Foreign terrorist fighter travel focus of INTERPOL counter-terrorism meeting

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Counter-terrorism experts from Central and South Asia gathered at an INTERPOL Project Kalkan workshop to exchange information on foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) travel to conflict zones.

More than 30 specialists from 15 countries took part in the two-day meeting, which addressed the challenges in tracking and backtracking terrorism investigations and developing actionable police responses to threats emerging from conflict zones.

Sharing best practices and identifying gaps in intelligence in order to better contain and disrupt transnational terrorist activities were also part of the round-table sessions and case study exchanges.

The operational workshop was the first in a series of specialized exchanges which will also address specific issues relating to social media and targeted accounts, facilitators, high-value target individuals and their associates.

Supported by INTERPOL’s FTF Analysis File, social media intelligence software and other tracking tools, Project Kalkan has produced a number of reports highlighting previously unidentified connections between investigations and producing leads for member country follow-up.

Since the start of 2017, Project Kalkan member countries have generated more than 1,500 alert messages, and to date have provided nearly 50 per cent of the more than 14,500 foreign terrorist fighter entities recorded by INTERPOL.

The meeting, co-hosted by INTERPOL and the Azerbaijani Police, was supported by the Japanese Government as part of the ‘Interdicting Foreign Terrorist Fighters travelling to conflict zones’ project.

Countries which participated in the meeting: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

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