As of October, there were five people charged with jihadi terrorism in the United States in 2024, four of whom were male. In 2023, there were a total of ten people charged with jihadi terrorism in the United States: nine of whom were male. Since 9/11, more than 500 people have been charged with terrorism in the United States, with 2015 seeing the largest spike in people charged with terrorism. Extremism in the United States Despite fears that extremism is on the rise in the United States, right-wing extremism is far more prevalent than jihadi terrorism. From 2014 to 2023, 19 percent of extremist-related killings were caused by someone affiliated with Islamist extremism, while 76 percent of extremist-related killings were carried out by someone affiliated with right-wing extremism. Overall, there have been relatively few terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 1970. Islamist extremism in the U.S. 2016 saw a spike in the number of Islamist extremist killings in the United States, with 49 fatalities in that year. However, there was a significant number of attacks in the following year that resulted in no injuries and no fatalities.

From 2007 to 2022, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) suffered from the highest number of terrorist attacks, reaching over 23,000 incidents as of 2022. The region with the second highest number of attacks, South Asia, recorded nearly 18,000 attacks during the same period.

Recent developments

While Afghanistan remains the country most impacted by terrorism in the world, there has been a global shift in the patterns of terrorist attacks since 2019. After the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was defeated, the number of deaths from terrorist attacks in Middle East and North Africa as well as South Asia has been decreasing, whereas it has been increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Sahel region especially affected. Someone's terrorist is someone else's freedom fighter

In the Western World, much of the attention on terrorism has been on Islamist groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaida since 9/11. In the decades before, attacks conducted by nationalist groups such as ETA in Spain or IRA in Norther Ireland received much attention. While some saw these as brutal terrorists, other saw them as freedom fighters battling for their cause. Debate still exists over the labeling of certain groups fighting for political or religious reasons as terrorist organizations. This debate is reflected in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as the PKK, who operate in Iraq and Turkey are considered a terrorist group by NATO and the European Union, but not the United Nations and states such as China and Switzerland.

In 2020, there were 103 terrorist attacks in the United States. This is a significant increase from the 18 terrorist attacks that occurred in 2008.

Terrorism in the United States

Terrorism in the United States is seen as an act of violence with the motive to create ideological change. Terrorism in the United States is usually associated with Islamic terrorism and does not always consider ring-wing motives as terrorism. Since the September 11, 2001 attack, most terror acts committed on United States soil were perpetrated by U.S. born citizens. Additionally, since 1970, bombing/explosion type attacks were the most common type of terror attacks in the United States. 2017 saw the highest number of fatalities in terrorist attacks since 2001.

9/11 Attack

The September 11, 2001 attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States. Perpetrated by terrorist group al-Qaeda, over 3,000 people died and around 6,000 people were injured. Furthermore, it caused long-term health problems for those who survived such as cancer and other respiratory diseases. The World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed and a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged as a result of three different airplanes crashing into them. Following the attack, the United States declared the War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan. Additionally, the Homeland Security Act was introduced. It created the Department of Homeland Security, which seeks to protect civilians within and outside the borders of the United States and respond to terrorist attacks. However, nearly half of U.S. citizens said that they were only somewhat satisfied with the government’s response to 9/11.

Since 1970, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. is the deadliest terrorist attack worldwide, claiming almost 3,000 lives. Moreover, except for the Musha Church massacre during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, all of the 10 most lethal terrorist attacks between 1970 and January 2024 happened after 2001. ISIL stood behind four of these.

Afghanistan was the country most ridden by terrorism

In 2022, Afghanistan topped the Global Terrorism Index, which ranks terrorist activity across the world. While the rise and fall of the Islamic State and its caliphate in Syria and Iraq received much attention during the 2010s, there has been increased terrorist activity in other parts of the world in recent years, particularly in some African countries such as Burkina Faso, Somalia, and Mali.

Taliban was the most active terrorist organization

In 2021, Taliban, which mainly operates in Afghanistan, was the most active terrorist organization that year, being responsible for nearly 800 attacks. The attacks resulted in nearly 4,500 fatalities. Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 after the NATO-mission in the country ended that year.

