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U.S. raises figures for 2003 terrorist attacks
'Significant attacks' at 21-year high, revised data show
From Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Posted: 8:10 PM EDT (0010 GMT)

Secretary of State Colin Powell holds a copy of the revised State Department terrorism report Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government restated its 2003 accounting of terrorist attacks Tuesday, reporting a sharp increase in the number of significant attacks and more than doubling its initial count of those killed.

The State Department's annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report now counts 208 terrorist attacks as having occurred in 2003, with 625 dead. When the report was released in April, it counted 307 deaths in a total of 190 terror attacks.

The number of people killed in terrorist attacks worldwide still declined in 2003 when compared with 2002, when 725 people were killed. But the decline was much less steep than originally reported, and the number of "significant attacks" -- those involving large numbers of casualties or property damage -- increased from 138 in 2002 to 175 in 2003, a 21-year-high.

"We have 18 more total events, five more significant events and 13 more nonsignificant events than originally reported," said Cofer Black, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator. "These new figures are accompanied by a dramatic increase in the numbers of casualties originally calculated."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/22/powell.terror/index.html