serious threat*, the report said.
At the same time, Iran and the radical Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement
stepped up the provision of critical support to Assad, *“dramatically
bolstering” his capabilities and exacerbating the conflict*, it said.
On Iran, which has been designated a “state sponsor of terrorism” by the
United States since 1984, the report said Tehran last year persisted in
supporting Palestinian terrorist groups, boosted its presence in Africa and
tried to smuggle weapons to separatists in Yemen and Bahrain.
Tehran used the al-Quds Force of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as
its “primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad”
with the intent of destabilizing the Middle East and fomenting anti-Israel
attacks and sentiment, it said.
While it continued to sponsor terrorism, Iran also remained a concern for
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the report said.
Despite ongoing negotiations with world powers to address concerns about
its nuclear program, Iran remains in violation of international demands to
come clean about its intentions and prove it is not trying to develop
atomic weapons, it said.
Along with Iran, the 2013 report identified Cuba, Syria and Sudan as “state
sponsors of terrorism,” designations that remain unchanged from last year.
DCG
*DCG <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/dcgere/>* | May 2, 2014 at
4:00 am | Tags: Al-Qaida <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=al-qaida>,
Iran <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=iran>,
Taliban<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=taliban>| Categories:
crime <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=34945349>,
Islam<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=420>,
Middle East <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=3250>,
Terrorism<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=35034649>| URL:
http://wp.me/pKuKY-qlY
Comment<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/02/terrorism-number-of-al-qaeda-affiliates-both-surged-from-2012-to-2013-state-department/#respond>
See all
comments<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/02/terrorism-number-of-al-qaeda-affiliates-both-surged-from-2012-to-2013-state-department/#comments>
Unsubscribe<https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com&b=LC2%3DHIVYUzaqg%7EkhMYumiih.nOxKfqimvY%5DV1W%3DrC%3DH0mf%7Cgkjc>to
no longer receive posts from Fellowship of the Minds.
Change your email settings at Manage
Subscriptions<https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com>.
*Trouble clicking?* Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/02/terrorism-number-of-al-qaeda-affiliates-both-surged-from-2012-to-2013-state-department/
Thanks for flying with WordPress.com <http://wordpress.com>
--
--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"PoliticalForum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
