Terrorism in Afghanistan

The risk of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan over the past years can be classified as extremely high. Worldwide this is one of the most dangerous countries with the most and devastating attacks. Over the past 5 years a total number of 7025 terrorist incidents has been recorded, in which 22334 people have been killed and 25319 injured. Among them were 626 suicide acts.

In 722 incedents a total of 4677 people have been kidnapped or taken as hostage, though a ransom was rarely (40 times) extorted.

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Most frequent attack targets in Afghanistan

(2013 to 2017)

Target	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Police	2789	11,184	10,055	1,188
Private citizens	2331	8,613	12,605	2,535
Government	940	2,612	4,782	380
Military	422	2,578	2,742	112
Business	190	505	875	216
Religious institutions	161	473	771	31
Educational institution	160	140	1,282	313
Non-state militias	97	478	314	68
Transportation	81	201	278	234
NGO	59	97	47	262

Most affected regions

(2013 to 2017)

Region	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Helmand	615	2,586	1,890	192
Nangarhar	603	1,579	1,879	407
Kandahar	464	1,595	1,252	120
Ghazni	446	1,737	1,673	234
Kabul	444	1,612	3,996	379
Faryab	374	1,035	1,124	368
Herat	363	659	1,134	251
Kunduz	306	1,372	1,309	279
Uruzgan	304	1,085	656	237
Farah	277	971	788	170
Kunar	236	499	695	43
Baghlan	227	517	702	65
Jawzjan	213	423	444	262
Zabul	210	517	509	105
Logar	205	505	492	115
Paktika	154	775	660	32
Wardak	154	416	546	108
Laghman	144	331	516	10
Khost	135	444	549	2
Paktia	130	552	736	102

Terrorist organisations in Afghanistan

Organisation	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Taliban	4209	17,587	17,164	3,967
Islamic State	209	1,324	1,926	376
Haqqani Network	18	49	82	0
Hizb-I-Islami	7	31	47	18
Mahaz Fedai Tahrik Islami Afghanistan	3	2	24	0
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi	1	2	3	0
Muslim extremists	1	0	0	1
Jundallah	1	0	0	0
Haji Fateh	1	0	0	4

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.

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