While Sri Lanka is still trying to deal with the wave of terror that left over 250 people dead and about 500 injured nationwide, the German outlet Die Welt has pointed out that radical Islamist terror became a determining factor in global politics after the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001.
Since 9/11, Islamist extremists have perpetrated at least 31,221 attacks and killed 146,811 people worldwide, a study by the German outlet Die Welt am Sonntag has found out. According to its article “18 Years of Terror”, the number of violent attacks with at least 12 victims exceeds 3,000 acts, with 95,934 dead.
One of the deadliest attacks in Africa dates back to 2017. In October of that year, 588 people were killed and more than 300 injured in suicide truck bombings in Mogadishu, Somalia. The attack was attributed to Islamist terrorists from al-Shabaab. Just a month later, Egypt’s deadliest terrorist act was carried out by dozens of Daesh radicals. They stormed a mosque near the city of Bir al-Abed, killing 311 people.
This list of the deadliest terror acts concludes with the Easter bombings in Sri Lankaon 21 April 2019, when multiple blasts killed at least 253 people and injured over 500 others in hotels and churches. The Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) has reportedly claimed responsibility for them.