European securityEurope facing “generation-long struggle” with returning battle-hardened jihadists
European security officials say that Europe faces a generation-long struggle to deal with thousands of battle-hardened Islamic jihadists returning as the ISIS caliphate starts to collapse. Experts say that he cumulative effects of the relentless military campaign by the U.S.-led coalition would finish off the so-called caliphate by the end of 2017 at the latest, if not sooner. The coalition’s military campaign has so far killed between 45,000 and 50,000 ISIS fighters, many of them foreigners, but an estimated 3,000 European fighters are still fighting in ISIS ranks. European security officials believe that the imminent fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, would signal the beginning of the end of the caliphate, resulting in many of the European ISIS fighters returning to their home countries.
Mohamed Merah, home-grown jihadist, haunts French anti-terror policy. // Source: theconversation.com
Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union’s police agency Europol, told the Wall Street Journal that Europe faces a generation-long struggle to deal with thousands of battle-hardened Islamic jihadists returning as the ISIS caliphate starts to collapse.
Military experts say that the cumulative effects of the relentless military campaign by the U.S.-led coalition would finish off the so-called caliphate by the end of 2017 at the latest, if not sooner.
The coalition’s military campaign has so far killed between 45,000 and 50,000 ISIS fighters, many of them foreigners, but an estimated 3,000 European fighters are still fighting in ISIS ranks. European security officials believe that the imminent fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, would signal the beginning of the end of the caliphate, resulting in many of the European ISIS fighters returning to their home countries.
The Telegraph reports that around 850 Britons are thought to have gone to fight in Syria or Iraq. Many of them have been killed, but about 400 are still in the Middle East.
“I think it will be a generation-long struggle that we face to absorb the return of thousands of foreign fighters, particularly to Western Europe,” Wainwright said.
He said their exposure to extreme violence “on top of their radicalized state makes them highly dangerous individuals.”
ISIS has lost more than half of its territory in Iraq, and about a quarter of its territory in Syria, and Iraqi and Kurdish forces are closing in on Mosul and Raqqa, respectively.
The Telegraph says that the British government is in talks with its allies over how to bring to justice British fighters expected to be captured during fighting in the coming months.
Michael Fallon, the U.K. defense secretary, said last week: “Partners in the coalition are very clear that their nationals who have gone out to fight and been involved in the most barbaric of crimes should not be allowed to slip through the net without facing justice. We will be reviewing how we each attempt to prosecute our own fighters.”
