The Pakistan government is losing its ability to limit terrorism, particularly in its tribal areas.

Terrorist attacks doubled in the country last year and casualties from terrorism increased fourfold, according to the State Department in its annual report. As a result, attacks increased in neighboring Afghanistan by 16 percent.

Al-Qaida is "adaptable and resilient," said the report on global terror, something we already knew. But Pakistan has not been equal to the challenge along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier where both al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have regrouped in the last year.

Many analysts believe the area in question to be the main battleground in the fight against terror.

Lt. Gen. Dell Dailey, the State Department's chief coordinator of counterterrorism, admitted that "challenges remain," McClatchy Newspapers reported. Pakistan negotiated a cease-fire agreement with the terrorists that "provided al-Qaida leadership with the ability to conduct training and operational planning" for targets in the United States and Western Europe.

The United States and its allies are making progress against terrorist organizations in Iraq. Terror attacks are down in Southeast Asia, Colombia and elsewhere.

But Pakistan demonstrates the unfortunate power of terrorists to dictate events. The country endured several major attacks in its largest cities in 2007. On Dec. 27, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated — a tragedy that shocked the world.

The number of terrorist attacks around the world in 2007 was about the same as the previous year — 14,449. The number of victims increased slightly. But Pakistan remains terrorism central.