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0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

1998   2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010  

Al-­‐Qaida  Terrorist  A/acks  by  Year,  1998-­‐2010  

Source:  Global  Terrorism  Database  

BACKGROUND REPORT

Al-Qaida’s fatal terrorism under Osama bin Laden May 2, 2012, marks the first anniversary of the death of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. Under his leadership, the terrorist organization was responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries. This report summarizes the terrorist activity of al-Qaida and its network of affiliates. T H E F A T A L T E R R O R S I M O F A L - Q A I D A Al-Qaida central1, under the direction of Osama bin Laden, was responsible for—or suspected to be responsible for—60 terrorist attacks around the world between 19982 and 2010, an average of six attacks per year of activity. These attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 3,625 individuals. In addition, more than 5,000 people were wounded in al-Qaida attacks. In 2009 and 2010, there were no attacks attributed to al-Qaida. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

More than 600 individuals were killed in fatal al-Qaida attacks in:

• Afghanistan • Kenya • Pakistan • Saudi Arabia • Somalia • Tanzania • Tunisia • Turkey • Yemen

                                                                                                                         1 References in this report to “al-Qaida” refer to al-Qaida central, and not to their affiliates (al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaida in Iraq, and others). The figures reported here reflect recent work START has done to improve the accuracy of this disambiguation in the Global Terrorism Database. 2 Osama bin Laden and a nascent al-Qaida have also been loosely linked to terrorist attacks on hotels in Yemen in 1992, in which three people died, and the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, in which six people died and more than 1,000 were injured. However, the 1998 African Embassies Bombings were the first attacks directly attributable to them.

Year

Al -Qaida Terrorism Fatal it ies

1998 235 2000 19 2001 2,996 2002 89 2003 111 2004 35 2005 29 2006 20 2007 50 2008 41 2009 0 2010 0 TOTAL 3,625

   

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al-Qaeda Central

Iraqi Jihadist

Chechens

Pakistani/Kashmiri

Palestinian/Lebanese

Iraqi Shia

Bangladesh

Ulster Loyalist

Corsican Separatist

Venezuelan Marxist

European Anarchist

Himalayan Maoist

European Marxist

Anti-Indian Ethnonationalist

Right-Wing Latin American

Latin AmericanMarxist

Mexican Marxists

Greek Marxist +

Anarchist +

Anti-Globalization

Turkish/Central AsianEuropean Ethnonationalist

Southeast Asian Marxist

FARC

ELN

GRAPO

Tupamaro RevolutionaryMovement Jan. 23

FLNCRHD

LVFUVF

CPI-M PWG

CPN-M

NSCN-IM

ULFA

NDFB

KYKL

PRA

Jamatul Mujahedin Bangladesh

AUC

RO-N17

PKK

DHKP-C

Black Star

InternationalSolidarity

Informal AnarchistFederation

Group of Carlo GiulianiGroup of Carlo Giuliani

ETA

IRA

MahdiArmy

Movsar Baryayev GangRiyad us-Saliheyn

Martyrs' Brigade

Abu Sayyaf Group

al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers

Ansar al-Sunnah Army

Mujahideen Shura Council

Ansar al-Islam

al-Qaeda

GAI

EIJ

al-Fatah

HAMAS

PFLP

PIJ

Hezbollah

Armed IslamicGroup

Takfir wa Hijra

Asbat al-AnsarPULO

Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF)

Jemaah Islamiya (JI)

Taliban

Hizbul Mujahideen(HM)

Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT)

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi(LeJ)

Lashkar-I-Omar

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)

Harakat ul-Mudjahidin (HuM)

Islamic GreatEastern RaidersFront

New People’sArmy (NPA)

C O M P A R I N G A L - Q A I D A W I T H O T H E R G R O U P S More than 600 other groups have been engaged in terrorism worldwide since 1998. From 1998 to 2008, al-Qaida was responsible for only 0.3 percent of more than 21,000 total terrorist attacks. However, al-Qaida was responsible for 5.4 percent of terrorism fatalities during this same period, indicative of the intensely deadly nature of al-Qaida operations and efforts. Al-Qaida’s operations were especially deadly even in comparison to other notorious, long-standing terrorist organizations:

• ETA, the Basque nationalist terrorist group in Spain, was responsible for approximately 820 deaths from 1972 to 2009. • The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible for more than 1,800 fatalities dating back to 1970—less than half of

the number of people killed by al-Qaida. • The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is responsible for nearly 5,000 terrorism fatalities in its history.

While FARC has imposed this bloodshed over the course of more than 30 years, al-Qaida’s casualties were concentrated in just a 10-year period.

A L - Q A I D A A S A N O D E O F D E A D L Y T E R R O R I S T O R G A N I Z A T I O N S Al-Qaida has also become a crucial “node” in a network of deadly terrorist organizations—some created in the hopes of replicating al-Qaida, others aligning with al-Qaida for ideological or practical reasons. Research by Victor Asal and R. Karl Rethemeyer at the University at Albany (SUNY) has identified 33 different terrorist organizations with direct links and alliances to al-Qaida. Several of these AQ-allies have adopted al-Qaida’s practice of trying to inflict mass casualties. Since 1998, there have been 482 incidents of mass-casualty terrorism—single events in which more than 25 people are killed. Al-Qaida and its affiliates have carr ied out more than 140 mass-casualty terrorism attacks—nearly one-third of all that occurred during this period. Together, this network with al-Qaida at the core is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians around the world.

Al-­‐Qaida  and  Selected  Affiliated  Groups   Number  of  Attacks  

Number  of  Fatalities  

Taliban   1779   4710  Al-­‐Qaida   60   3625  Al-­‐Qaida  in  Iraq   175   2544  Islamic  State  of  Iraq  (ISI)   174   1821  Tehrik-­‐i-­‐Taliban  Pakistan  (TTP)   130   1125  Al-­‐Shabaab   156   614  Salafist  Group  for  Preaching  and  Fighting  (GSPC)   214   580  Al-­‐Qaida  in  the  Lands  of  the  Islamic  Maghreb  (AQLIM)   140   598  Jemaah  Islamiya  (JI)   73   339  Al-­‐Qaida  in  the  Arabian  Peninsula  (AQAP)   56   234  Ansar  al-­‐Sunna   16   164  Ansar  al-­‐Islam   25   88  

*  This  network  map  depicts  al-­‐Qaida  at  its  peak  and  not  in  its  current  status.

   

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Mujahedeen  Shura  Council   8   67  Al-­‐Qaida  in  Yemen   12   49  Al-­‐Qaida  Organization  for  Jihad  in  Sweden   1   0  Al-­‐Qaida  in  Lebanon   1   0  Al-­‐Qaida  Network  for  Southwestern  Khulna  Division   2   0  

ABOUT THIS REPORT

The data presented here are drawn from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). The GTD contains information on more than 98,000 terrorist incidents that have occurred around the world from 1970 to 2010. For more information about the GTD, visit www.start.umd.edu/gtd. The GTD is a project of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). START aims to provide timely guidance on how to reduce the incidence of terrorism and disrupt terrorism networks, as well as enhance the resilience of society in the face of terrorist threats at home and abroad. Additional information about START is available at www.start.umd.edu.

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is supported in part by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through a Center of Excellence program based at the University of Maryland. START uses state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art theories, methods and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics and social and psychological impacts of terrorism. For more information, contact START at infostart@start.umd.edu or visit www.start.umd.edu.