Sharp Decline in Terror Attacks After Bin Laden Death

The number of worldwide terror attacks fell to 10,283 last year, down from 11,641 in 2010 and the lowest since 2005, the State Department reported today.

What's made the difference? The State Department cites the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda members killed last year including Atiyah Abd al-Rahman and Anwar al-Awlaki, who was the head of Yemen's Al Qaeda affiliate and had ties to the underwear bomber plot in 2010.

"The loss of bin Laden and these other key operatives puts the network on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse," the report stated.

But Ambassador Dan Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, warned that for all the good news about the core of al Qaeda being weakened, affiliates of the group, particularly in Yemen and in Africa, continue to pose a real risk.

Nigeria was one of the few countries which actually saw an increase in terror attacks last year because of Boko Haram, and Kenya and Somalia continue to experience attacks by a weakened Al Shabab. Benjamin also noted that the Arab spring and other countries in transition could leave important allies like Egypt and Iraq vulnerable to terror groups.

The following is a list of high-profile terrorist killed or captured since President Obama took office.
•September 2011 – Younis al Mauritani captured (senior al Qaeda leader in Pakistan)
•September 2011 – Abu Hafs al-Shahri killed (al Qaeda’s chief of Pakistan operations)
•August 2011 – Atiyah Abd al-Rahman killed (Al Qaeda No. 2 in Pakistan)
•May 2011 – Osama bin Laden killed (Number 1 Al Qaeda, and worlds most wanted)
•June 2011 – Fazul Abdullah Mohammed killed (top al-Qaeda operative in Somalia)
•June 2011 – Ilyas Kashmiri killed (top al- Qaeda commander in Pakistan)
•June 2010 – Hawza al Jawfi killed along with 6 other terrorist (leader in Pakistan)
•May 2010 – Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid killed [aliases Shaikh Sa’id al-Masri and Mustafa Abu al-Yazid] (al Qaeda’s No. 3)
•April 2010 – Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (Top two Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq)
•March 2010 – Qari Mohammad Zafar killed (terrorist leader in Pakistan)
•February 2010 – Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar captured (The Taliban’s top military commander)
•February 2010 – Sirajuddin Haqqani killed (militant commander in Pakistan)
•January 2010 – Qassem al-Rimi, Ayed al-Shabwani, Ammar al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Ibrahim and Mohammed Saleh al-Banna killed (Al-Qaeda military boss and senior Al-Qaeda figures in the Arabian Peninsula)
•December 2009 – Saleh Al-Somali killed (senior al Qaeda operative in Pakistan)
•September 2009 – Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan killed (ringleader of an al Qaeda cell in Kenya)

There have been several other less-visible leaders and operatives killed under the Obama Administration, as well as many other attempted kills and captures.



This is the trend Nigeria must follow to stop Boko-Haram, strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.