FBI tracking returned IS figthers
FBI is closely tracking 100 Americans.
WASHINGTON, Sept 22, 2014 (AFP) - US authorities are closely tracking some of the 100 Americans estimated to have fought with the Islamic State group in the Middle East who are believed to have returned home, a senior US official said Monday.
The revelation came before President Barack Obama travels to New York Tuesday to chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the threat posed by Western fighters who have signed up to fight for the jihadists and could pose a security risk in their home nations.
The figure of 100 American IS fighters "includes those who ve gone, those who ve tried to go, some who ve come back and who are under active" surveillance by the FBI, the official said on condition of anonymity.
US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile said in a television interview Monday that "we have over a hundred fighters there from America.
"They have passports. They can come back here," Kerry told MSNBC.
US officials have so far said that though the are deeply concerned by the prospect that Islamic State could seek to conduct operations inside the United States or on the soil of its Western allies, they know of no current active plots targeting the US homeland.
Last week, however, police in Australia said they had foiled a plot by IS jihadists to carry out "demonstration executions" in the country.
The prospect that Islamic State could mount attacks on US soil if the threat is not addressed has been used by the Obama administration as a key argument in its drive for the formation of an international coalition to go after the group in Iraq and eventually in Syria.
The group, which has carved out a haven in Syria and Iraq, has already beheaded three journalists, two of them American and one British and has threatened to kill other hostages.
