Wed 2014-01-15 15:51:07 Latest news
Hollande: 700 from France fighting within extremist groups in Syria
French President Francois Hollande said 700 French nationals had left France to take part in the fighting alongside the extremist groups in Syria.

"A certain number of young Frenchmen and young foreigners living in France... are fighting in Syria -- 700 are listed, that\'s a lot. Some are dead," Hollande told a press conference in Paris on Tuesday.

Hollande called on the French authorities to take stringent measures to combat the “networks and havens that sustain terrorism”, raising fears that those “fighters” could carry out attacks on France soil if when they return home.

A report prepared by the Belgium intelligence and recently broadcast by the French TTA weekly bulletin showed that 4-5 thousand European nationals are fighting within the ranks of the takfiri groups in Syria and Iraq under the name of “jihad”.

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