Daesh Faces Recruitment Problems in Europe as Support Dwindles – German FM

The terrorist group is losing its "attractiveness" in Europe, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The number of youths the Daesh terror group has been able to recruit in Europe this year has slumped compared to 2015, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday.

"I think that their attractiveness and their recruitment potential among young people in Europe is not as strong as last year. In any case, the number of those joining up for jihad has massively decreased," the minister told the German Bild newspaper.

Steinmeier added that the jihadist group had been claiming attacks by lone-wolf terrorists in Europe that had "sometimes stronger sometimes weaker links to the organization."

Last month, an Afghan asylum seeker launched an axe and knife attack on a train near Wuerzburg in south Germany, wounding five tourists. A few days later, a Syrian refugee exploded a bomb outside a music festival in Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 bystanders. Daesh claimed responsibility for both attacks.