State Department Reports Increased Acts of Terror (washingtonpost.com): "Correcting an inaccurate report, the State Department announced Tuesday that acts of terror worldwide increased slightly last year and the number of people wounded rose dramatically.
The department also reported a decline in the number of people killed -- to 625 from 725 during 2002. But in April, the department reported 307 people had been killed last year -- a much bigger decline.
The findings had been used by senior Bush administration officials to bolster President Bush's claim of success in countering terrorism.
... Initially, 190 acts of terror were reported in 2003, a slight decrease from the 198 attacks reported for 2002. On Tuesday, the State Department said there were 208 acts of terror last year, a slight increase from 2002. Thirty-five U.S. citizens died in international terror attacks last year. The deadliest incident was a suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May in which nine Americans were killed.
The report did not include U.S. troops killed or wounded in Iraq, or the incidents there, in its report 'because they were directed at combatants.' Attacks against civilians and unarmed military personnel were included.
A total of 3,646 people were wounded worldwide in terror attacks last year, the report said. This represented a sharp increase from the 2,013 wounded in 2002.
In April, the department had said that 1,593 people were wounded in 2003, a sharp decline from the previous year."
- posted by geoff @ #