More terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS: Interpol

Europe, Middle East, News May 30, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

An increasing number of extremist groups from Africa to Southeast Asia are pledging their allegiance to the ISIS, the head of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) says.

Addressing a Friday meeting of the UN Security Council, Jürgen Stock pointed to the issues of expressing loyalty to the ISIS and changing travel methods by would-be militants as emerging trends.

Some terrorist groups such as Nigeria-based Boko Haram and Egypt-based Velayat Sinai (Sinai Province), formerly known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, have pledged allegiance to the ISIS group.

According to an April report by the Security Council, over 25,000 militants from more than 100 countries have joined al-Qaeda and ISIS militants in Iraq, Syria and other countries.

The number of terrorists worldwide increased by more than 70 percent between the middle of 2014 and March 2015, the report added.

New ISIS recruits normally favor joining the group through Turkey, which neighbors Syria and Iraq. However, the would-be militants have found new routes.

In the UK, for instance, some of those willing to join the ISIS cross the English Channel by ferry, travel on to Italy, and then to Tunisia before finally crossing into Libya, parts of which are held by ISIS, The Guardian reported on May 23.

During the Friday Security Council meeting, Stock also called on the 193 UN member states to share more information and “share it even better,” stressing that Interpol’s database includes information from fewer than 100 countries and just over 4,000 names.

“Intelligence is crossing borders, but at a much slower pace than foreign terrorist fighters are,” he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also warned that foreign militants who have joined the ISIS in Iraq and Syria are posing serious threats to the world peace and security.

The ISIS terrorists currently control parts of Syria, Iraq, and Libya. They have carried out heinous crimes in the countries, including mass executions and the beheading of people.