UN warns of large number of foreign militants

Jihadi fighters from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale", according to extracts from a UN report published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday.

Around 15,000 people have traveled to fight for the Islamic State and other hardcore militant groups from "countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida", the report said.

The number of foreigners traveling to fight since 2010 exceeds the cumulative total over the 20 preceding years "many times", the Security Council study said.

"There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom ... operating together," it said.

Britain's top police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe, estimated last week that five people a week were leaving the country to fight for IS. Security officials estimate that there are currently around 500 British nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq.

The UN warned that more nations than ever face the problem of dealing with fighters returning from the battle zone.

The US Central Intelligence Agency last month released figures showing that there were around 20,000 to 31,500 IS fighters active in Iraq and Syria, much higher than previous estimates.

A US security official estimated that there were close to 2,000 Westerners among the 15,000 foreign fighters.

The report was produced by a committee that monitors al-Qaida.

It concluded that the once mighty and feared group was now "maneuvering for relevance" following the rise of the even more militant IS, which was booted out of al-Qaida by Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Despite the split, the UN concluded that the legal basis for US President Barack Obama's fight against IS was justified by the group's ideological congruence with al-Qaida, and considered the two groups as part of a broader movement.

"Al-Qaida and ISIL (IS) pursue similar strategic goals, albeit with tactical differences regarding sequencing and substantive differences about personal leadership," the report said.

Obama has vowed he will not order a large force into combat in Iraq or Syria, relying instead on air power and local forces.

But his "no boots on the ground" pledge is coming under pressure amid growing calls for advisers and forward air controllers to deploy with Iraqi or Kurdish soldiers to help direct air raids and plan operations.

The IS group's "cosmopolitan" use of social media, "as when extremists post kitten photographs", was attracting a new breed of foreign fighters who are put off by the more dogmatic communication tactics of al-Qaida, the report said.

(China Daily 11/01/2014 page11)