Surge in numbers killed by terrorists

More than three times as many deaths were attributed to terrorism in 2004 than the previous year.

The latest figures follow controversy last year when the US was forced to dramatically revise its data after initially claiming terrorists had killed fewer people than in 2002.

Officials yesterday said the increase was due to changing methodology in recording terrorist attacks but critics claimed the new figures showed the US-led global "war on terror" was failing.

Last year some 1,907 people died in "significant" international terrorist attacks, compared with 625 the previous year.

A further 6,704 people were injured in terrorist attacks last year against 3,646 in 2003. The number of such attacks surged to 651 last year from 175 the previous year. The report showed the majority of such attacks were in Iraq, which has become the front line in the "war on terror".

Terrorist attacks in India and Pakistan associated with disputed Kashmir also accounted for many of the deaths.

US officials insisted the 2004 numbers could not be meaningfully compared with those of 2003 or earlier because - after the embarrassment of last year’s revised numbers - they had devoted more resources to counting terrorism attacks and, as a result, had tallied many more incidents than were noted in the past.

Ten US analysts were assigned to counting the 2004 numbers, up from three part-time employees the year before.

"This increased level of effort allowed a much deeper review of far more information and, along with Iraq, are the primary reasons for the significant growth in [the] number of terrorist incidents being reported," said John Brennan, the interim director of the National Counter-terrorism Centre.

The number of attacks in Iraq increased to 201 from 22 in 2003 and the number of people killed rose to 554 from 117.

The number of Kashmir-related attacks in Pakistan and India rose to 284 from 52, and the number of people killed to 434 from 111.

US Congressman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said it was a "good development" that the numbers were released but stressed that US foreign policy may have been a major factor in the increase in terrorism last year.

"There was clearly a significant increase in global terror last year," he said. "This increase was real and can’t be explained away as a mere methodological artefact. And it raises serious questions about the effectiveness of US policies."

The US state department said al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, remained "the primary terrorist threat to the United States in 2004".

But officials said that freelance terrorism operations, either affiliated to al-Qaeda or inspired by its goals, are a growing menace as the terrorist network’s loss of central leadership degrades its potency.

"There is a declining role for a significantly degraded al-Qaeda and a rising role for groups inspired by al-Qaeda," said the state department counsel Philip Zelikow.

The state department’s first Country Reports on Terrorism cited as examples the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004, and an Algerian terrorist leader’s announcement of loyalty to al-Qaeda.

The incidents "illustrate what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al-Qaeda organise and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al-Qaeda itself", the report said.