They’re enemy combatants, adherents of an entity that is waging war against European states. Thus they should not be allowed to return, and every effort should be made to block them from doing so. But apparently such steps would be “Islamophobic.”
“E.U. authorities brace for wave of Islamic State fighters after Mosul assault,” by Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post, October 23, 2016:
BRUSSELS — A long-awaited offensive this week to dislodge the Islamic State from its stronghold city of Mosul is fueling fears of renewed terrorist attacks, as European counterterrorism officials say more fighters are returning home after waging jihad in Syria and Iraq.
The security concerns are a major focus of European intelligence agencies as the Iraqi army and its partners press the assault on Mosul, which the Islamic State has used as a capital for planning and operations for more than two years. Attacks in Paris and Brussels in recent years have been conducted by locally born attackers who in some cases trained with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, then returned home.
The threat underlines a central dilemma facing leaders of nations where the Islamic State has carried out terrorist attacks: Even as they support efforts to defeat the group on the ground, they risk dislodging its adherents and casting them elsewhere. Top officials say that they are raising their vigilance as thousands of people stream out of Mosul, which is under heavy bombardment in the largest operation for Iraqi security forces since they were formed after toppling Saddam Hussein.
Counterterrorism officials say it is too early to know whether the Mosul operation will spark a new wave of fighters coming back to Europe. But they say that when the Islamic State has been dealt battlefield blows in the past year, more of its adherents have returned home.
“Further military losses, further military pressure on them in the region, indeed might lead to an increased reflex response by the group in Europe,” said Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, the Pan-European policing agency that is coordinating efforts to combat the group inside European Union borders. Flows of returning fighters have “slightly increased” in recent months, he said. “Not yet in high numbers. Maybe Mosul and Raqqa could change that,” he said, referring to the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold, which is the next major target after Mosul.
Between 4,000 and 5,000 European residents are estimated to have gone to Syria and Iraq to take part in the fight, which has raged since Arab Spring protests in Syria in 2011. A majority of the European fighters are said to be on the ground there, Wainwright said. About a third is estimated to have returned, with the remainder killed.
The trip has been made harder by Turkey’s sealing of its border with Syria, a step that has significantly cut down on traffic in both directions. Turkish officials have said in recent days that they view fleeing Islamic State fighters as a significant domestic threat and that they are committed to bolstering security along the long border with Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State also has been known to kill disillusioned fighters who try to abandon the fight, further reducing return movement.
The group may also seek to pull off high-profile attacks as a way of proving its continued relevance. The flow of new European recruits to the fight has slowed to a trickle this year after posing a major challenge to authorities in recent years.
Still, some movement is possible, Wainwright said.
“ISIL are in the business of getting their people back into Europe in increasingly sophisticated ways,” he said, including paying organized crime groups for high-quality fake travel documents. In recent months, there has been “some pickup in the rate of return,” most noticeably to Britain, Sweden and Italy, he said.
E.U. counterterrorism officials have been warning for months that a string of setbacks for the Islamic State inside the territory it controls could create a threat as its supporters flee and as its leaders seek to prove their ongoing relevance. Repeated attacks on Paris last year, then the March attacks in Brussels, were the first warning sign of the group’s new focus on Europe. Then this summer, a spate of Islamic State-inspired attacks that began on Bastille Day in Nice, France, showed just how little resources were necessary to perpetrate large-scale killings.
“We have to be prepared, that’s the point. It’s a lot of people,” E.U. Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove said. “We don’t know whether it will be a massive return or whether it will be over a long period of time.”…

gravenimage says
E.U. authorities brace for return of Islamic State jihadis after Mosul assault
………………………
*Insanity*. Not one of these Jihadis should be allowed to return to the West.
Bindon Blood says
Considering that a lot ,if not most, of these people are war criminals they should be arrested on sight and war crimes trials set in motion. Bring back death for war criminals and hang them as the leaders and worst offenders of NAZI Germany were hanged. The Bolsheviks got away with it but these people should pay for their crimes against humanity.
Ernie says
Agreed Bindon Blood .
jjames says
we need a modern Churchill against islam hatred nazis.
Just like back in 1939,
feeble cowardly EU politicians ARE USELESS
particolor says
SACK the lot of the Appeasing Pigs !!
Angemon says
Indeed they shouldn’t. The question is, how to tell where and when they are? It’s politically incorrect to screen the “Syrian” “refugees”, so the barn doors are wide open.
J D S says
Why would any sensible European allow any of these jihadist back into their country?
Unless…….they are ready to accept Islam and Sharia Law..Do they really just want to give their country away? Well With what is happening in America and especially with the present Administration…America Is on its way also ….Have we just given in and up? America was founded on a whole different set if rules as is Islam…Just think…If..say….the Baptist or one of the other Christian based groups decided that they were going to take the stand that the islamist have taken…what would happen?…The government would be building more and larger prisons and we would have the Army in the streets controlling our every day life……Especially under the present Administration or a Puppet Administration that might follow if Hillary should be elected.
