Earlier this month, the National Counterterrorism Center issued its annual report on terrorist incidents. The NCTC Report on Incidents of Terrorism 2005 (available here as a PDF file) notes that there were over 11,000 terrorist incidents in 2005 resulting in over 14,500 deaths. Fifty-six Americans were killed in terrorist attacks, forty-seven of them in Iraq. (By definition, terrorist attacks are aimed at non-combatants; consequently, American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in the total.) Worldwide, approximately 80 mosques were targeted in terrorist attacks.
The top ten countries by number of fatalities in terrorist attacks for 2005 were the following:
- Iraq (8,299)
- India (1,357)
- Colombia (810)
- Afghanistan (682)
- Thailand (500)
- Nepal (462)
- Pakistan (338)
- Russia (237)
- Sudan (157)
- Dem. Rep. of the Congo (149)