The number of people killed by terrorists worldwide in 2013 rose by 60 percent compared to the previous year – from 11,133 to 17,958 – with four Sunni Muslim extremist groups responsible for two-thirds of all fatalities, according to a comprehensive annual study.

Eighty-two percent of fatalities occurred in just five countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria, although the number of countries that experienced more than 50 terror-related deaths also rose – to 24, compared with 15 the previous year.

Smoke billows from a burning car moments after Islamist terrorists carried out a suicide bombing attack targeting the convoy of an Egyptian government minister in Cairo in September 2013. (AP Photo/Ahmed Soliman, File)
Smoke billows from a burning car moments after Islamist terrorists carried out a suicide bombing . (AP Photo/Ahmed Soliman, File)

Four Sunni groups were responsible for 66 percent of all terror fatalities in 2013. In order of deadliness, they were the Taliban in Afghanistan and its Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) affiliate in neighboring Pakistan; al-Qaeda and its various affiliates; ISIS and its al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) precursor; and Boko Haram in Nigeria.

As expected, Iraq tops the new Global Terrorism Index (GTI), accounting for by far the largest number of terrorist deaths in the period under review – and that was even before the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)’s surge in the country, which has escalated since last January.

Iraq recorded a 162 percent rise in fatalities, to 6,362, with ISIS responsible for 77 percent of the attacks that were claimed by any particular group.

Keep reading @ CNS News