World terror attacks up 29 percent

UNITED STATES: Worldwide terror attacks increased 29 percent in 2006, mostly because of surging attacks on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a US report to be released Monday.

McClatchy newspapers reported that the State Department's annual terror report would show that there were 14,338 attacks last year, up from 11,111 the year before, numbers which do not include attacks on US troops.

The attacks have become deadlier, with 5,800 resulting in at least one fatality, also up from 2005.

A staggering 45 percent of the attacks were in Iraq.

That number could be politically explosive for the US administration, which is locked a stalemate with Congress over funding for the war in Iraq which was largely justified as a way to stop terrorism.

Several officials involved with the report contemplated playing down its findings, the US newspaper chain said, but the report is to be released by the congressionally mandated deadline of Monday.

"We're proceeding in normal fashion with the final review of this and expect it to be released early next week," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said last week, according to the newspaper chain.

The report, based on information from the 16 US intelligence agencies grouped under the National Counterterrorism Center, was mandated by Congress.

Once the statistics were compiled and approved, US State Department Secretary Condoleezza Rice met with her staff for an additional round of review, led by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, formerly the nation's intelligence czar, to avoid the fumbling that marred the report's release in recent years, according to officials.

The US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and military branch agencies, will prepare a separate report on terrorist "safe havens," as debate simmers as to whether Iraq has become just such a haven after the US invasion.

Washington, Monday, AFP