Pakistan terrorist attacks double to 1800 in 2008

[jimmy olsen]

That's a lot of attacks, I hadn't realized that many people were being killed in terrorist attacks. I wonder what their methodology is?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30503015/

U.S. says Pakistan terrorist attacks up
Increase comes even as incidents around the world fall by 18 percent

updated 2 hours, 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The number of terrorist attacks around the world fell by 18 percent last year but rose dramatically in Pakistan, growing in frequency and lethality, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.

The department's annual assessment of global terrorism said al-Qaida and its affiliates continue to be the greatest terrorist threat to the United States despite ongoing efforts to disrupt their operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, North Africa, Somalia and Yemen. Terrorist attacks also rose in Afghanistan last year, the report said.

Worldwide terrorist attacks dropped to 11,770 in 2008 from 14,506 in 2007. The number of deaths caused by those incidents declined 30 percent, from 22,508 in 2007 to 15,765 last year.

19 American civilians died in 2008
According to statistics compiled for the report by the National Counterterrorism Center, 19 American civilians died in terrorist-related incidents last year compared to 33 the previous year.

Despite those positive signs, the rise of incidents in Pakistan, the report said, reflected increased "coordination, sophistication and frequency" of suicide and other bombings by the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Attacks in Pakistan more than doubled between 2007 and 2008 to about 1,800 and have quadrupled since 2006. Militants have expanded and consolidated their operations during that period, mainly along the northwest border with Afghanistan and in largely ungoverned tribal areas.

"They have used this terrain as a safe haven to hide, train terrorists, communicate with followers, plot attacks and send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan," the report said.

Attacks in Pakistan shot up from 890 in 2007 to 1,839 in 2008 with a corresponding rise in fatalities from 1,340 to 2,293, according to Russell Travers of the counterterrorism center. In Afghanistan, the number of attacks rose from 1,125 in 2007 to 1,220 in 2008, killing 1,989 people last year, up from 1,961 the year before, he said.

"The spike in Pakistan represents one of the reasons why the (Obama administration has) chosen to devote an enormous amount of political attention and an enormous amout of diplomatic activity and resources to the question of Pakistan and Afghanistan," said State Department counterterrorism coordinator Ronald Schlicher.

Attacks in Iraq fall by nearly 50 percent
The rises in Afghanistan and Pakistan bucked the overall downward trend that included a sharp decline in Iraq, where the number of terrorist incidents fell nearly 50 percent.

The drop in incidents in Iraq, to 3,259 in 2008 from 6,210 in 2007, was due to the diminishing threat there from al-Qaida, which has been hit with significant defections, the report said.

Largely due to the drop in attacks in Iraq, the number of suicide bombings declined worldwide, despite the increases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the report said.

By November 2008, it said Pakistan had recorded 57 suicide attacks, compared to 45 in all of 2007, most of which hit high-profile government, military and civilian targets, including the massive Sept. 20 truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed at least 60 people, including two Americans, and injured more than 200.

Pakistan-affiliated militants were blamed for perhaps the most well-coordinated terrorist strike in 2008, the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai, India. It targeted hotels, a Jewish center and other locations and killed at least 183 people, including 22 foreigners, of whom six were Americans.

"The terrorists appeared to have been well-trained and took advantage of technology, such as Global Positioning System trackers," the report said.

It noted that India continues to rank among the world's most terrorism-afflicted countries and that "the rise in terrorist attacks and their coordinated nature throughout India suggest(s) the terrorists were well-funded and financially organized."

Report warns of al-Qaida threat
Elsewhere, the report said al-Qaida and its affiliates continued to pose threats, particularly in Algeria, where nearly 80 people were killed in attacks in August alone, and Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral home where the U.S. embassy was attacked in September, killing 18 people, including one U.S. citizen.

"The security situation in Yemen deteriorated significantly over the past year as al-Qaida in Yemen increased its attacks against Western and Yemeni government institutions," the report said.

In Somalia, the report said the al-Shabaab militant group continued to take advantage of a power vacuum in the country and was providing "safe haven" to al-Qaida "elements" wanted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The report also noted that an American was responsible for a suicide bombing in Somalia in 2008.

As it has for the past decade, the report identifies Iran as the main state sponsor of terrorism, focusing in particular on trying to disrupt Arab-Israeli peace efforts by supporting groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Although the report said Iranian-backed violence in Iraq was down, it accused Iran of transferring weaponry to select members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press

[Queequeg]

Amazingly, a lot of Pakistanis are now avoiding Mosques as Radical Islamists like to bomb them.  Somewhat ironic.

That said, I think there is starting to be somehopeful news; as I predicted, the Taliban are having some trouble expanding into non-Pashtun areas, and appear to be meeting increasing resistance from the government and native population, as they realize that the Taliban just want to slaughter young women for wanting to read or liking boys. 

May 1, 2009
Heavy Fighting Enters Third Day in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Heavy fighting raged for a third day in Pakistan's northwest on Thursday as civilians flooded from the area and the Pakistani military reported some gains in pushing back Taliban insurgents.

The Pakistani military secured mountain passes to the west and south of Buner, a district 60 miles from the capital, according to its spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who spoke at a news briefing at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Helicopter gunships also rocketed Taliban positions in the north of Buner, where the militants had apparently fortified positions in areas adjoining their stronghold in the Swat Valley.

While government forces consolidated control of Buner's main town, Daggar, General Abbas said it could still take another week for the operation to clear the whole district of militants, as the military was proceeding slowly to defuse booby traps and avoid civilian casualties.

The militants continued to unleash attacks, hitting a checkpoint belonging to government paramilitary forces from the Frontier Corps in northern Buner, and seizing several police stations across the region, including two in the upper reaches of Swat.

Suicide car bombers also tried to hit government troops in the south of Buner but were destroyed before they could reach their targets, General Abbas said. Some 50 members of the police and paramilitary forces were still being held hostage by the Taliban in Buner.

Still, the government and the military repeated their support for the peace agreement forged in February with militants, under which the government agreed to install Shariah courts, based on Islamic law, throughout seven districts in the Malakand region, including Swat and Buner.

"The army has faced extreme criticism in the last two to three months, but we think that the peace agreement is a good agreement," General Abbas said. "If peace can be brought in the region without further destruction, then it will be a victory for all. But the other side is violating from Day 1. We have kept informing the government of the violations."

Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who helped negotiate the accord for the militants, said the government had violated the peace agreement and warned that continuing the military operations would further inflame the militants and increase the spread of the Taliban.

"The government has violated the peace deal by starting military operations and sending troops to the area," he told a meeting of elders in the district of Dir, where the Taliban have also been active. He called on the government to re-establish peace and said that if that failed, he would make the same demands for Shariah law from a future government.

Compounding Pakistan's problems, ethnic gang warfare raged in the southern port city of Karachi, leaving more than 30 people dead in two days of street violence. Meanwhile, officials warned of a tense situation in the southwest, in Baluchistan Province, where the government has failed to calm public anger over the killing of three nationalist leaders.

In Karachi, paramilitary rangers were deployed to stem the street violence. Some 34 people have been killed and 42 people injured in the violence, which began when a group of gunmen opened fire on an outlying settlement in the north of the city, local news agencies reported. About 20 vehicles were torched, local reporters said.

Karachi, a sprawling city of some 14 million, and a melting pot of Pakistan's ethnic groups, has for decades been racked by ethnic, gang and drug-related violence. Concerns have grown recently that radical Islamists and Taliban sympathizers have established an increasingly aggressive presence in outlying Pashtun neighborhoods and frequently clashed with supporters of the MQM, a secular, immigrant-based party that dominates many of the central urban neighborhoods.