G7 to focus on foreign fighter fallout from rout of IS
By AFP
AFP
1508444207000

AFP-Isis-1.jpg

A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) walks through a heavily damaged street in Raqa, Syria on October 18, 2017.


The threat of fresh attacks on the West by foreign fighters fleeing the fallen Islamic State stronghold of Raqa is set to dominate a G7 meeting of interior ministers in Italy.

The two-day gathering, which kicked off Thursday on the Italian island of Ischia, comes just days after US-backed forces took full control of the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital.

Most foreign fighters are believed to have fled over the past few months. Experts say those who stayed are now likely to head for Turkey in the hope of travelling on to Europe to seek revenge for the destruction of the "caliphate".

The interior ministers of the Group of Seven --- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US -- arrived Thursday shortly before sundown at a medieval castle on the island off Naples.

Tens of thousands of citizens from Western countries travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the group between 2014 and 2016, including extremists who then returned home and staged attacks that claimed dozens of lives.

While border crossings have since tightened making it more difficult for fighters to return, security experts have warned of renewed possibilities of strikes as the pressure on IS intensifies.

"With an Islamic military defeat in Iraq and Syria we could find ourselves facing a return diaspora of foreign fighters," Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti told a parliamentary committee last week.

"There are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 foreign fighters from 100 countries. Some of them have been killed of course, but... it's possible some of the others will try to return home, to northern Africa and Europe," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said a group of 130-150 foreign fighters, including Europeans, had turned themselves in before the end of the battle in Raqa.

Other reports suggested a convoy of foreign fighters had been able to escape the city towards IS-held territory, a claim denied categorically by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) officials.

The SDF is expected to contact the home countries of any foreign fighters it holds, to discuss the possibility of turning them over to face prosecution.