Iraq Ranked #1 For Risk Of Terrorist Attacks In The World For 2nd Year

An English based group called Maplecroft that studies human rights, the environment, terrorism, and politics issued its latest Terrorism Risk Index that found Iraq the number one country in the world most at risk for terrorist attacks. The organization looked at the number of terrorist attacks, the number of casualties they caused, the history of violence in a country, and the threats made by terrorist groups every six months to compile their list. For the second year in a row Iraq was ranked number one. It was followed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Lebanon, India, Algeria, Columbia, Thailand, and the Philippines at number ten. 

Maplecroft acknowledged that security had greatly improved in Iraq and that terrorist attacks were down, but it noted that over 4,000 people were still killed there in 2009, and that bombings and other security incidents are still daily occurrences. As reported before, deaths in Iraq are at their lowest point since the 2003 invasion. That still means 100-500 people are killed a month, which is far too many. Violence has also leveled off since taking a dramatic drop at the beginning of 2009. Unless Iraqi politics are able to work out the many differences in the country its unlikely that the terrorist attacks will end in the short-term.

SOURCES

Maclean, William, “Iraq has top terror risk, Thai danger up: ranking,” Reuters, 2/16/10

Maplecroft, “Iraq, India and Colombia top Maplecroft terrorism list – Thailand emerges as extreme risk nation,” 2/16/10