TAP Spotlight - Worldwide Terror-related Events - July 2021

Only one terror attack occurred in Europe and it was in a rural setting in the east of Turkey.

The attack was conducted by PKK, a Kurdish nationalist separatist group. They have targeted a military unit and the attack was in the form of harassing fire. The attack resulted in one loss of life.

The terror attacks in the Middle East occurred in Syria and Iraq. In total 62 people died, 74 were wounded and 7 people were kidnapped. 83% of the attacks were conducted by DAESH.
The incidents in Syria and Iraq are concentrated at the northern side of both countries above their capitals, Damascus and Baghdad. Both countries suffer from Kurdish nationalist separatist and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism at the same time.

In Iraq, the PKK has conducted two attacks in the north-east Iraq, near the Turkish-Iraqi border. The attacks were against military units and were in the form of harassing fire and armed reaction.

The DAESH was active in the rural territories between Mosul and Baghdad. They targeted civilians, military units, police units and other non-state armed groups.
In Syria, the YPG, Syrian branch of the PKK, was active along the Turkish border and the DAESH was active in the inner region of Syria between YPG and Damascus. In terms of target preferences, YPG’s targets continued to be mainly civilians, while DAESH mainly focused on military and police units.

Terror attacks in Asia took place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. In total, 54 people lost their lives and 48 people were wounded.
Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organisations were active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taliban’s attacks were against civilians and social spheres. They were concentrated in the rural regions of Afghanistan and around the capital, Kabul. They were in the form of raids, mortar attacks and kidnappings & executions.
Islamic State in Khorasan continued its attacks in urban settings of Kabul and Jalalabad and also in the rural territories surrounding these cities. In addition to these, they conducted one attack in Pakistan as well.
Tehrik-i Taliban in Pakistan continued its activities along the northern Afghan-Pakistani border. They have targeted military units, police units and civilians.

Pakistan continued to suffer from nationalist and separatist terrorism as well. Balochistan Liberation Army was mostly active in rural regions of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. They targeted military and police units and their facilities.
India suffered from leftist terrorism. Naxal Maoist Rebels were mostly active in the rural settings of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. They targeted police units and civilians.
In the Philippines, New People’s Army continued its Maoist guerrilla attacks against mostly military units. All the attacks occurred in the form of armed reaction and they were not concentrated in a specific region. Rather, they were spread over different parts of Philippines.
Indonesia also suffered from nationalist separatist terrorism. All the attacks were conducted in rural regions against military units and police units in the Papua region of Indonesia by the West Papua National Liberation Army.

FARC and ELN, both left-wing terrorist organisations, were active in mostly rural regions of Colombia and targeted military units, private enterprises and civilians. In total, 3 people died, 5 people were wounded and 1 person was kidnapped.

According to our data, this is the first incident of private enterprise targeting since the beginning of the year. These attacks were in the form of kidnappings and raids. Other attacks were in the form of armed reactions, assassinations and IED attacks.
ELN was active in the southern regions around the city Cali and FARC was active in the northern regions around Bogota, Medellin and the Colombia-Venezuela border. The collected data since January, 2021 reveal that although both organisations conduct attack in various parts of Colombia, they are usually confined to the regions indicated above

Africa maintains its position as the region which suffers the highest number of terror attacks and as a consequence, the highest number of casualties. The most kidnapping attacks continue to occur in Africa. In total, 153 people lost their lives, 93 people were wounded and 75 people were kidnapped.
Terror attacks in Africa were gathered in three distinct zones as the west Sahel Region, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa.
90.4% of the attacks took place in rural settings and most of the urban attacks took place in the southern Somalia.
Mainly Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups were active in the continent except for Dan Na Ambassagou, which is an ethnic Dogon terrorist organisation.

Al-Shabaab was the sole responsible terrorist organisation in the Horn of Africa. Al-Shabaab’s activities were mainly concentrated in urban Mogadishu and rural settings surrounding it. A significant amount of their attacks targeted security forces and their frequently preferred ways of engagement were armed reactions and assassinations.

In the west Sahel Region, attacks were concentrated at rural border zones. It is hard to determine a dominant attack type. A variety of attacks were utilized, however, kidnapping as an attack type is more preferred here than other regions. Most of the kidnapping attacks were used by Nusrat al-Islam, but Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province also used this attack type. Civilians and social spheres were targeted mostly in the region, especially in Burkina Faso and Niger, however, military units and facilities were the most targeted ones in Nigeria.
DAESH remained active in the Sinai Peninsula. They have targeted military units in rural settings.

Map: Attacks between April-June 2021, red circular areas display rural areas, blue circular areas display urban areas.