August 22, 2011:
The U.S. State Department recently released its annual terrorism report (for 2010.) They counted 11,604 terrorist attacks, in 72 countries, last year. This resulted in 49,901 casualties, of which 26 percent died. The U.S. recognizes 47 terrorist organizations, plus four countries (Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria) that are sponsors of terrorism. There are many other terrorist organizations that the U.S. does not officially recognize as such, but locals usually do.
While the number of attacks was up five percent compared to 2009, for the third year in a row, deaths declined (12 percent from 2009 to 2010.) Most of the terrorism casualties take place in four countries; Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. About 90 percent of the terrorism casualties involve Islamic radicalism.