Three months (92 days) have now passed since the start of the thread titled 'Islamic terrorists'.
I feel an update is necessary considering the daunting task of having to compile Islamic terrorist attacks.
So, after three months, there have been a total of 84 (or 89 depending on how you count) Islamic suicide bombers who have struck eight different countries.
The totals are as follows:
Afghanistan - 34 (39)
Iraq - 33
Pakistan - 9
Algeria - 2
Uganda - 2
Iran - 2
Russia - 1
Oman - 1
A few trends should be commented on. One, suicide bombings in Iraq seem to have waned, especially over the past two weeks. This isn't terribly surprising given the increased security measures of the Iraq government and the progress coalition forces have made against Islamic terrorist groups over the past two and a half years. For a few years, there were several suicide bombings every day in Iraq. Now, Islamic insurgents can only churn out one Paradise seeker every three days. Undoubtedly, the decreased flow of foreign Jihadists from Syria is the major cause of this.
Another trend that I found surprising was the relatively few suicide bombings in Pakistan. If this count started a few months earlier, then I would have counted a much larger number of fanatics who would have blown themselves up in Pak cities and tribal meetings.
It also looks like Afghanistan has taken the lead in suicide bombings from Iraq and will most likely continue to do so. Mullah Omar has revised his earlier comments instructing the Taliban to limit martyrdom operations. Perhaps increased martyrdom activity in Afghanistan will create a resurgence of suicide bombings in the Islamic world ?
After all, suicide bombings sky rocketed after the second Palestinian Jihad against the non-Muslim state of Israel, which was spearheaded by the Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And the global Jihad movement grew by leaps and bounds during and after the Afghan Jihad victory following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Since the second invasion of Afghanistan, Jihadists have longed for a second Afghan Jihad since the Americans and British overthrew the Taliban regime. Only until now, however, have events in Afghanistan favored the Jihadists.
And if al-Qaeda, the Haqqani Network and Pak Taliban manage to open up a Jihadi foreign fighter pipeline into Afghanistan, the number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan (that are currently carried out mainly by Afghans, unlike Iraq) will increase several fold. That won't even include the number of foreign fighters who will venture to Afghanistan for Jihad and one day return to their home countries in the Arab world. Afghanistan will undoubtedly unleash the second rebirth of international Jihadism, if it is successful.
-- Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:06 pm --
Edit: A suicide bomber managed to martyr himself today, the last day of the three month update. The count is 85 (90) suicide bombings in three months.