SHAFAQNA – Iraqi had the lion’s share of the deadliest terrorist bombings in 2016, according to a study by the University of Maryland.
“More than half (55%) of all terrorist attacks in the Middle East & North Africa in 2016 took place in Iraq, which saw a 22 percent increase in terrorist attacks since 2015. Likewise, total deaths due to terrorist attacks in Iraq increased 38 percent from 2015 to 2016, comprising nearly two thirds (64%) of all deaths from terrorist attacks in the Middle East & North Africa in 2016,” the study said.
It added that despite a decline in terrorist attacks worldwide between 2015 and 2016, the Middle East region saw a 2% increase in attacks, coupled with a surge in deaths resulting from those attacks by 8 percent.
“Ten of the 11 deadliest terrorist attacks in 2016 took place in the Middle East & North Africa, including nine in Iraq and one in Syria,” the study added. It said Iraq’s deadliest attack was the one which took place in July 2016 in which a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a shopping center in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 382 people and wounding 200 others.