DFD says
J D S says: “…Why would any sensible European allow any of these jihadist back into their country?..”
What makes you think that we sensible Europeans are being asked? Any question or the faintest doubt or anything that remotely smells like disagreement, and we will be classed as, and called Nazis.
No argument, no compromise.
Disagree and you are 1) a Nazi, 2) Racist 3) Imperialist – and that’s that.
With a defamation campaign in the neighbourhood and workplaces to match!
Bob says
And their passports cancelled!!
Paladin says
I can’t think of reason #1 to let the murderous jihadis back in to Europe. Do these spineless government officials really believe the native populace would rise up in protest and demand the reimportation of these killers? No, more likely they’re trying to appease the jihadis left behind who would start new attacks if the Islamophobic EU governments actually closed the gates and locked the doors behind them. It will take a popular uprising of the people to tear out the cancerous tumor of Islam, root and stem. The compromised Western governments are too far gone to act in our best interests.
Sog says
“I can’t think of reason #1 to let the murderous jihadis back in to Europe.”
It protects the economic elite from the economic challenges of a highly creative middle class. Yes… it really is that simple.
mortimer says
Islam’s a political IDEOLOGY, stupid!
A freakin’ POLITICAL IDEOLOGY! Forget the religious parts…they are your problem.
THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY of Islam is a BIG problem.
mortimer says
correction: the religious parts of Islam AREN’T your problem
Ernie says
Agreed Mortimer ; islam is a political ideology disguised as a religion . Why you attribute the word “stupid ” to your comment is not entirely clear to me .
Mirren10 says
”Why you attribute the word “stupid ” to your comment is not entirely clear to me ”
I thin, Ernie, mortimer is paraphrasing Geert Wilder’s famous comment, ”It’s the islam, stupid.” 🙂
Ernie says
Thank you for explaining Mirren !
Mark says
It’s not clear from the article of they are deliberately letting back or just assuming that they will get back in. Still with a virtually open border to “refugees” there isn’t much difference in practice.
particolor says
AH !! Threaten with a French 1832 if they let the Swine back in !!
Veka Fitzfrancis says
Eastern European, with its many closing paths is not going to willingly let them in. Expect violence before new years, and let’s see the German police purge those records this time.
ECAW says
Now the EU really is finished. What was intended to be a fortress for the individual nations has become a prison. Its currency staggers from one crisis to another and its fiscal policy beggars the southern (feckless) countries at the behest of the northern industrial ones (Germany). Their lunatic open doors policy is piling up fuel for an almost inevitable explosion.
But the death knell is Brexit, not the vote but when article 50 is triggered making Britain’s departure inevitable. The EU is bankrupt and cannot survive the loss of one of the few net contributors and a major voting bloc. An Austrian economist has recently said that Austria and Germany should follow Britain out the door because the rich countries will then be outvoted by the poor ones and you know what that means.
Mark says
Actually triggering article 50 does not make brexit inevitable. It can be reversed:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/brexit-how-does-article-50-work-2016-7
One scenario that I can see is a call for another referendum once a deal is reached, which could result in reversal.
Bindon Blood says
There is no basis at all for a new referendum. Why cannot people grasp the fact that in the biggest voter participation in British history ,the people voted to leave the EU. If any political party tries to thwart that they will alienate millions of people and sign their own death warrant. If such a thing happens their will be a huge outcry.
ECAW says
That’s true. I had read about that but assumed when I read it that unless there is a change of government (and who can imagine Labour or the Lib Dems rising from the grave in the next two years?) that:
a) if Britain and the EU come to an amicable agreement within two years there will be no need for a second referendum.
or
b) if the EU play for time we will just leave and take our chances with the WTO arrangements. the US, Japan and everyone else gets by under them. As a matter of fact I would be happy if we said “Up yours, we’ll take our chances with the wider world”. The EU (ie Germany) apparently has more to lose by slapping tarriffs on imports from Britain as we would reciprocate and we import more from them than they do from us. Also, if the EU do decide to play dirty what’s to stop us vetoing all their crucial plans till they beg us to leave and take the family silver with us?
al norm says
It is like watching a time motion camera on a rotting carcass. It is all so predictable. What are these people thinking. I can understand the local lefties as they are just stupid and believe that nastiness will go away if you smile and empathize. But the politicians and ruling class….. It is beyond comprehension.
David says
That’s it!
Beyond Comprehension!
I’M thinking the same thing. The only reason those criminal politicians are doing this TO THEIR OWN NATION is for money!
