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Too early to say battle against international terrorism is won — Russian security official

According to data from monitoring organizations, including international ones, over 7,000 terrorist attacks in 75 countries have been made this year, with about 23,000 victims, Yuri Kokov said

MOSCOW, October 6./TASS/. About 30 terrorism-related crimes are committed daily across the globe, so it would be too early to say the fight against terrorism has been won, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Yuri Kokov said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

"According to data from monitoring organizations, including international ones, over 7,000 terrorist attacks in 75 countries have been made this year, with about 23,000 victims. Thus, up to 30 such crimes are committed across the world daily," Kokov said. "Under these circumstances, it would be untimely to speak about victory over international terrorism," he stressed.

Among the most notorious terrorist attacks, he mentioned "the explosions in Kabul near educational establishments on May 8 (85 people killed and 150 injured) and near the city’s airport on August 26 (200 fatalities and 1,500 injured people)". "Among the largest terrorist attacks of this year we can also mention an attack on the administrative center of Borno State in Nigeria (16 people killed and 60 injured) and the detonation of an explosive device at a market in Baghdad (30 dead and 60 injured)," he said.

"We can only state that the risk of the creation of new quasi-public entities, the so-called caliphates, has declined somewhat," he said. He also noted that "small terrorist enclaves still remain, for example, in Africa - in Lake Chad basin, in the northern part of Mozambique, Nigeria and other regions".

Kokov also noted some success in the battle against international terrorism. "However, it is difficult to root it out. For example, the international terrorist organization Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) has gradually transformed into an extensive network, whose cells are present in many states," the deputy security chief said.

According to him, "major affiliates of this group have been formed in some regions, first of all in South and South-East Asia, on the African continent, that in fact have the form of relatively independent militant groups". "Moreover, they independently choose the targets for their attacks," Kokov specified.