WASHINGTON (AP) – A White House list of what it calls underreported terrorist attacks did not support President Donald Trump’s claim that the media are downplaying a “genocide” carried out by the Islamic State group. But it did shine new light on the difficulty in defining the scope, source and motives behind the violence carried out in the name of radical Islam.
A close review of the 78 attacks listed by the White House shows almost all the attacks were reported by the news media and that many were widely covered by local and international outlets. The review, carried out by Associated Press reporters on four continents, found that more than half of the attacks, including most of those in the Middle East, were linked to the Islamic State group, as the White House suggested. Others were ruled IS-inspired, but carried out by lone wolf attackers. But in some cases, the motive was unclear, and investigations as to possible extremist links were inconclusive.
The examples range from knife-wielding assailants in Texas to hostage-takers in Australia to the gunman who killed at least 129 people across Paris in 2015. The magnitude of the attacks on the document circulated by the White House – which appeared to be hastily compiled and included several typos – ranges from several dozen dead to one or two people injured.
It has some notable omissions. It did not include any attacks by Boko Haram, an Islamist insurgent group operating in West Africa that is responsible for far more deaths than the Islamic State. The group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, has led an uprising that has killed more than 20,000 people and left 2.6 million homeless this decade in Nigeria and neighboring countries.
It also pays little heed to the scores of terror acts that have plagued nations like Syria and Iraq that are close to the Islamic State’s caliphate and under near-daily siege.