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Saturday 10 December 2016 - 09:47

1,750 European ISIS Militants Returned Home

Story Code : 590317
1,750 European ISIS Militants Returned Home
According to an EU report, to be presented to EU interior ministers on Friday by the bloc's counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, up to 1,750 terrorists may have returned home. 
 
Fifty-percent of the terrorists remain in the battle theater, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans, while between 15 to 20 percent of those who joined the terrorists have died, the report added.  
 
There were two types of "foreign terrorist fighters" returning, the report said, identifying them as "those in the majority that will drift back, and those who will be sent back on specific missions, which are of most concern."
 
Even some European women and children born or raised in areas under the control of ISIS could present a security threat as they may have been influenced by the group's Takfiri ideology, it added.
 
Some returnees have been convicted and serving prison sentences, while some others are being carefully monitored and some are free in their communities, the report said without giving any figures.
 
According to the new report, "there is also a significant foreign terrorist fighter contingent with ISIS in Libya which might attempt to use their nationality or family connections to return to Europe." 
 
It said the European militants remain in touch with ISIS via social media networks, and are greatly migrating from mainstream Twitter social networking service to Telegram end-to-end-encrypted messaging service.
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