© REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Assaults by Daesh and affiliated organizations, stretching from the Middle East to European nations, also involved 11,000 hostage-takings or kidnappings, according to research released by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.
The study, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claims that 13% of all terrorist attacks occurring between 2002 and 2015 were caused by Daesh and affiliated groups.
Referring to Daesh, the study says that it has "undergone a complex evolution, including name changes, leadership changes. In addition, the reach of [Daesh] violence surpasses its own membership, to include attacks carried out by other groups and individuals who have pledged allegiance to [Daesh] regardless of whether or not formal ties exist."
The situation reached a critical point in 2014, when the group and affiliates conducted some 106 attacks per month, two times higher than the previous year, and that ratio carried over into 2015.
During this period, after the group's leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi said that Daesh would be expanding to Syria, most attacks took place in Syria and Iraq. But assaults also touched Turkey, Libya, Israel, France and the US, taking into account Daesh-inspired killings. The violent extremist group has shown success in recruiting support in the West through social media.
The scope of Daesh-related attacks has increased, when including recent tragedies such as the June gun attack in Orlando, Florida, or the attacks in Paris and Brussels.
"Terrorist attacks by [Daesh], its predecessors, and affiliated groups are known to be particularly deadly and involve especially intimidating tactics, including suicide attacks, hostage taking, and multipart, coordinated events," the study reads.
Experts suggested to the Washington Free Beacon last month that Daesh will continue to instigate attacks in the Middle East and western countries, despite ongoing territorial and member losses in Iraq and Syria.
Comment: There's probably no reason to doubt the numbers, more or less. The relatively small number of casualties in Western countries, however, is probably overinflated. Take the Orlando shootings: there's no indication the shooter was affiliated with Daesh. And given that at least some of the victims were probably killed by 'friendly' fire, we'd have to add Orlando police to that list of Daesh affiliates. But the big problem with this study is the identification of Daesh and "affiliated groups". Many of these attacks are false flags. And all of them serve a U.S./NATO geopolitical agenda. So "Daesh-affiliated" groups really should include organizations like the CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc. And doing so would actually raise the numbers even higher.