A recent State Department report revealed terrorism around the world has grown drastically since the attacks of 11 September. Sahar El-Bahr reviews the report Despite the harsh strategies employed by the US to curb terrorism, the State Department's annual report on terrorism classified six countries as state sponsors of terror: Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba. The report documented more than 14,600 deaths resulting from approximately 11,000 terror attacks around the world last year, nearly four times the number of attacks in 2004. The National Counterterrorism Centre, which provided statistical information to the State Department, indicated that at least 10,000 to 15,000 of the approximately 40,000 people killed or wounded worldwide were Muslims. About 3,500 of last year's attacks occurred in Iraq and resulted in approximately 8,300 deaths, accounting for a large part of the increase over 2004. Iran was branded "the most active state sponsor of terrorism", an accusation Iran has vehemently rejected. "Tehran regards this report as worthless and insignificant. The United States labels the governments which are against its policies as terrorist nations. The US is the biggest supporter of the Zionist regime, and is not a credible judge," commented Hamid Reza Asefi, Foreign Ministry spokesman to the official IRNA news agency. The State Department report claimed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanon. In addition, the IRGC was increasingly involved in supplying weaponry to Iraqi militant groups, and was thus held responsible for the instability suffered by Iraq. Syria's response has been equally dismissive of the report: "The war in Iraq has created a fertile ground for the escalation of terrorism and its expansion. America's occupation of Iraq, its hegemonic policy and its schemes in the region have increased popular anger," a Syrian Foreign Ministry official told official SANA news agency. He pointed out that the US war on terror has failed to achieve positive results. In rare acknowledgment of cooperation by Syria, the report noted that Damascus has attempted to prevent terrorists from crossing into Iraq, adding that it has upgraded security along its border. The US had previously accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to enter Iraq through its territory. However the report faulted Syria for continuing to provide political and material support to both Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorist groups. It pointed out that while the Syrian government has not been implicated directly in an act of terrorism since 1986, preliminary findings of a UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik El-Hariri have indicated a strong likelihood of official Syrian involvement. The report cited allegations that Libyan officials had played a role in the attempt to assassinate then-Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in 2003. The US continues to evaluate Libya's assurances that it has suspended the use of violence for political purposes. According to the report, Sudan has continued its cooperative commitment against known and suspected international terrorist elements believed to be operating in and out of Sudanese territory. Sudan's history of having played host in the mid-1990s to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden continues to weigh heavily in the objective assessment of the country's role in international terrorism, but there is no indication that Al-Qaeda elements have had a presence in Sudan with the knowledge and consent of the Sudanese government for at least the past five years. Continued focus was placed on Sudan for its role in contributing fighters for the Iraqi insurgency. The report admitted that while Al-Qaeda is not the organisation it was four years ago -- mainly due to the arrests and assassinations of top operational planners -- the group remains the most prominent terror threat facing the US and its allies: "The enemy's proven ability to adapt means we will go through several more cycles of action/reaction before the war's outcome is no longer in doubt. It is likely we will have a resilient enemy for years to come." The report continued that a new generation of extremists, some of them getting training through the Internet, is emerging in cells that are likely to be more local and less meticulously planned. These small groups, empowered by technology, are very difficult to detect or counter. The report indicated that terrorists tend to plan and inspire acts of terrorism along international borders between and among ineffective governments: the Afghanistan border, the intersection of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, the Celebes Sea in Southeast Asia, and Somalia, all constitute a safe haven for terrorists. Cuba, which actively continues to oppose the US-led coalition prosecuting the global war on terror and has publicly condemned various US policies and actions, was reprimanded for failing to undertake any counter-terrorism effort in international and regional flora. Official government statements and the government-controlled press rarely speak out against Al-Qaeda or other designated foreign terrorist organisations. The report indicated that The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987.
