Kingdom among countries where terror has ‘lowest impact’ — index

By Mohammad Ghazal - Nov 19,2015 - Last updated at Nov 19,2015

AMMAN — Jordan was ranked among the countries with the “lowest impact of terrorism” on the 2015 Global Terrorism Index.

The Kingdom ranked 85th out of 162 countries in the index, prepared by the Institute for Economics and Peace — a non-profit think tank.

Iraq ranked first on the index — among countries with the highest impact of terrorism.

Commenting on the report, which is based on incidents in 2014, Fayez Dwairi, a military expert, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that the Kingdom needs to remain vigilant to safeguard its security and stability.

“Even if the impact of terrorism on Jordan is among the lowest countries, we still need to be careful in light of the surge of terror groups in the region,” he said.

“Jordan’s army and security forces are capable of controlling the borders and preventing any infiltrations, but we need to continue to be careful in this regard," Dwairi added.

The 2015 Global Terrorism Index highlights that terrorism continues to rise, with the total number of deaths from terrorism in 2014 amounting to 32,685, an 80 per cent increase from 18,111 the previous year.

“This is the highest level ever recorded. The significant majority of these deaths, over 78 per cent, occurred in just five countries: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria,” the report said.

While terrorism is highly concentrated in a small number of countries, the number of states which have had a terrorist attack is also increasing. In 2014 terrorism impacted more countries than ever before. Attacks were recorded in 93 countries, up from 88 in 2013.

There was a 120 per cent increase in the number of countries that recorded over 500 deaths: 11 countries in 2014, up from five in 2013.

Nigeria experienced the biggest year-on-year increase in deaths ever recorded with 5,662 more people being killed, an increase of over 300 per cent.

The report also highlights the “striking prevalence of lone wolf attacks in the West”.

“Lone wolf attacks account for 70 per cent of all terrorist deaths in the West since 2006.”

The index is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

“It investigates the changing patterns of terrorism by geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context.”

Global Terrorism Index

•Terrorist activity increased by 80% in 2014 to its highest recorded level

•The largest ever year-on-year increase in deaths from terrorism was recorded in 2014, rising from 18,111 in 2013 to 32,685 in 2014

•The number of people who have died from terrorist activity has increased nine-fold since 2000

•Boko Haram overtook Daesh to become the most deadly terrorist group in the world. Deaths attributed to the group increased by 317% in 2014 to 6,644. Daesh was responsible for 6,073 deaths

•Terrorist activity is highly concentrated — five countries accounted for 78% of deaths

•57% of all attacks and 78% of all deaths occurred in only five countries — Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria

•95 of the 162 countries covered in the study experienced no deaths from terrorism, while 67 countries experienced one or more deaths from terrorist activity.

•93 countries experienced a terrorist incident in 2014, up from 88 in 2013

•Private citizens are increasingly the targets of terrorist attacks. Deaths of private citizens increased by 172% between 2013 and 2014 compared to the total number of deaths which rose 80%

• Two groups are responsible for half the deaths from terrorism — Boko Haram and Daesh

•The flow of foreign militants into Iraq and Syria continued in 2014 and 2015. Between 25,000 and 30,000 foreign fighters have arrived in Syria and Iraq since 2011, 7,000 in the first six months of 2015

•Excluding Turkey, Europe accounted for 21% of all foreign militants in 2014. Half of the foreign fighters are from neighbouring Middle East and North Africa countries and an additional 4% are from Turkey

Source: Global Terrorism Index 2015

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