Number of terrorist attacks dropped worldwide in 2016

The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that terrorist attacks and fatalities from terrorism dropped globally in 2016 for the second straight year.

According to a State Department report on global terrorism, the total number of terrorist attacks worldwide in 2016 was 11,072, and 25,621 deaths were caused as a result, decreasing by nine percent and 13 percent respectively compared to 2015.

"This was largely due to fewer attacks and deaths from terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Syrian, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen," said Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell at a briefing with reporters.

Although terrorist attacks took place in 104 countries in 2016, the report said that the attacks were heavily concentrated geographically.

Specifically, 55 percent of all attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, and 75 percent of all deaths due to terrorist attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The report also said that the extremist group Islamic State (IS) remained the top terrorist threat in 2016 and the al-Qaeda also remained a resilient and adaptive threat.