Terrorism in Libya

The risk of terrorist attacks in Libya over the past years can be classified as very high. Compared to other countries here are quite a lot and also momentous incedents. Over the past 5 years a total number of 1765 terrorist incidents has been recorded, in which 1880 people have been killed and 2716 injured. Among them were 69 suicide acts.

In 415 incedents a total of 1983 people have been kidnapped or taken as hostage, though a ransom was rarely (29 times) extorted.

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Most frequent attack targets in Libya

(2013 to 2017)

Target	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Private citizens	618	1,043	1,192	1,212
Government	284	121	232	133
Business	199	174	190	325
Police	177	231	303	224
Military	154	438	285	219
Non-state militias	122	354	1,031	9
Journalists & Media	75	18	9	51
Religious institutions	66	39	22	14
Airports & Aircraft	40	20	98	116
Educational institution	39	10	11	12

Most affected regions

(2013 to 2017)

Region	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Benghazi	614	649	1,238	77
Tripoli	338	257	589	711
Sirte	306	286	205	516
Derna	154	163	201	71
Misrata	66	153	199	94
Wahat	54	45	33	124
Jabal Al Akhdar	30	2	8	16
Zawiya	30	8	10	23
Sabha	30	22	36	119
Jabal Al Gharbi	27	30	55	13
Murqub	17	18	17	9
Nuqat Al Khams	16	20	10	109
Butnan	16	4	37	1
Jafara	11	31	28	2
Wadi Al Hayaa	10	0	30	5
Jufra	10	38	8	44
Murzuq	4	6	5	8
Kufra	4	2	1	3
Wadi Al Shatii	3	141	0	1
Ghat	3	1	4	0

Terrorist organisations in Libya

Organisation	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Islamic State	428	666	718	746
Haftar Militia	25	101	220	3
Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries	13	44	105	0
Misrata Brigades	10	145	1	2
Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna	8	5	2	9
Libya Shield Force	7	2	4	15
February 17 Martyrs Brigade	6	4	1	0
Tripoli Revolutionaries Battalion	6	2	1	5
Abu Obaida bin Jarrah Brigade	5	0	0	0
Kani Brigade	4	6	2	0
Al-Qaqa Brigade	4	3	0	1

All information sourced from the "National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism" (START) and its Global Terrorism Database. An act of terrorism is concidered every incident which is aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal, but not for pure profit motives. In addition these incidents must not be legitimized by warfare activities, listet in the Geneva Conventions of 1949.