US Targets Iran, Syria, Hizbullah In Global Terror Survey.

The US State Department has identified Iran as the "most active state sponsor" of terror and accused Syria of providing "material support" to Hizbullah. The Department on April 30 said: "Its [IRGC]... and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanese Hizbullah, to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals".

In its annual global survey of terrorism, it said: The IRGC was "linked to armor-piercing explosives that resulted in the deaths of coalition forces" in Iraq and helped, along with Hizbullah, train Iraqi extremists to build bombs. As for Syria, it drew charges of providing "political and material support to Hizbullah and political support to Palestinian terrorist groups".

Its annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" asserted a "strong likelihood" that Damascus was involved in the 2005 assassination of Hariri. It said Syria "still maintained a covert intelligence presence" in Lebanon despite the April 2005 withdrawal of its army from Lebanon in the aftermath of Hariri's murder.

About Hizbullah, it said the Ja'fari movement, which "remains the most prominent terrorist group" in Lebanon, "retained significant influence over parts of the country" in the aftermath of the July-August 2006 war with Israel. Although Hizbullah was keeping a low-profile on the Lebanon-Israel border, the report said Israeli security experts suggested the group had by end-2006 "recovered much of its manpower and equipment losses through recruitment and re-supply from Syria and Iran". It expressed "concern" about the Lebanese government's ability to combat terrorism despite gradual steps like deployment of the Lebanese army in the south to prevent terrorist activities. The report said political instability "contributed to enabling suspected Neo-Salafi terrorist group, such as al-Qaeda and Fatah-Islam, to infiltrate Lebanon and set up operational cells within the Palestinian refugee camps".

As for worldwide terrorist attacks, the report said they shot up more than 25% in 2006, killing 40% more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq. According to figures provided by the National Counterterrorism Center which groups data from 16 US intelligence agencies, 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,185 more than in 2005 - representing a 28.5% increase. These strikes claimed a total of 20,498 lives, 13,340 of them in Iraq, 5,800 more, or a 40.2% increase, over 2005.

Despite the grim figures, State Department officials pointed to some successes in the war on terror, including improved counter-terrorism co-operation with various nations and the thwarting of numerous plots, notably plans to down trans-Atlantic airliners. Acting Counterterrorism Co-ordinator Frank Urbancic said: "Serious challenges do remain, there's no question about that. This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy's back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory".