Middle East...:Extremists Booking on Cruise Ships to go to S...

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Extremists Booking on Cruise Ships to go to Syria, Iraq: Interpol Officials

Local Editor

Would-be extremist militants are increasingly booking tickets on cruise ships to join other extremists in battle zones in Syria and Iraq, Interpol officials have told The Associated Press.

Extremists Booking on Cruise Ships to go to Syria, Iraq: Interpol Officials

Turkey, with its long and often porous border with Syria, has been a major thoroughfare for many of the thousands of foreign militants seeking to join extremists like so-called "Daesh" ["ISIL"], which has captured territory across Iraq and Syria.

Speaking in Monaco, where Interpol is holding its general assembly this week, outgoing chief Ronald Noble confirmed that Turkey was a destination, but declined to identify any others.

"But as we've gathered data, we've realized that there are more and more reports that people are using cruise ships in order to get to launch pads, if you will -- sort of closer to the conflict zones -- of Syria and Iraq," he said.

Cruise ships, which often make repeated stops, offer an added benefit by allowing would-be extremists to hop off undetected at any number of ports -- making efforts to track them more difficult.

Noble also refused to indicate how many people might be involved, but called on countries to step up screening at all transportation hubs -- "airports and, more and more, cruise lines."

Director of counterterrorism at Interpol, Pierre St. Hilaire, said that, "Because they know the airports are monitored more closely now, there's a use of cruise ships to travel to those areas," he told the AP on Thursday.

"There is evidence that the individuals, especially in Europe, are traveling mostly to Izmit and other places to engage in this type of activity," he said, referring to a Turkish coastal town.

St. Hilaire said it wasn't exactly clear yet how many would-be foreign militants were traveling by cruise ship to reach Syria, and added that there were other options as well: to avoid passing through airports, some people have driven all the way from their homes in Europe to the Syrian border.

He was quick to caution that Europe is by no means the only or even the main source of foreign militants for Syria.
"It's a global threat -- 15,000 [militants] or more from 81 countries traveling to one specific conflict zone," he said, noting that that there are some 300 from China alone.

He added that, "In order to prevent their travel and identify them, there needs to be greater information-sharing among the region, among national security agencies."

The phenomenon is relatively new, within the past three months or so, other Interpol officials said.

Meanwhile, many European governments have expressed concern that home-grown extremists who self-radicalize online and then travel to Syria will return home with skills to carry out extremist attacks.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team