Despite them being “on the path to defeat.”
Via Times of Israel:
A team of researchers at an Israeli institute has found a surge in the number of suicide attacks in the last decade, with al-Qaeda behind the lion’s share of them.
A report by the Institute for National Security Studies published in January indicates a steep rise in the number of suicide bombings since the turn of the century, with 2013 seeing a jump over the year prior.
Researchers also found a growing threat of al-Qaeda terror activity against Israel, even though the Jewish state has yet to be significantly targeted.
The study was authored by Yoram Schweitzer, head of the institute’s terrorism research program, and researchers Einat Yogev and Yotam Rosner.
From the 1980s, when suicide bombings first came on the scene, until 2000, the majority of the approximately 200 such bombings were carried out by the Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah.
Since 2000, however, around 3,500 suicide bombings have been recorded. The turning point came following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
In all, al-Qaeda and jihadist groups have tallied more than 85 percent of the total suicide attacks worldwide, but in 2013 that figure rose to nearly 95%, the INSS study found.