عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Rise in Number of Fighters Returning to Germany from Mideast

Police investigators in Dortmund, Germany, April 12, 2017. AP
Police investigators in Dortmund, Germany, April 12, 2017. AP
TT
TT

Rise in Number of Fighters Returning to Germany from Mideast

Police investigators in Dortmund, Germany, April 12, 2017. AP
Police investigators in Dortmund, Germany, April 12, 2017. AP

The German interior ministry has admitted that the number of fighters who have traveled from Germany to Syria and Iraq increased in 2017.

In response to a parliamentary questionnaire submitted by the Left party, the ministry said at least 249 people have traveled from Germany to both countries.

The number of those heading to fight alongside Kurds between April and December 2017 reached 45. While 204 people, including 69 Germans, joined different terrorist organizations in the two countries last year.

Twenty-one of those who embarked on the journey on fight alongside Kurds against ISIS were killed, it said.

It added that 22 of those supporting Kurds in Iraq and Syria have returned. They are part of 124 people who have returned to Germany after fighting in the two countries.

The number of those joining terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq had dropped significantly in 2016.

Ulla Jelpke, one of the Left party politicians who submitted the questionnaire, was highly critical of the interior ministry for considering Kurdish fighters as terrorists.

"The fact that ISIS has been pushed back is thanks, in great part, to Kurdish YPG ground troops and their volunteer supporters. To investigate them for being members of a terrorist organization upon return is just grotesque," said Jelpke.

German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung quoted police as saying that the judiciary has opened an investigation into many terror-related cases on returnees from Syria and Iraq.

The prosecution has accused 27 of them of belonging to a terrorist organization. But dropped charges against 16 because of lack of evidence.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT

Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)

The Philippines ordered evacuations Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Usagi's arrival, as the UN's disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after recent storms killed more than 150 people.

The national weather service said Usagi -- the archipelago's fifth major storm in three weeks -- would likely make landfall Thursday in Cagayan province on the northeast tip of main island Luzon.

Provincial civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said mayors had been ordered to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas, by force if necessary, as the 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour typhoon bears down on the country.

"Under (emergency protocols), all the mayors must implement the forced evacuation, especially for susceptible areas," he told AFP, adding as many as 40,000 people in the province lived in hazard-prone areas.

The area is set to be soaked in "intense to torrential" rain on Thursday and Friday, which can trigger floods and landslides with the ground still sodden from recent downpours, state weather forecaster Christopher Perez told reporters.

He urged residents of coastal areas to move inland due to the threat of storm surges and giant coastal waves up to three meters (nine feet) high, with shipping also facing the peril of 8–10-meter waves.

A sixth tropical storm, Man-yi, is expected to strengthen into a typhoon before hitting the center of the country as early as Friday, Perez said.

With more than 700,000 people forced out of their homes, the successive storms have taken a toll on the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday.

About 210,000 of those most affected by recent flooding need support for "critical lifesaving and protection efforts over the next three months", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.

"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."

The initiative "will help us mobilize the capacities and resources of the humanitarian community to better support government institutions at national, regional and local levels," Gonzalez added.

More than 28,000 people displaced by recent storms are still living in evacuation centers operated by local governments, the country's civil defense office said in its latest tally.

Government crews were still working to restore downed power and communication lines and clearing debris from roads.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.

A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.