Over 400 "potential attackers" on German watchlist: official
Xinhua, January 16, 2016 Adjust font size:
The number of people returning to Germany from battle fields of the Islamic State (IS) is on the rise, the leader of German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said on Friday.
"We have now more than 400 individuals back in Germany ... Those 'potential attackers' pose great challenges for security authorities and we must keep an eye on them," BKA head Holger Muench told German broadcaster ARD.
Meanwhile, the number of people leaving Germany to join militant groups in Syria and Iraq is dropping, according to Muench.
He noted that the BKA was aware of more than 780 radicalized people who had left Germany, and with many of them now coming back, it was the job of the police to see "who among them is disillusioned, and maybe no longer poses a problem? And who is a problem?"
The BKA leader stressed the need of improving cooperation between police authorities of European countries in order to respond effectively to potential threats.
He also took the opportunity to quell fears that the recent suicide bomb attack in Istanbul, which killed 10 German tourists, meant that a similar attack was imminent in Germany. Endit