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Middle East - UN says 25,000 foreigners have joined IS group, al Qaeda

The panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida said in the report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that its analysis indicates the number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71 percent between mid-2014 and March 2015.

It said the scale of the problem has increased over the past three years and the flow of foreign fighters “is higher than it has ever been historically.”

The overall number of foreign terrorist fighters has “risen sharply from a few thousand ... a decade ago to more than 25,000 today,” the panel said in the report to the U.N. Security Council.

The report said just two countries have accounted for over 20,000 foreign fighters: Syria and Iraq. They went to fight primarily for the Islamic State group but also the Al-Nusra Front.

Looking ahead, the panel said the thousands of foreign fighters who traveled to Syria and Iraq are living and working in “a veritable ‘international finishing school’ for extremists,” as was the case in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

A military defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could have the unintended consequence of scattering violent foreign terrorist fighters across the world, the panel said.

 And while governments are focusing on countering the threat from fighters returning home, the panel said it’s possible that some may be traumatized by what they saw and need psychological help, and that others may be recruited by criminal networks.

Read more: Middle East - UN says 25,000 foreigners have joined IS group, al Qaeda - France 24

Middle East - IRAQ: Battle for Tikrit: Iraqi forces ‘advancing on city centre’

Iraqi and Shi’ite militia men have entered parts of the city of Tikrit in a key test for Iraqi forces in their battle against ISIL militants.

It is as yet unconfirmed how much of what was Saddam Hussein’s home city has been retaken but Iraqi forces claim to be clearing the neighbourhoods close to the centre.

Tikrit lies on the road connecting Baghdad to Mosul.Retaking it from ISIL will give Iraqi forces a major supply link to retake their second city

Thirty thousand government soldiers and Shia militias launched their offensive on Tikrit ten days ago.
ISIL militants took control of the district last summer when they seized large swathes of territory in Iraq’s north and west.

Progress has been slow but when Iraqi forces re took the town of al-Alam on Tikrit’s northern edge residents celebrated their arrival.

Read more: Battle for Tikrit: Iraqi forces ‘advancing on city centre’ | euronews, world news

The ISIS Bandits Continue Massacres: ISIS Video shows Peter Kassig, a U.S. Aid Worker, was Executed - by Rukmini Callimachi

The Islamic State released a video early Sunday showing a black-clad executioner standing over the severed head of what they claim is an American aid worker, a former Army Ranger who disappeared over a year ago at a checkpoint in northern Syria while delivering medical supplies.

The footage — which has not been independently verified — is significantly different from those of four other hostage executions the militants have filmed. Unlike the killing of James Foley and others, the actual death of the former Ranger Peter Kassig, is not shown. And he is not made to deliver a final message. 

The camera pans across the boots of the hooded killer. Between his feet is a decapitated head, blood smearing the cheek.

“This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American Army doesn’t have much to say. His previous cellmates have already spoken on his behalf. But we say to you, Obama,” says the British-accented fighter who has appeared in previous beheading videos and has been nicknamed Jihadi John by the British press. “You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. We said to you then that you are liars.”

Read more: ISIS Video Purports to Prove Peter Kassig, a U.S. Aid Worker, Was Executed - NYTimes.com