WASHINGTON
Last year saw the highest number of state sponsored mass killing since the early 1990s, and the highest number of refugees since World War II, according to the U.S. national intelligence director.
"When the final counting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled,” James Clapper told Senate at a hearing.
“About half of all attacks, as well as fatalities, in 2014 occurred in just three countries: Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Compared to 2013 when more than 11,500 terrorist attacks worldwide killed approximately 22,000 victims, Clapper said preliminary data for the first nine months of 2014 reflected nearly 13,000 attacks and 31,000 fatalities.
Roughly half of the world's currently stable countries are at some risk of instability in the next two years, he added.
Clapper did not provide data about the Syrian conflict for 2014 as several actors fight each other in the country, complicating the counting of fatalities.
Since the fighting began in 2011, approximately 300,000 people have been killed and 52 percent of Syria's pre-war population, or about 11.4 million people, have been displaced, he said.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar maintains a military advantage in the conflict that still threatens regional and global security as it has been a magnet for foreign fighters, according to Clapper.
"Since the conflict began, more than 20,000 Sunni foreign fighters have traveled to Syria from more than 90 countries to fight the Assad regime. Of that number, at least 13,600 have extremist ties," he said, adding that more than 3,400 Western fighters have gone to Syria and Iraq – hundreds of whom have returned home to Europe.
Responding to questions by lawmakers about the Syrian civil war and U.S.-led coalition against Daesh – the Arabic acronym for ISIL – Clapper said a lot of countries are not participating militarily in the coalition out of fear.
"I do think the brutal savagery of ISIL and the beheadings and then the immolation of the Jordanian pilot have had a galvanizing effect on opinion in the Mideast region," he said.
There is more of a willingness for cooperation, he said, particularly around sharing intelligence.
