Iraq News

Sharp drop in Iraq and Syria terror deaths: study

Iraq and Syria saw a sharp drop in the number of people killed in terror attacks last year, according to a report published Thursday (January 18th) by Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, AFP reported.

Despite ongoing violence in both countries, the report said, there was a fall in the number of deaths in attacks by non-state actors such as the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).

In Iraq, 3,378 were killed in militant attacks last year, a fall of 60% compared to 8,437 fatalities in 2016, according to research by the London-based centre.

A similar trend was charted in Syria, where there was a drop of nearly 44%.

In total 3,641 people were killed in terrorism and insurgency in 2017, down from 6,477 the previous year.

The report does not include militants who died in attacks.

Despite losing significant territory last year, ISIS continued as the world's most active terror organisation by number of attacks.

"As it came under growing territorial pressure, ISIS transitioned back to insurgent operations, conducting a higher tempo of low intensity violence against security forces and non-state adversaries in areas newly recaptured from the group," said Matthew Henman, head of the research centre.

The group killed 6,499 people in attacks last year -- a 40% decrease compared to 2016, despite upping the number of assaults by 9% to 4,612 last year.

Globally there was a downward trend of fatalities from militant attacks, from 27,697 in 2016 to 18,475 last year.

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