‘Most Dangerous’ ISIL Leaders Come From Scandinavia – Assad

The Syrian government has "information" that the most dangerous leaders of the Islamic State militant group in Syria come from Scandinavia, President Bashar Assad told a Swedish newspaper.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Asked if Sweden had ever contacted Syrian authorities to share their intel about these and other ISIL fighters, Assad said there was "no contact" between intelligence agencies of the two countries.

"Most dangerous leaders of Daesh, or ISIS [ISIL], in our region are Scandinavian," Assad said in an interview with Sweden's tabloid newspaper Expressen, published on Friday.

Sweden's security service estimates that the number of foreign fighters who had left the country to wage jihad in the Middle East could be around 150 people and is growing, as of last October.

In late January, a Swedish government research found that the country faced an increased threat of Islamic extremism amid a rise in the number of foreign fighters traveling to the Middle East to fight alongside the Islamic State.

The Syrian leader warned that terrorism was not a domestic or regional issue. "It is global," he stressed, adding that Sweden could not be safe as long as terrorism was growing in Europe.