Once the fools and traitorous imbeciles have “latched onto” the Saudi teat of plenty, it’s all over. As the cash continues to flow, so goes the “Pro-islam” vote.
European leadership is in the pocket of the Muslims king pins. Via the never-ending stream of C A S H .
The people must rise up and stomp this Cockroache before it grows any bigger.
Richard Paulsen says
These persons and european leaders will not do nothing, What can others do to change these leaders minds?
If these leaders own families were blown up or got their heads severed, they would probably try to get those gulity, and nothing else.
They will never do anything to stop their destructive politics. Other leaders are needed.
Seems to be two major challenges
1 Other leaders. How?
2 Change politics. How?
Richard Paulsen says
Correction: ” Their heads chopped off. ” Instead of ” severed “.
Richard Paulsen says
” They will do nothing. “
duh swami says
With Islam, crimes against humanity are rewarded…It would be Islamophobic to not respect that tradition…
Islam the religion of killers says
The Turks won’t stop the flow of ISIS into Europe, they are just playing both sides, they want Europe under Islam just as much as ISIS, in his mind ” Erdogan for Caliph of the world.”
The Turks will pretend to fight but will “be over run” at the last minute, Erdogan will be “shocked shocked” at the way the ISIS commanders slipped by the Turkish elite troops ..
It will only be the ISIS commanders and captians that get through, the minions will be left behind fighting, like the suicide bombers, to die for Alla …. Bagdadi will slip through and be hiding out in turkey somewhere in a luxury villa, just like Osama Bin Laden …
Richard Paulsen says
There should be a conference condemning ISIS and islam and islamic regimes for crimes against humanity.
Crusades Were Right! says
The rule these days seems to be that the West is not allowed to attack, kill or even hurt the feelings of enemies who make war on it, behead its citizens, enslave and rape women and children…
…unless those enemies are or European Christian heritage.
Seems fair. I mean, “colonialism, racism, slavery” and that.
(LOL!)
David, Thailand says
Sorry, people, but Europe fully deserves the consequences of its refusal to acknowledge anything that resembles common sense.
Don’t fret for fools that race at the cliff’s edge, when they also denounce you for alerting them to what’s ahead.
gravenimage says
Yeah, well, the whole of the West–most of Dar-al-Harb–are headed down this same path, David.
No shadenfreud from me.
David says
Tell me again. Just why these murderous swine must be ALLOWED to come back into the country???????
Is it to snap on the hand-cuffs?
Is it to put them right in Prison?
Is it to get them right into the Gas Chamber or Electric Chair?
Or, or what?
Are their any valid reasons to just take them back at all?
ANY BODY?
particolor says
What’s this let them come Home bit ?? THEY ARE HOME Where they are!
Dustin Koellhoffer says
These people are mentally retarded. Brace for their return? How about they don’t get to return?
CrossWare says
So Western Europe getting ready for more attack? Oh you mean breaking out the emergency stuffed animals and getting ready the speeches how Islamophobia is the reason for everything and how is getting killed in a terrorist attack is part of life, like getting caught in the rain.
Then the glorious fearless leaders sit back into their armored limousine and going back to their bunkers surrounded by their armed bodyguards. Life goes on…
Florida Jim says
Obama lies about Obamacare, transparency, employment numbers, Hillary’s emails, Comey’s handling of a criminal security act by Hillary,IRS, VA, HHS, TSA, frigged elections he is a slimy Chicago political hack and Hillary is worse 30 tears of failure only a democrat could love on their way to Marxism.. Obama is trying to claim a small victory of any kind in the mid-east so he can lie again to america . Obama is a slimy, sleazy politician who will rape America and the UN for another 2o years lying every day of his foul life.Why do any citizens allow this blatant fraud and not stop listening to his lies? America is one election away from becoming Venezuela.Trump is our only choice and we oust him if he fails in 4 years as we should have done to the slimy Obama.
Mark A says
Appalling.
These jihadis should be stripped of their EU citizenship and charged with treason for fighting on behalf of ISIS, an organization which has declared war on the EU.
Instead they will likely be given rehabilitation schemes which contain more benefits than those received by legitimate benefits recipients.
davej says
Return “home”? If they left to fight with ISIS then their home is there, not here.
I wonder about the full economic impact on Europe, between huge additional security costs and declining tourism revenues. I know that my ambitions to visit the glories of Europe have been severely eroded by increasing Islamization and the drumbeat of terror attacks.
gravenimage says
Good point–Europe is not “home” for these Jihadists–it is just a base of operations.
Eyes open says
These evil jihadis have fought for no country just for an evil islamic ideology. They do not identify themselves with a country. Why should they not be stripped of their citizenship and why should they be allowed back into Europe. This is putting innocent lives at risk. EU elites are suicidal to allow this.