https://www.thelocal.fr/20150409/nearly-half-of-european-jihadists-in-syria-iraq-are-french-report 9 April 2015 Forty-seven percent of European jihadists known to have travelled to territory held by the extremist Islamic State group are French, a report by the country's upper house Senate revealed on Wednesday. Just over 1,430 French people have made their way to Iraq and Syria, representing 47 percent of jihadists from Europe that are known and accounted for, Senator Jean-Pierre Sueur, who spearheaded a parliamentary probe into jihadist networks, told reporters. According to Sueur, French domestic intelligence services are currently monitoring more than 3,000 people suspected of being involved in one way or another in Syrian networks -- a 24-percent increase since November last year. Some 85 French nationals are thought to have died in Isis-held zones while two are being held in Syria, the report said. Of particular concern to intelligence services, some 200 have left to come back to France, prompting fears they may stage attacks mirroring the January 7th-9th shooting spree that left 17 dead. http://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200123-france-jihadism-micheron-prisons-syria-terrorism Issued on: 24/01/2020 RFI: 2,000 jihadists left France to join the Islamic State armed group (Isis) between 2012 and 2018: that’s 40 percent of the total number from Europe. How did jihadist ideology get a foothold here in France in the first place? HM: There are 10 to 15 cities in France that are particularly concerned when it comes to French jihadism and I explain that through the historical implementation of networks of jihadist and Islamist militants in the 1990s such as the GIA [Armed Islamic Group in Algeria]. After the civil war ended, some Algerian jihadists who were released from jail settled in France and Belgium where they continued their activism. There were also other movements such as jihadists from Afghanistan. They settled here, did basic religious militancy, door-to-door preaching, set up non-profit organisations, built up schools and structured their movements on the ground. That’s the thing I insist on in the book: that if we want to understand Salafism and jihadism in Europe we have to focus on territory because they project their power through territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_France_Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is a French public radio service that broadcasts in Paris and all over the world. With 35.6 million listeners in 2008, it is one of the most listened to international radio stations in the world, along with BBC World Service, Voice of America and China Radio International.