Washington — Although Islamic State is losing fighters and territory in Iraq and Syria, it remained the world’s deadliest militant organisation last year, according to a report from the University of Maryland. Islamic State operatives carried out more than 1,400 attacks last year and killed more than 7,000 people, a roughly 20% increase over 2015, according to the university’s Global Terrorism Database. The increase occurred even as overall militant attacks worldwide and resulting deaths fell by about 10% in 2016. Islamic State claimed credit for the van attack on Thursday in Barcelona, Spain, that killed 13 people, as well as a knife attack in Russia on Saturday that wounded up to eight people. It is unclear if the claims are accurate. But senior US counter-terrorism officials said the latest attacks fitted a pattern in which the group adapted to significant battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq, where its control of territory peaked in August 2014, by intensifying calls for attac...
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