対イラク武力行使

The report says 6,600, or 45%, of the attacks took place in Iraq, killing about 13,000 people, or 65% of the worldwide total of terrorist-related deaths in 2006. Kidnappings by terrorists soared 300% in Iraq over 2005.

Afghanistan had 749 strikes in 2006, a 50-percent rise from 2005 when 491 attacks were tallied, according to the report.

However, it also details a surge in Africa, where 65% more attacks, 420 compared to 253 in 2005, were counted last year, largely due to turmoil in or near Sudan, including Darfur, and Nigeria where oil facilities and workers have been targetted.

The report says that terrorists continue to rely mainly on conventional weapons in their attacks, but noted no let up in an alarming trend toward more sophisticated and better planned and coordinated strikes.

For instance, while the number of bombings increased by 30% between 2005 and 2006, the death tolls from these incidents rose by 39% and the number of injuries rose by 45%, it says.

The report attributes the higher casualty figures to a 25-percent jump in the number of non-vehicular suicide bombings targetting large crowds that more than made up for a slight 12-percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.

Of the 58,000 people killed or wounded in terrorist attacks around the world in 2006, more than 50% were Muslims, the report, says with government officials, police and security guards accounting for a large proportion, the report says.

The number of child casualties from terrorist attacks soared by more than 80% between 2005 and 2006 to more than 1,800, while incidents involving educators were up more than 45% and those involving journalists up 20%, the report says.

Twenty-eight U.S. citizens were killed and 27 wounded in terrorist incidents in 2006, most of them in Iraq, where eight of the 12 Americans kidnapped by terrorists last year were taken captive, it says.