3000 Europeans are fighting in Iraq and Syria

(IraqiNews.com) A European Union official said that the number of Europeans who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join in combat has risen to about 3000, while Turkey confirmed that it has carried forward more than a thousand foreign fighters.

AFP quoted the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove that the number of European fighters who have gone to Syria and Iraq moved from about 2,000 last July to about 3000 fighters.

Kerchove said that this increase could be associated by the geographical progress achieved by the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in addition to the announcement of the Caliphate in the seized territories.

He explained that these fighters came mainly from France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, while others came from Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria.

Gilles de Kerchove added that about 30 percent of the Europeans fighters have returned to their home countries with some of them resuming normal life while others suffer a psychological crises and post traumatic stress disorder.

Kerchove stated that a segment of these veterans constitute a threat to the security of their countries, stressing that the challenge for the concerned countries is to assess the seriousness of returnees and take appropriate action towards them.