Religion of Peace™
Via Free Beacon:
The terror group ISIS along with its predecessors and affiliates carried out over 4,900 attacks between 2002 and 2015, killing more than 33,000 people in assaults that stretched from the Middle East to western nations, according to a new study.
ISIS-related attacks comprised 13 percent of all terror attacks globally during the 13-year period, according to research released Tuesday from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. In addition to killing tens of thousands of people worldwide, assaults by ISIS, also known as the Islamic State or ISIL, have caused 41,000 injuries and involved 11,000 hostage takings or kidnappings. ISIS and its affiliates caused one quarter of the deaths from terror attacks during the period.
While ISIS did not assume its current name until 2013, researchers evaluated the patterns of ISIS-related attacks beginning in 2002 by looking at assaults perpetrated by its predecessors. The study, which was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, also examined attacks carried out by ISIS militants in its so-called “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, attacks by affiliated organizations such as the Khorasan Province in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ISIS-inspired attacks.
President Obama has sought to highlight the progress of the U.S. military campaign against ISIS in the Middle East, as Iraqi forces have seized key territories from the terror group in recent months. These forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes and ground support, are gearing up to retake Mosul, the terror group’s de facto capital in Iraq. The White House is now also looking to cooperate with Russia to combat ISIS in Syria, where the civil war between Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups has complicated efforts against the terror group.
The new research underlines how ISIS has inspired attacks abroad and expanded the lethality, frequency, and geographical scope of assaults since its emergence. The group began as a small terror network lead by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant Islamist from Jordan, and claimed its first kill in the death of American diplomat Laurence Foley in October 2002.