November 19, 2015
The Global Terrorism Index Points Finger at Iraq Invasion
Since the start of the 21st century, there has been a nine-fold increase in the number of deaths from terrorism, rising from 3,329 in 2000 to 32,658 in 2014. And the catalyst for this rise had been the US-led invasion of Iraq, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015, released today by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
Iraq, says the GTI, has ranked as the most impacted country by terrorism for every year since 2004.
From 1998 to 2002 there were 65 deaths from terrorism in Iraq. With the commencement of the Iraq war there were nearly five times as many deaths in the first year of the war than in the previous five years. There have been two distinct periods when terrorism has jumped in Iraq. The first occurred in 2007 with the US troop surge when 6,100 deaths were reported, an increase of 39% from the previous year. The knock-on effect led to the rising tide of terrorism in Afghanistan and then in Pakistan. The second terrorist surge in Iraq began in 2013 and has continued through to 2015 fuelled by increasing sectarian violence and the activities of ISIL.
In 2014, says the GTI, the highest ever levels recorded in a single country over one year were in Iraq with 9,929 deaths, an increase of 55% from 2013. There were three times as many terrorist deaths in Iraq in 2014 than in the entire world in the year 2000.
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have all been ranked in the ten countries with the highest number of deaths from terrorism for every year in the last ten years. This reflects that terrorism has remained a significant issue in these three countries ever since 2003.
Libya recorded a 255% increase in terrorist fatalities in 2014 compared to the previous year. Terrorism in Libya is linked to the Libyan crisis which began in 2011 after the Arab Spring and subsequent military battle to overthrow leader Muammar Gaddafi. There were no deaths from terrorism in Libya until 2012 when 28 people were killed in 51 separate attacks. In 2013 terrorism more than quadrupled to 121 deaths.
Globally, from 2013 to 2014 the number of deaths from terrorism increased by 14,574, which represents an 80% increase.
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