A new report shows Muslim terror organizations growing stronger globally, influenced by various factors. The future doesn’t look any brighter.

(Photo: shutterstock)

Suicide attacks perpetrated by Muslim terrorists have sharply increased by 94% over the course of 2014, a report by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) shows.

Muslim terrorists executed 592 suicide attacks, killing some 4,400 people around the world. In comparison, some 3,200 people were murdered by these attacks in 2013.

The report states that since the start of the millennium, suicide attacks have become a common mode of operation for many terrorist groups around the world, preferred particularly by Sunni Salafist jihadi organizations affiliated with the global jihad.

For them, suicide attacks are not only an effective tactic for causing death and destruction and sowing terror, it is also an expression of their religious convictions. The attacks are a trademark and proof of the willingness of their perpetrators to sacrifice themselves for the sake of Allah and Islam.

Growing Trend: More Female Bombers

(Photo: shutterstock)

The INSS report states that this trend was influenced by three main factors: the turmoil in the Middle East, which causes governmental instability and allows non-state organizations to grow stronger; the meteoric rise of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) terror organization as an influential player in the region and the world, sending 382 suicide bombers on their lethal missions; and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Middle East experienced the biggest spike in terror attacks, with 70 attacks killing about 2,750 people, compared to 163 attacks in 2013 and a death toll of some 1,950.

There was also an increase in the number of suicide attacks in the non-Arab Muslim world and in Africa, with Afghanistan topping the list with 124 suicide attacks in 2014, compared to 65 the previous year.

There was an increase in suicide attacks by women, 15 in 2014 as opposed to five in 2013 year. Most attacks were executed in Nigeria. 16 women blew themselves up in 13 attacks, and another four were caught before carrying out the attack. The Muslim Boko Haram terror organization has forced several girls they have captured to commit these atrocities.

The targets of these attacks were local security forces, and not Western targets. In fact, only about 3 percent of all suicide attacks were aimed at foreign armies, the report points out. Most were directed against governmental or military targets or local security forces, or were perpetrated in the context of religious and sectarian rivalry.

Trend to Persist in the Future

The INSS estimates that as the turmoil, instability and violence generated by Muslim religious terror in the world continues, suicide attacks will also continue through 2015 and beyond.

“The large number of ethnic-religious conflicts, and the strengthening of global jihadi elements, primarily ISIS and al-Qaeda and its affiliates, which see suicide attacks as a proven means of struggle and an article of faith” will perpetuate this disastrous mode of terror.

Focusing on Israel, the report states that terrorist organizations that use suicide bombers have a stronger presence in the countries bordering Israel, and Israel must prepare for the possibility that some attacks will be directed against it.

Such a development could spur Israel’s traditional enemies, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other local groups inspired by global jihad and Islamic State, to join in the growing suicide attack phenomenon, the INSS warns in conclusion.

By: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel