UNITED NATIONS, September 25 (RIA Novosti) – The United Nations estimates that over 13 thousand foreign terrorist fighters from over 80 UN-member states work for the Islamic State (IS) radical group, as well as the al-Nusra Front, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"The UN's al-Qaeda-Taliban Monitoring Team estimates that more than 13,000 foreign fighters from over 80 member-states have joined ISIL and the al-Nusra Front," Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council Wednesday.
"These groups have become a magnet for foreign terrorist fighters who are easy prey to simplistic appeals and siren songs," the Secretary-General noted.
"Terrorists must be defeated — but we must do so in a way that avoids the deliberate acts of provocation that they set for us — victimization, further radicalization and more civilian deaths. Eliminating terrorism requires international solidarity and a multifaceted approach — among the many tools we must use, we must also tackle the underlying conditions that provide violent extremist groups the opportunity to take root," Ban Ki-moon stressed.
The UN Secretary-General emphasized that all anti-terrorism strategies must be in line with international law.
"Through our collective efforts, we must ensure that all counter-terrorism actions and policies are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian laws. As the custodian of the Charter of the United Nations, I want to emphasize that all measures must be fully in line with the goals and values and principles of the United Nations."
The al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria, is among the groups whose facilities are being targeted by the US-led anti-IS coalition, which started carrying out airstrikes in Syria earlier this week. One of the organization's leaders, Abu Yusuf Turki, was reportedly killed in an airstrike on Wednesday.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is a radical Sunni group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014 it started launching attacks in Iraq.
In August, the United States authorized airstrikes against IS positions in northern and western Iraq.
