MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

The country with the second largest increase in the number of
deaths is Iraq which had 3,532 more people killed in 2014,
representing an increase of 55 per cent. For the last three years
the average percentage growth in deaths has been 85 per cent.
Afghanistan had the third largest increase in deaths in 2014
with 1,391 deaths, being 45 per cent higher than in 2013. The
Taliban killed almost 50 per cent more people in 2014 than the
previous year, largely targeting the police through explosions.
The five countries with the biggest
increases in deaths had 11,843 more
deaths in 2014. These countries are
also the countries most impacted by
terrorism. The increase in the number
of deaths in these five countries
represents 81 per cent of the total
increase in deaths.
Ukraine had the fourth biggest increase in deaths from
terrorism. The leap from no deaths in 2013 to 665 in 2014 is a
drastic change. The vast majority of the attacks are by the
Donetsk People's Republic, with most deaths being attributed
to the launching of a surface-to-air missile at a Malaysia
Airlines aircraft which killed all 298 people on board.
Syria, a country ravaged by civil war, continues to see
escalating terrorist activity. In the two years before the start of
the civil war in 2011, Syria had two years without any terrorist
incident. In the year the civil war began Syria had 136 deaths
from terrorism. The number of deaths has increased by around
500 each year since the start of the war to 1,698 deaths in 2014.
Terrorism in Syria is mainly in the form of explosions targeting
private citizens conducted by just two groups: ISIL and the
al-Nusra Front.
Sign with Blood), a group that killed 69 in Algeria in 2013 and
none in 2014.
The third biggest improvement was seen in Russia which
reached its lowest levels of terrorist activity since 2007. Deaths
fell by over 50 per cent from 137 in 2013 to 57 in 2014. Terrorist
activity continues to be largely driven by the Caucasus Emirate,
a militant jihadi separatist group. In 2014 they were
responsible for half the deaths from terrorism in Russia.
Lebanon experienced the fourth biggest improvement, with the
death rate decreasing by 49 per cent to 68 deaths. Despite this
decrease, terrorism in Lebanon remains quite high. Although
deaths were down in 2014, Lebanon had the highest number of
incidents the country ever recorded at 135, up from the
previous high of 94 in 2013.
The major form of terrorism in Lebanon are explosions
targeting private citizens and executed by groups that have
grown through the Syrian civil war like the al-Nusra Front and
ISIL. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a Sunni group affiliated
with al-Qa’ida, is also a significant terrorist actor in Lebanon
having killed 13 people in February 2014 through a suicide
bombing in Beirut.
The fifth biggest improvement occurred in the Philippines
which saw deaths decrease by 18 per cent to 240 fatalities in
2014, down from 291 in 2013. Deaths in 2014 are still the
second highest recorded, the highest being in 2013. Terrorism
in the Philippines is intrinsically tied with nationalist and
separatist claims by people living in provinces in southern
Philippines. The largest individual group was the New People’s
Army, a communist organisation, which claimed responsibility
for 32 per cent of deaths in 2014.
The country with the biggest decrease in deaths is Pakistan,
where the number of deaths from terrorism fell by 596, or 25
per cent to 1,760. This is due in part to the further fracturing of
the Tehrik-i-Taliban following the death of leader Hakimullah
Mehsud in November 2013.
In the last 15 years Pakistan experienced a sharp increase in
terrorist activity. From 1998 to 2006 Pakistan averaged 153
deaths per year, whereas from 2007 to 2014 the number of
deaths had jumped to an average of 1,592.
Algeria had the second biggest decrease in deaths, dropping by
82. This represents a 92 per cent decline. With only seven
deaths in 2014, Algeria reached its lowest levels of terrorism
since 1993. The fall in deaths in Algeria is largely due to the
lessening activity of al-Mua'qi'oon Biddam Brigade (Those who
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Results
19