AFP: Islamic State: What happened to all the foreign fighters?
Washington (AFP) - An estimated 40,000 people traveled from around the world to take up arms for the Islamic State group as it occupied territory in Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014.
A few hundred are believed to still be fighting as IS struggles to survive, having lost most of its territory to campaigns by Western-backed Syrian and Iraqi coalition armies.
But what happened to the rest?
Many thousands were certainly killed in the intense fighting, but US experts believe many have survived, posing a formidable threat going ahead.
"The issue is: how many have died? How many are still there and willing to fight? How many have gone elsewhere to fight?" said Seth Jones, director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corporation.
"How many have given up? I don't think we have a good answer."
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WNU Editor: A good number are dead. The rest are either hiding in Syria/Iraq or have joined rebel groups in Syria, have traveled back home, have traveled to join Islamic State offshoots elsewhere, or are now in a third country wondering on what to do next.
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