TerrorismAl Qaeda the deadliest terror organization in history

Published 9 May 2011

A new report finds al Qaeda to be the deadliest terrorist organization in history; since its founding in 1998, the organization has conducted eighty-four terrorist attacks, resulting at least 4,299 deaths and 6,300 people injured; in comparison: ETA, the Basque separatist organization in Spain, killed 820 people between 1972 and 2008; IRA attacks have killed about 1,829 people dating back to 1970; the only group that comes close in terms of deadly attacks is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), killing 4,835 people during the course of its existence

A new report from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland says that al Qaeda is the most lethal terrorist organization in history. The report shows that in the last twelve years, the organization has conducted eighty-four terrorist attacks, resulting at least 4,299 deaths and 6,300 people injured.

Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization Usama bin Laden founded, was responsible for fomenting more mass casualty attacks than any other group in recent history,” said START director Gary LaFree, a University of Maryland professor who has assembled the world’s most comprehensive unclassified terrorism database.

Fox News notes that the report compares al Qaeda to other terrorist groups in terms of lethality. ETA, the Basque separatist organization in Spain, killed 820 people between 1972 and 2008. IRA attacks have killed about 1,829 people dating back to 1970. The only group that comes close in terms of deadly attacks is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), killing 4,835 people during the course of its existence.

— Read more in Background Report: The Fatal Terrorism of al-Qa’ida (University of Maryland, May 2011)