(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that there are some 471 French nationals fighting with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and 110 people from France have been killed in combat for the insurgent group.
Speaking in the French Senate, Valls said close to 900 people, either nationals or residents here had gone for so-called "Jihad" in Syria or in Iraq, the largest number for any European country.
The government has undertaken a widespread campaign to block people from going to fight in Syria and Iraq, measures that include confiscation of passports for up to two years, surveillance of networks on Internet and elsewhere and an alert system for families who suspect young people might be trying to leave the country for the region.
"More than 860 individuals have spent time in these countries," Valls told Senators as he sought to defend a tough Intelligence draft law that has already been passed in the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, but needs Senate approval.
In the unlikely event the Senate votes against, however, the bill would pass again to the National Assembly and become law if approved a second time.
Senate approval is expected but questions have been raised about the extent of powers being proposed for police and intelligence services.
Powers include the right to bug phones, houses and cars of suspected terrorists and to pry into private lives in a way never seen before in France.
Reinforced controls of the Internet and obligation of service providers to cooperate with police are also included in the proposed legislation.
The bill was put forward after the two terror attacks in Paris in January that left 17 civilians and three terrorists dead.
Last month, Valls told Parliament that there were around 3,000 Europeans who had joined ISIL in the region and he warned that number could soar to 10,000 by the end of the year, if strong measures were not put in place.
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