TerrorismMass-casualty terrorist attacks on the rise, with 11 attacks in first half of 2015

Published 17 November 2015

Mass casualty terrorist attacks, defined as attacks which kill more than 100 people (excluding perpetrators) in a particular country on a particular day, are on the rise. Between 1970 and 2014 there have been 176 such attacks. Between 2000 and 2014, there were mass casualty attacks in twenty-five countries, but most of them occurred in Iraq and Nigeria. Between January and June 2015 there were eleven attacks in which terrorists killed more than 100 people in a single country on a single day.

On Friday, 13 November 2015, ISIS terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks at several locations in Paris, including a concert hall where a concert was being held, several restaurants, and a soccer stadium. These attacks killed 132 people and wounded more than 350 others. To provide contextual information on coordinated, mass-fatality attacks, as well as terrorism in France and the attack patterns of ISIS, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorist and Responses to Terrorism (START) has compiled a background report titled Mass-Fatality, Coordinated Attacks Worldwide, and Terrorism in France.

The highlights:

  • Between 1970 and 2014, there have been 176 occasions on which terrorist attacks killed more than 100 people (excluding perpetrators) in a particular country on a particular day.
  • Between 2000 and 2014, there were 83 days on which more than 100 people were killed by terrorist attacks in a single country. These attacks took place in twenty-five countries in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, but they were especially concentrated in Iraq and Nigeria.
  • Preliminary data from 2015 suggest that the unusual frequency of mass casualty terrorist attacks in 2014 has continued. Between January and June 2015 there were eleven occasions in which terrorist attacks killed more than 100 people in a single country on a single day.
  • ISIS, under its current incarnation, carried out more than 750 coordinated attacks in 2000-2014 — specifically in 2013 and 2014. However, this is a conservative assessment because the Global Terrorism Database records the names of perpetrator organizations at the time of the attack. Thus, it is important to note that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), ISIS’s predecessor, carried out at least 400 coordinated attacks as well. Also, twenty-five coordinated attacks were attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), another identity previously assumed by ISIS, and several other coordinated attacks were carried out by provinces of the Islamic State, including the Sinai Province and the Tripoli Province.

— Read more in Mass-Fatality, Coordinated Attacks Worldwide, and Terrorism in France (START, November 2015)