November death toll for Muslim militants: 5,042

Muslim militants around the world killed 5,042 people in the month of November alone. That’s nearly twice the number that died when the World Trade Center towers fell on 9/11 and averages out to 22 attacks and 168 deaths per day.

The figures come from a comprehensive new report released Wednesday by the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR). In cooperation with the BBC, the organization tracked bombings, shootings, beheadings, and other attacks by fundamentalist Islamic militants throughout the 30 days of November to gain a snapshot of jihadi violence.

The report was released the same day a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into a group of pro-government Shiite fighters south of Tikrit in Iraq, killing nine. That attack was likely the work of the so-called Islamic State, a jihadi group that has been fighting the Iraqi government for months.

Peter Neumann, an ICSR director, said the current state of jihadi violence overturns the notion—popular in 2011 after Osama bin Laden was killed—that al-Qaeda and related extremism were on the decline.

“By the end of 2014, it is no longer [al-Qaeda] or jihadism that look outdated but the predictions of their imminent demise,” Neumann wrote on the BBC’s website.

The 26-page ICSR report paints a picture of widespread Islamist violence. In November alone, Muslim militants carried out 664 attacks in 14 countries. Most of the attacks, including suicide bombings, went unreported by Western media, the researchers said. The style of the attacks, involving not just bombings but shootings, shellings, and executions, reflect a recent emphasis on controlling territory and confronting government forces.

Nine militant groups were responsible for 97 percent of the attacks: The Islamic State (or ISIS) was the deadliest, responsible for 2,206 killings. Outside of Iraq and Syria, most jihad-related killings took place Nigeria, where Boko Haram is based, and Afghanistan, where the Taliban is active. Nearly 800 killings took place in both countries. Hundreds more were killed in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan.

The data show how al-Qaeda, once the dominant face of the jihadi movement, is now rivaled by similar organizations.

The single deadliest attack of the month took place Nov. 28 at the Grand Mosque in the Nigerian city of Kano, where gunmen and bombs left 120 dead. It was likely the work of Boko Haram, an Islamist group that has targeted Christians in the country and kidnapped girls. Its name means “Western education is forbidden.”

Although the researchers said it was impossible to learn the ethnic and religious status of all the victims, based on the geographical location and nature of the attacks, they estimated about 80 percent were Muslims.

The report only included attacks by groups that committed violence in the name Islam and subscribed to Salafism, a fundamentalist version of Sunni Islam that largely rejects modern democracy and seeks to enforce strict Muslim laws. As a result, the report’s figures excluded killings by some similar terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group in Lebanon, and Hamas, which is Sunni but not Salafist.

The figures include more than 900 deaths of jihadis who died as suicide bombers or were killed during battles with rival jihadi groups. Excluding the deaths of militants, slightly more than half of those killed were civilians, not soldiers, demonstrating the organizations’ preference for attacks aimed at terrorizing the populace. At least 84 children were killed.

More than 400 people were killed execution-style, mostly in Iraq and Syria. Fifty of those died by beheading, a disturbing trend that may be spreading because of its ability to garner publicity and instill fear in opponents.

“Confronting this threat will be a generational challenge involving not just military power but political skill, economic resources, and—not least—a readiness to challenge the ideas and beliefs that are driving its expansion,” concluded the researchers.