Worldwide terror attacks exceeded 10,000 last year

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Published: APRIL 21, 2006 22:35
Terror attacks and kidnappings worldwide exceeded 10,000 for the first time last year, propelled in part by a surge in Iraq, according to government figures to be released soon. Officials cautioned against reading too much into the overall total. The government last year adopted a new definition of terror and changed its system of counting global attacks, devoting more energy to finding reports of violence against civilians. Yet the numbers are a striking reminder that violence around the globe has increased dramatically in the more than four years of the war on terror. In 2004, the National Counterterrorism Center, the government's new hub for monitoring terrorism, counted 3,192 terror attacks, including more than 28,000 people wounded, killed or kidnapped. The 2005 tally will exceed 10,000 attacks and kidnappings, according to a federal official familiar with the center's work on the subject. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the numbers had not yet been officially released.