NCS: 182 Terrorist Attacks during March, Despite Increasing Efforts to Combat Terrorism

The monitoring carried out by the National Center for Studies (NCS) revealed the activities and interactions related to the terrorist phenomenon in the Middle East and the Arab region during the month of March; The operational activity of terrorist groups and organizations active in the region has sharply increased, after the monthly indicator of terrorism issued by the center in this context recorded about 182 terrorist attacks carried out by these groups compared to 83 operations during February issue, after excluding all combat operations carried out by terrorist organizations inside Some countries in the region are in the context of ongoing conflicts with other illegal armed organizations.

The NCS’s monthly Middle East and Arab Region Terrorism Index (MEAR-TI) had indicated in its report about the occurrence of about 147 terrorist attacks within the countries of the region experiencing conflicts or political instability/ unrest. In contrast to 35 operations in the countries described in the report as “stable” ones, before the report indicated the continuation of the vast majority of attacks in two specific patterns, namely the bombings that were repeated about 79 times (including 70 bombings in the countries of conflict) and the armed attack that was repeated about 66 times (including 57 In conflict countries).

As for the sharp increase in the number of terrorist attacks and operations during the month of March; Compared to January and February, “Al-Watani/ The national” center (NCS) attributed it to a number of determinants, most notably the intensification of the political conflict in Afghanistan, which in March was subjected to 60 terrorist attacks, as well as the intensification of operational confrontations in Iraq against the backdrop of the intense efforts made by the Iraqi state to confront the Islamic State in Iraq And al-Sham (ISIS), which prompted the latter to try to prove its existence through more terrorist attacks, which recorded 40 terrorist attacks during the month of March, in addition to the determinants of the intensification of the military scene in Yemen, which prompted the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) movement to intensify their terrorist attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Which was subjected to 14 operations that used missiles and drones.

In the same context, the report reviewed the most prominent efforts made by the countries of the region and some international parties in the framework of their fight against extremism and terrorism, which were led by the visit of Pope Francis of the Vatican to Iraq, during which he performed mass prayers at the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance, which was subjected to a major attack carried out by Al-Qaeda 11 years ago, as well as the security and military operations carried out Security agencies and military institutions in some countries in the region against terrorist organizations and elements, and some of them succeeded in arresting and killing a number of prominent terrorist leaders, including Ashour Al-Nuaimi, the head of the execution cell in the ISIS organization in Baghdad. And Ismail Jais is responsible for the bombings in the Mujahideen Youth Movement and others, while others have succeeded in dismantling some terrorist cells and aborting a number of terrorist operations, as the Moroccan security services, in coordination with their American counterparts, succeeded in controlling an ISIS cell in the Moroccan city of Oujda. And this is at a time when the Algerian security services have succeeded in seizing two cells belonging to the same organization; The Iranian security services were able to preempt the hijacking of one of the Iranian Airlines passenger aircraft.

Some countries have taken a number of measures and measures aimed at confronting the phenomenon. Such as the Moscow Conference on Peace in Afghanistan called by the Russian administration for the purpose of renewing negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban; And the technical systems specialized in money laundering and terrorist financing that the UAE has recently used; Finally, the bill presented by the Algerian government allows for the withdrawal of nationality from any Algerian involved in terrorist activities.

One of MEAR team told us that “the efforts of defeating terrorism goes farther the mere security measures, all kinds of efforts were in harmony this month in many cases of study, and that’s why the iconic March issue of MEAR highlighted The Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance’s pray, which came late more than a decade after 2010 Baghdad church massacre, but better late than never”.

The senior IR and NS scholar at (NCS) added “Pope Francis arrives to pray for war victims also at 'Hosh al-Bieaa', Church Square, in Mosul's old city, The Pope visited areas hit hard by ISIS.”