Al Qaeda behind 95% of world’s suicide bombings

Hardest hit: Robert Pape, who several years ago published with great fanfare a study that purported to show that most suicide terror is committed by non-Muslims. Not only was Pape wrong; he was on the dole of Hamas-linked CAIR.

“Study warns of growing threat to Israel from Al-Qaeda,” by Avi Issacharoff for the Times of Israel, January 14:

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 new report by the Institute for National Security Studies 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.

Despite the relatively low number of suicide bombings compared to other tactics employed by terror groups, they resonate strongly thanks to both the number of lives they claim and their attack on public morale.

In the past year, terrorist groups launched 291 suicide attacks in 18 countries, killing around 3,100 people — a 25% rise in attacks compared to the year prior….

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