The recent terror attacks in Paris have set the Western world on edge in fear that ISIS could launch another assault closer to home. While ISIS growing threat has become more apparent lately in the United States, ISIS has executed similar attacks across three continents in an effort to continue expanding their caliphate.
In the past year, ISIS has attacked civilians in three continents, killing over 1,120 people outside of Syria and Iraq. ISIS sympathizers, lone-wolf attackers who pledge their allegiance to the group, have carried out several attacks in the past year including in Denmark and the United States. No one was killed in the May 3rd shootout outside of a Texas cartoon convention that featured images of the Prophet Mohammed, but two did die outside a synagogue in Copenhagen.
Most notably, the downed Russian airliner in Egypt and the targeted tourist attacks in Tunisia have made Africa the second continent with the most casualties at 466.
Yet almost half of those who have died at the hands of ISIS were from the Middle East. Five hundred and eighteen people have perished in seven countries throughout the continent, a result of frequent suicide bombings, car bombings, and shootouts near mosques and police security checkpoints.
ISIS has a trend of targeting government workers and police officers in countries where an army or cultural group have overthrown Islamic rooted governments. Such attacks tend to involve several ISIS militants either executing suicide missions, hit-and-run shootouts or stabbings.
But attacks in public squares are different. ISIS carries out these missions to condemn their radical Shiite Muslim moderates, western values, and those they consider “crusaders” against the caliphate.
“Let France and all nations following its path know” that “the scent of death will not leave their nostrils…as long as they partake in the crusader campaign…against Muslims in the lands of the Caliphate with their jets,” ISIS said in an online statement in response to the Paris attacks.
NBC News counted how many times ISIS and their sympathizers claimed responsibility for civilian attacks in the past year. The following timeline does not include the scores of people who have died in warfare against ISIS or those living in Syria and Iraq, where ISIS holds significant territory:
November 13: ISIS strikes the West killing 130 in Paris
November 12: Multiple bombings kill 43 in Beirut
November 4: Egyptian police killed by suicide bomber
November 4: ISIS continues its attacks on Bangladesh
October 31: Russian Metrojet airliner explodes over Egypt
October 24: Holiday procession in Bangladesh turns deadly
October 10: Twin blasts kill over 100 in Turkey
October 6: String of bombings in Yemen’s largest cities kill 25
October 3: Japanese man shot dead in Bangladesh
September 28: Italian citizen murdered by ISIS militants in Bangladesh
September 27: Policemen become targets in Afghanistan
September 2: Bombings kill 32 inside a Yemeni mosque
August 26: Two policemen killed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
August 20: Egypt’s national security agency comes under fire, killing six policemen
August 12: ISIS beheads a Croatian national in Egypt
August 6: Suicide bombers kill 15 outside a Saudi Arabian mosque
July 20: Suicide bomber kills 33 during a peace rally in Suruc, Turkey
July 11: Explosion kills one outside of Italian consulate in Egypt
June 28: Egypt’s top prosecutor is murdered in targeted car bomb attack
June 26: ISIS sympathizer opens fire at Tunisian beach front hotel killing 38
June 26: Twenty-seven die in Kuwaiti mosque attack
June 26: ISIS suicide bomber kill 27 at one of the largest Shiite mosques in Kuwait
June 20: Two killed after a car bomb exploded outside a Yemeni mosque
June 17: ISIS kills 4 in suicide bombing in Sana, Yemen
June 5: Political rally bombings killing two in Diyarbakir, Turkey
May 29: ISIS bomber denotes explosive near Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia
April 19: ISIS video shows the murders of Ethiopian Christians
April 18: ISIS kills 34 in Jalalabad, Afghanistan
April 12: ISIS attackers kill two police officers outside Libya’s South Korean embassy
April 12: Roadside bomb kills 13 in Egypt
April 8: Gunmen shoot Saudi Arabian police killing 2
April 5: ISIS kills 4 people at Libyan security checkpoint
April 2: Multiple car bombs kill 15 at several military checkpoints
March 20: Suicide bombers attack Zaydu Shiite mosque killing 137 people
March 18: ISIS attacks museum in Tunisia killing 22
February 20: 45 people in multiple car bombings in eastern Libya
February 15: ISIS video shows militants beheading 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya
February 15: ISIS sympathizer kills two in Copenhagen attack
February 3: ISIS kills 12 during an oil field raid in Tripoli, Libya
January 29: Coordinated bombings kill 32 in Egypt
January 27: ISIS storms luxury hotel in Tripoli killing 8
January 7: ISIS sympathizer kills 5 in Paris shooting spree