WASHINGTON, April 27: The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year, US newspapers said on Wednesday, quoting an unpublished State Department report. The newspapers claimed that US agencies monitoring terrorist activities had reported a sharp increase in deadly attacks during last year, but the State Department has decided not to include these figures in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week.
Several US newspapers reported that the number of “significant” attacks grew to about 655 last year, almost four times more than the record low of 175 reported in 2003.
The figures, attributed to congressional aides who were briefed by senior State Department officials, also showed a dramatic increase in terrorist incidents in Iraq. From 22 in 2003, the attacks increased by almost nine times to 198 in 2004.
This contradicts the Bush administration’s claim that the situation in Iraq had stabilized after the US handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government last summer.
The data provided to the congressional aides also showed terrorist attacks doubling over the previous year in Afghanistan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The State Department announced last week that it was breaking with tradition in withholding the statistics on terrorist attacks from its congressionally mandated annual report. Critics said the move aimed at protecting the government from possible embarrassment over its claim of defeating terrorism.
Last year, the State Department retracted its annual terrorism report after admitting that its initial version vastly understated the number of terrorist incidents.
“Last year was bad. This year is worse. They are deliberately trying to withhold data because it shows that … we are losing the war against international terrorism,” a former senior State Department official Larry C. Johnson told reporters.
