Intelligence Says 'Foreign Fighters' Threat To Germany

The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency warned on Sunday that the growing number of foreign fighters joining ISIL has made the country vulnerable to a possible terrorist attack.



"Of course we are doing everything to prevent an attack, but this might happen and we should be prepared for it," Hans-Georg Maassen, said in an interview with the weekly Welt am Sonntag newspaper.



"The situation is worrying, but we must not be afraid," he stressed.



Maassen, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or BfV, expressed concern over the growing number of extremists travelling from Germany to join ISIL.



"So far we have identified 550 extremists who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIL," he said.  



"We are concerned about this high number. Within the last six weeks we have observed a greater increase in these numbers," he added.



German authorities previously estimated the number of extremists who travelled to Syria and Iraq to be between 400 and 450.



Maassen said they identified that 60 of those 550 foreign fighters have been killed in Syria and Iraq, and at least 9 of them were suicide bombers.



Around 180 of these fighters are believed to have returned to Germany, Maassen said, adding that they have been under the surveillance of security services.



"Due to our limited resources and due to the fact that we cannot monitor these people around the clock, we must act in a prudent way," Maassen told the weekly newspaper.



Germany outlawed ISIL in September this year, banning propaganda and any financial or material support to the organization.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Berlin