Above 800 French Jihadists in Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - France increased its estimate of the number of its nationals embroiled in Syria’s civil war to more than 800 and warned that they pose an unprecedented security threat.
The warning, from Prime Minister Manuel Valls, followed the weekend arrest of Medhi Nemmouche, a French jihadist suspected of carrying out last week’s Brussels Jewish Museum killings after spending a year fighting in Syria.
Mr. Valls told BFMTV that the numbers of French citizens or residents who have taken part in the fighting in Syria or were planning to do so now exceeds 800, including some 30 who have died in the conflict.
Nemmouche was arrested in Marseille on Friday carrying weapons similar to those used in the Brussels attack .
He is thought to be the first veteran of the Syrian conflict to have carried out an attack of this kind in Europe, AFP reported.
Many terrorism experts have warned it is inevitable that there will be others as battle-hardened, traumatised and weapons-trained militants make their way back to France and countries such as Belgium, Denmark and Britain, which have also tracked hundreds of their citizens on the jihad trail to Syria.
