article_snippet.sent: The number of fighters leaving home to join al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and other countries has spiked to more than 25,000 from over 100 nations, according to a new U.N. report.
article_snippet.sent: The panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida said in a new U.N. report that The Associated Press analysis indicates the number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71 percent between mid-2014 and March 2015.
article_snippet.sent: The Associated Press said the scale of the problem has increased over the past three years and the flow of foreign fighters 'is higher than the flow of foreign fighters ' has ever been historically.'
article_snippet.sent: Foreign fighters: The UN estimates the number of fighters leaving home to join ISIS militants - such as the Londoner dubbed Jihadi John (pictured) - has risen to over 25,000 from over 100 nations .
article_snippet.sent: The overall number of foreign terrorist fighters has 'risen sharply from a few thousand ... a decade ago to more than 25,000 today,' The panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida said in a new U.N. report.
article_snippet.sent: a new U.N. report said just two countries have accounted for over 20,000 foreign fighters: Syria and Iraq.
article_snippet.sent: two countries went to fight primarily for the Islamic State group but also the Al-Nusra Front.
article_snippet.sent: Looking ahead, The panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida said the thousands of foreign fighters who traveled to Syria and Iraq are living and working in 'a veritable `international finishing school' for extremists,' as was the case in Afghanistan in the 1990s.