Nearly one-third of all U.S. terrorist attacks in a 38-year period took place in only five counties. Manhattan, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, DC are the leaders, according to a University of Maryland study.
The research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, covered 2,600 incidents classified as terrorist acts and which have occurred nationwide between 1970 and 2008.
Most of the attacks occurred in metropolitan areas, but other less urban “hot spots,” such as counties that include Phoenix, Arizona and Houston, Texas, also experienced a higher number of terrorist attacks than other counties.
Manhattan was at the top of the trouble spots, with 343 attacks, followed by Los Angeles with 156 and Miami-Dade with 103. San Francisco experienced 99 attacks, and there were 79 in the nation’s capital.
The researchers identified 65 of 3,143 US counties as hot spots, defined as any county hit by terrorism more than six times during the period that was studied.
"Mainly, terror attacks have been a problem in the bigger cities, but rural areas are not exempt," said Gary LaFree, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism ( START), the lead author of the report.