In 2023, Syria was the country with the highest number of terrorist attacks, reaching 1,405. That year, more than 5,300 terrorist attacks were registered worldwide, resulting in almost 16,000 fatalities. Global trends in terrorism While the War on Terror and the hunt for Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden dominated global coverage of terrorism after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the focus moved to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria after gaining large territories in the two countries in 2014. Although the group continues to be active, it has lost much of its territory in Iraq and Syria and has moved activities to other countries such as Afghanistan and Western Africa. Economic costs of terrorism Next to causing devastating human losses and tragedy, terrorism causes severe economic damage. For instance, the property losses of the 9/11 attacks in the United States had an insured value of more than 27 billion U.S. dollars. Still, terrorism causes the highest economic damage in the countries most impacted by terrorist activity.

21,596 people were killed by terrorists worldwide in 2023. This was significantly lower than the peak in 2018, when nearly 33,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks worldwide, and lower than the 21,957 fatalities in 2022. The number of terrorist attacks worldwide declined overall since 2014. What is terrorism? Terrorism is defined as unlawful violence or systematic use of terror against civilians or politicians for ideological or political reasons, to create fear. Terrorism is practiced by political extremists, nationalistic and religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments. Deadliest terrorist attack The terrorist attack against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, 2001 was the deadliest attack registered in the period between 1970 and 2020. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attack. The second deadliest attack was the Tikrit attack by the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014, killing 1,700 people.

Since 1970, the worst terrorist attack in the United Kingdom was the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 above Lockerbie, Scotland, which caused 270 fatalities. Of the ten attacks worst terrorist attacks in the UK, seven were related to the troubles in Northern Ireland, while two were related to Islamic extremism. The London 7/7 bombings in 2005, which caused the deaths of 56 people, and the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017, which claimed the lives of 23 people. Are terrorist attacks in the UK on the rise? When compared with earlier decades, the number of terrorist attacks in the UK has declined considerably. Throughout the 1970s, there were approximately 1,644 terrorist attacks, 1,315 in the 1980s, and 1,214 in the 1990s, compared with just 325 in the 2000s, and 925 in the 2010s. During this period, the year with the highest number of attacks was 1972, when there were 292. Although the period between 2013 and 2018 saw a high volume of terrorist attacks, this has started to decline in more recent years. In 2021, for example there were 40 terrorist attacks, the fewest since 2009. A global threat In 2022, 21,943 people lost their lives due to terrorism, with the Democratic Republic of Congo suffering the highest number of attacks at 984. The UK was not alone in seeing the intensity of terror attacks increase in the mid-2010s either. The Paris Attacks of November 2015 caused 130 fatalities, while the Nice attacks in 2016 led to 86 deaths, some of the worst terrorist incidents to have ever taken place in Europe. Due to these attacks, the number of deaths caused by terrorism was significantly higher in 2015 and 2016 than in other years, at 152, and 142 respectively.

As of March 2021, 11 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in 2020. This is a decrease from a peak of 904 casualties in 2007.

Additional information on fatalities in the Iraq War

The invasion of Iraq by the United States and coalition forces in March 2003 saw the beginning of the Iraq War, a conflict that would continue beyond the end of the decade. Fatalities of American forces were highest in the first five years of conflict as soldiers grappled with the Al Qaeda as well as civil war between those groups seeking to fill the power vacuum left by the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Casualties progressively decreased from 2008, in part due to attempts by Barack Obama who made the removal of troops from Iraq a central promise of this successful campaign to succeed George W. Bush. In 2013, the majority of Americans considered sending troops to fight in Iraq to be a mistake.

While the number of civilian deaths in the Iraq War was much higher, the trend of numbers decreasing from 2008 onward was in line with the trend for American solider losses. However, civilian deaths rose again from 2013 onward as Iraq returned to heavy conflict with Islamic State.

The high number of American fatalities in the first five years of the Iraq War could be seen as influencing the reluctance of the United States to commit ground troop support in the battle against Islamic State when the issue was discussed in 2015. Not only is the loss of life a tragedy in itself, but the political discourse in the United States surrounding the involvement of their troops in Middle Eastern conflicts has made further involvement unattractive to elected officials. However calls for further ground support are likely to continue as Iraq remained in the top five countries with the most terrorist attacks as of 2019.

The Lockerbie plane bombing involving Pan Am Flight 10 flying from London to New York caused 270 deaths, and is the worst terrorist attack in Europe since 1980. In 2004, the Madrid train bombings led to the deaths of 191 people, and is the second worst terrorist attack since 1980.