French PM Says 10,000 Europeans Could Be Fighting for ISIL by Year-End

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in an interview that the number of Europeans fighting on the side of the Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria could reach 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The number of Europeans fighting alongside the Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria could reach 10,000 people before the end of 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in an interview with iTele television.

"There are 3,000 Europeans in Iraq and Syria today. When you do a projection, there could be 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year," iTele said on Twitter citing Valls.

Valls also stated that some 90 Frenchmen have died fighting for ISIL.

Islamic State is a Sunni jihadist group that seized vast territories in Iraq and Syria in 2014, proclaiming an Islamic caliphate in the areas under its control.

Due to the group’s intensive propaganda on social networking websites, aimed especially at targeting young people, ISIL managed to recruit thousands of people from all around the world to join its ranks. On Friday, for example, a trial began in Paris against an Islamic State recruiter who via Facebook convinced a French girl as young as 14 to join ISIL in Syria.

According to the US National Counterterrorism Center's estimates, released in February, at least 20,000 foreign recruits are fighting for ISIL extremists in Iraq and Syria.