15.000 foreign fighters join IS and other extremist organizations in Syria, Iraq – UN

A report by the UN security council has unveiled that foreign terrorists are swarming into Syria and Iraq on unprecedented scale as some 15.000 foreign fighters joined the terror organization Daesh [IS] and other extremist organizations.

The report, obtained by the Guardian newspaper, suggests that the decline of al-Qaida has yielded an explosion of jihadist enthusiasm for its even mightier successor organizations, chiefly Daesh [IS].

“15,000 people have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State (Isis) and similar extremist groups. They come from more than 80 countries, the report states, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida”.

“There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together,” it states. More than 500 British citizens are believed to have travelled to the region since 2011.

The report, produced by a security council committee that monitors al-Qaida, added: “Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorist fighters between 1990 and 2010 – and are growing.”

It indicated that more nations than ever will face the challenge of experienced fighters returning home from the Syria-Iraq conflict.

A “lack of social media message discipline” in Isis points to a leadership “that recognizes the terror and recruitment value of multichannel, multi-language social and other media messaging,” reflecting a younger and “more international” membership than al-Qaida’s various affiliates.

The UN report is an international recognition of the  Daesh [IS]’s threat to the whole world.

360 French Jihadists  

Earlier, the Financial Times newspaper reported: Some 360 French Jihadists are estimated by the government to be engaged in combat; 36 are said have been killed. Almost 200 have returned home, of whom more than 50 have been given jail terms, according to the official account.”

Intelligence reports assures that most of foreign persons, who are fighting alongside terrorist organization in Syria, have come from the UK.

1500 British Jihadists

The official statistics released by the British government estimates that the number of Britain fighters that joined terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq at 500; however, British Parliament members refuted the claims, stressing that the number is more than 1500 British persons.

Compiled by

Basma Qaddour