Unprecedented number of foreign fighters flocking to Syria, Iraq to join IS

Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups. U.S. intelligence officials say there are about 20,000 from around the world, and fear that some of the foreign fighters will return undetected to their homes to mount terrorist attacks. At least one of the men responsible for the attack on a satirical magazine in Paris had spent time with Islamic extremists in Yemen. It’s also incredibly difficult to track Americans and Europeans who have made it to Syria, where the Islamic State group is the dominant force trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad.

We have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization… I am also concerned that the few programs we do have in place are far too small to confront a challenge that has grown so quickly.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee

Nick Rasmussen, chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the rate of foreign fighter travel to Syria is without precedent, far exceeding the rate of foreigners who went to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any other point in the past 20 years

World extremism