French Fighters Make Up Largest Group of Europeans in Daesh Ranks – Police

With some 700 French nationals fighting alongside Daesh forces in Syria and Iraq, France tops the list of jihadists’ EU countries of origin, a French police anti-terror chief told Le Figaro newspaper.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — French police estimated 30,000 foreigners were fighting with Daesh in the Middle East in 2015. Their number has since dropped to 12,000 fighters, including 3,000 European citizens. Garnier said 232 French fighters had died, while 700 others were still in areas under Daesh control.

"Even if Belgium is the most represented one with regard to [the proportion of] its population, France remains the largest contributor of the EU [fighters]," Loic Garnier, the director of the police anti-terror coordination unit UCLAT, said in an interview on Tuesday.