Terrorist attacks, deaths rise in Bangladesh, but fall worldwide in 2015: US report

The number of terrorist attacks and deaths has increased in Bangladesh bucking a failing global trend in 2015, says a US State Department report.

Overall, the number of such attacks around the world declined last year for the first time since 2012, news agency Reuters said quoting the State Department report on Thursday.

Terrorist attacks fell by 13 percent compared with 2014, while fatalities caused by terrorist activity declined by 14 percent, the agency said in its report on global terrorism, which tracks trends in political violence.

The State Department's acting coordinator for counterterrorism, Justin Siberell, said the drop was due to fewer attacks in Iraq, Pakistan and Nigeria.

More than 55 percent of attacks attributed to terrorists last year occurred in five countries: Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Nigeria, he said.

Terrorist attacks and deaths increased in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Syria and Turkey, according to Siberell.

"The global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralised and diffuse," the report said.

"Although terrorist attacks took place in 92 countries in 2015, they were heavily concentrated geographically, as they have been for the past several years."

Data compiled by the University of Maryland for the State Department showed there were 11,774 terrorist attacks worldwide during the year, in which more than 28,300 people died and roughly 35,300 others were wounded.

A person holds up a ''Je Suis Charlie'' (I am Charlie) sign during a ceremony at Place de la Republique square to pay tribute to the victims of last year's shooting at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in Paris, Jan 10, 2016. Reuters

Islamic State militants posed the greatest terrorism threat globally despite significant losses in territory in Iraq and Syria last year, the report said.

The group made gains in Libya, however, where it has about 5,000 fighters, the report said.

It said Islamic State-aligned groups had emerged in other parts of the Middle East, south and southeast Asia and West Africa, although the relationship between the groups and Islamic State leadership was "symbolic in most cases".

As in previous years, the report cited Iran as the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, saying Tehran supported conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and was implicated in violent Shia opposition raids in Bahrain.

Bahrain has accused Iran of fomenting unrest in the country and of supplying weapons to Shia militants behind several bomb attacks on security forces. Iran has denied the claims.