Swiss Intelligence Detects at Least 400 Possible Jihadists Via Social Media

Switzerland's Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) revealed the terrorism-related activities of some 400 suspected people in 2016.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Switzerland's Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) has uncovered the online activities of at least 400 suspected radical Islamists through social media networks, local media reported Monday.

Earlier in the day, Markus Seiler, the FIS chief, and Guy Parmelin, head of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport, presented an annual FIS report.

The Swiss 24 heures newspaper reported, citing Seiler that the terrorism-related activities of some 400 suspected people had been revealed in 2016, in comparison with about 300 in 2015.

According to the newspaper, some 70 people have been identified as individuals, who used to go to the conflict zones, such as Syria, to join other Islamists and conduct jihadist activities, but the number of such people has been decreasing.

Countries across the globe have been boosting their security following a series of terrorist attacks, including the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 31, 2015, attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 and Brussels on March 22. Militants affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) terror group, claimed responsibility for all of these violent terror acts.

Daesh, which occupies vast territories of Iraq and Syria and is outlawed in Russia and many other countries, has gained much notoriety for conducting suicide bombings and other attacks worldwide as well as for recruiting young people via social media.