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The number of deaths and attacks attributed to terrorism significantly decreased in 2017 according to a new report by the US State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism.

"The total number of terrorist attacks worldwide in 2017 decreased by 23%" compared to 2016, the Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Nathan Sales, told reporters Wednesday, CNN reports.

"The total deaths due to terrorist attacks decreased by 27%," he added.

Sales said the "overall trend was largely due to dramatically fewer attacks and deaths in Iraq," where a US-led military coalition has helped eject ISIS from much of the country.

While Sales said that some 100 countries experienced terrorism in 2017, the vast majority of those attacks took place in a relatively small number of nations.

"Fifty-nine percent of all attacks took place in five countries. Those are Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan and the Philippines," Sales said while adding that "70% of all deaths due to terrorist attacks took place" in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia and Syria.

The annual congressionally-mandated report once again labels Iran as the lead state sponsor of terrorism, with Sales saying that Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah has been linked to attacks and weapons stockpiles in Europe and South America.

The report also says that in 2017 Pakistan had not done enough to curb terrorism, saying that Islamabad "did not restrict the Afghan Taliban" and other affiliated terrorist groups like the Haqqani network "from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan."