20,498 terror deaths worldwide in 2006, says US report
Pakistan Times Wire Service

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.

Worldwide, the number of people killed in terror-related incidents went from 14,618 in 2005 to 20,498 last year, said the report, which is mandated by Congress.

Incidents categorized by the report as terrorism also escalated dramatically in Afghanistan, where the number of incidents rose from 491 to 749, including a spate of suicide bombings attributed to the Taliban militia, which is fighting to return to power after being ousted in a US-led military drive following the September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attacks on the US.

The figures did not include attacks on US troops in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The escalation of deadly violence in Iraq could be politically explosive for the administration of President George W. Bush, who is locked in a stalemate with Congress over continued funding for a war largely justified by the government as a way to stop terrorism.

The State Department report made no change to its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which like in 2005 were led by Iran and Syria, and included Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan.

Venezuela, led by anti-US firebrand President Hugo Chavez, was not added to the list but remained the only other country deemed as "not fully cooperating" with the global fight against terrorism.

The report said Iran "remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism," with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security accused of direct involvement in planning and supporting acts of terror in Iraq and aiding Palestinian and Lebanese "terrorist" groups.

Syria drew the same charges in the report, which also noted the "strong likelihood" of Damascus's involvement in the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The report came out just three days before Rice is due to attend an international conference on Iraq that will also include her counterparts from Syria and Iran.

Rice over the weekend would not rule out direct talks with the officials, which would break previous Bush administration policy of trying to isolate the allied regimes.●