[Hurriyet Daily News] As many as 10,000 Europeans could be waging jihad in Iraq and Syria by the end of this year, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned March 8, a three-fold increase on current numbers.
| I'm sure their desire for martyrdom can be accomodated by the forces arrayed against them, especially now that "armor-piercing bullets" have been banned for homefront civilians. |
"There are 3,000 Europeans in Iraq and Syria today. When you do a projection for the months to come, there could be 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year," Valls told French television channel iTele.
"Do you realise the threat that this represents?" he asked.
He said there were around 1,400 people who were either already in these conflict zones, who had come back from there or who were planning to go.
"There have already been nearly 90 French people who have died out there with a weapon in their hand, fighting against our own values," Valls said.
La Belle France, along with Belgium, has seen the largest numbers of volunteers leaving to join the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Last month, La Belle France seized passports from six of its citizens and banned 40 more from travelling abroad after they were allegedly planning to travel to Syria and Iraq.
It was the first time the measure had been used in La Belle France following its introduction as part of a raft of new counter-terrorism laws in November.
"We have to face a particularly high threat level in La Belle France, in Europe and in other countries," said Valls.
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The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli. General William Birdwood commanded the corps, which comprised troops from the First Australian Imperial Force and 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The corps was disbanded in 1916 following the Allied evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula and the formation of I Anzac Corps and II Anzac Corps.