US State Department: Global terror attacks down 13% in 2015

The terror threat is "increasingly decentralised and diffuse", the US says

There was a marked fall in the number of terror attacks around the world in 2015, the US State Department has said. 

It attributed the 13% drop from 2014 to fewer attacks in Iraq, Pakistan and Nigeria, three of the five countries worst affected by terrorism. The other two are India and Afghanistan and together more than half the 11,000 attacks occurred within their borders.

Pakistan along with Iraq and Nigeria saw fewer attacks in 2015

Separately, the UN warned that so-called Islamic State (IS) was focusing on international civilian targets.

Over the past six months IS had carried out attacks in 11 countries, not including its activity in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Libya, the UN said.

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More than 28,300 people died - a 14% decline - and about 35,300 others were wounded in 11,774 terrorist attacks worldwide last year, data compiled by the University of Maryland showed.

However, attacks and deaths increased in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Syria and Turkey, State Department Acting Co-ordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell said.