Foreign fighters bent on joining militants in Syria, Iraq and North Africa are changing tactics to avoid detection, increasingly resorting to tortuous travel routes and relying on intermediaries, Interpol said on Friday.
Interpol chief Juergen Stock told a special UN Security Council meeting that intelligence-sharing was key to stopping would-be militants who are now flocking to war zones in record numbers.
“Intelligence is crossing borders, but at a much slower pace than foreign terrorist fighters are,” Stock said.
Photo: AFP
The 15-member council was meeting interior ministers for the first time after a UN study showed a surge in the number of “foreign terrorist fighters” worldwide.
The council adopted a ground-breaking resolution in September that called on governments to make it a serious crime for their nationals to enlist as a foreign fighter with extremist groups such as the Islamic State.
Stock said measures to stop foreign fighters are “already producing changes in tactics” by recruiters who are setting up “broken travel” to make tracking more difficult.
More “facilitation networks” are springing up to help would-be militants reach their destination and recruiters are approaching convicted criminals to join their ranks, he said.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told the council that “much more needs to be done” to cut off the steady flow of foreign fighters who are becoming “increasingly mobile, adaptable and brutal.”
Only 51 countries have asked airlines operating in their territories to provide advance passenger information to allow security personnel to carry out checks.
A study by a UN panel of experts showed a 71 percent increase in the number of foreign fighters between the middle of last year to March.
About 25,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries are involved in armed conflicts worldwide, with the highest influx into Syria, Iraq and increasingly into Libya, the report said.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS