UN report: An 'unprecedented' number of fighters headed to Iraq and Syria

A United Nations report says that foreign fighters are flocking to Iraq and Syria on "an unprecedented scale" from more than 80 countries.

The report, which was produced by the UN Security Council committee that keeps tabs on al Qaeda, contains basic information about the jihadists headed to the hotspots, The Guardian says. The committee reports that 15,000 people have already made their way to battle with ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. While the report does not list the 80 different countries the fighters are coming from, it did mention that several of the countries "have not previously faced challenges related to al Qaeda."

The goal of the report was to give an update on the spread of terrorism, and it says that "core al Qaeda remains weak." It also states that while al Qaeda is slowly fading, ISIS is rising, and although organizations like ISIS ordinarily care more about local battles and not international targets, more countries will have to deal with fighters returning home from war zones.

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