(Reuters) – Battle-hardened jihadists returning from Syria’s civil war are no longer an ‘abstract threat’ but a ‘deadly danger’ to Europe, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday.
An estimated 2,000 Europeans, including some 320 German citizens, have travelled to Syriato fight alongside Islamist rebels, he said while presenting the German domestic intelligence service’s (BfV) annual report.
European governments are struggling to stop their nationals, some just teenagers, travelling to Syria where the conflict that began as a peaceful uprising to President Bashar al-Assad has become an armed rebellion is entering its fourth year. More than 160,000 people have been killed.
The trip to Syria is often as simple as a low-cost flight to Turkey then passage over the border with a trafficker.
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