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               US Report: Iran's State Sponsored Terrorism Rises

   by VOA News

   The United States says 2012 saw a marked resurgence of Iran's state
   sponsored terrorism, while the core of al-Qaida in Pakistan continued
   to weaken.
   [1]An annual report that the U.S. State Department submitted Thursday
   to Congress says both Iran and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah were
   exceptionally active in plotting terrorist activities last year, and
   provided a  broad range of support to Syria's regime in its crackdown
   on the Syrian people.
   The report says al-Qaida's central leadership in Pakistan and its
   affiliate in Yemen weakened in 2012. And Somalia's government - with
   the help of an African Union mission - expelled al-Shabaab militants
   from major Somali cities. But the tumultuous events in the Middle East
   and North Africa have complicated the counterterrorism picture.
   As sending and receiving funds became more difficult, some
   al-Qaida-linked groups have engaged in kidnapping for ransom and other
   criminal activities to finance their terrorist actions.
   The report says terrorist attacks occurred in 85 countries in 2012,
   most of them in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. It says that defeating
   a terrorist network requires international cooperation and in the long
   term, building the capabilities worldwide to counter the ideology that
   fuels terrorism.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-report-says-iran-state-sponsored-t
   errorism-rises/1671832.html

References

   1. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-report-says-iran-state-sponsored-terrorism-rises/1671832.html