*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 failed US intervention policy creates more
terrorists.*
On Friday, May 2, 2014 7:48:06 AM UTC-5, Travis wrote:
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> 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>
>
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> comments<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/02/terrorism-number-of-al-qaeda-affiliates-both-surged-from-2012-to-2013-state-department/#comments>
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