In its annual counterterrorism report, the US state department said the number of people killed or injured in terrorist attacks jumped to 67,000 in 2007, up from 59,000 the year before. About 60% of those occurred in Iraq......

.....David Heyman, a terrorism expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, noted the increase in chemical attacks, for instance using chlorine, in Iraq, and said that shows the country is a terrorist training ground in addition to a war zone.

"This is a heads up," he said. "Those who have gone to Iraq are in that theatre to not only attack civilians and disrupt US operations and kill Americans, but to train as future terrorists in other countries."

The report states that al-Qaida remained the chief terrorist threat to the US and its allies, noting that the group had reorganised in north-west Pakistan since it was driven from Afghanistan after September 11 2001.....

Rebel terrorist attacks in Colombia declined, as did attacks in Saudia Arabia and Jordan, the report noted, while the number of attacks in Pakistan doubled, and the number of deaths quadrupled in 2007 from the year before.

State sponsors of terrorism continue to undermine efforts to eliminate terrorist threats, the report said. The report said Iran is the principle national sponsor of terrorist groups, noting its support for Hizbullah in Lebanon and Shia militias in Iraq......

According to the report, about 9,400 police and roughly 2,400 children were injured or killed in terror attacks, with both figures representing an increase over 2006......"