A world at war: Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, united how much destruction could they cause?

A study from the BBC and the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) has revealed that in November alone, over 5,000 people died as a result of Islamic violence, or nearly seven every hour.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Syria were the hardest hit countries, accounting for 80% of the recorded deaths. In the study, 14 countries were looked at, which suffered 664 attacks.

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The violence was primarily caused by al-Qaeda, offshoots and splinter groups, the Islamic State, and other organizations that share a similar Islamist beliefs.

The average number of daily attacks were 22 which resulted in 168 fatalities.

The Islamic State alone, which has recently become the predominate jihadist organization in the world and operates primarily in Iraq and Syria, was responsible for more than 2,000 deaths.

Of the 5,000 people who were killed, a little less than half-2,079-were civilians. About 1,000 of the deaths were jihadists, and 1,723 deaths were military personnel.

A third of all deaths and the most attacks took place in Iraq, mostly due to the rise of the Islamic State.

Nigeria, because of the Boko Haram group, was the second deadliest country.

Afghanistan was the third most affected, primarily because of violence by the Taliban group, which operates out of Pakistan as well.

"The data makes it clear that jihadists and al-Qaeda are no longer one and the same," said the director of the ICSR, Peter Neumann.

"Sixty percent of jihadist deaths were caused by groups that have no formal association with al-Qaeda, and they are the ones who will vie for leadership of the movement," he continued.

"The overall picture is that of an increasingly ambitious, complex, sophisticated and far-reaching movement."

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