U.N.: 30,000 ISIS militants pose threat

UNITED NATIONS — The Islamic State militant group has as many as 30,000 members distributed between Syria and Iraq, and its global network poses a rising threat — as does al-Qaida’s, a United Nations report says.

The report by U.N. experts that circulated Monday said that despite the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and most of Syria, it is likely that a reduced “covert version” of the militant group’s “core” will survive in both countries, with affiliated supporters in Afghanistan, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa.

The report to the Security Council by experts monitoring sanctions against the two militant groups said the Islamic State’s membership in Iraq and Syria is estimated between 20,000 and 30,000.

While many Islamic State fighters, planners and commanders were killed in fighting, and many other fighters and supporters left the conflict zone, the experts said many still remain in the two countries.

With its physical caliphate largely destroyed, the movement is transforming from a “proto-state” to a covert terrorist network, the report said.

The experts also said al-Qaida’s global network “continues to show resilience,” with its affiliates and allies much stronger than the Islamic State in some spots, including Somalia, Yemen, South Asia and Africa’s Sahel region.

AP/SEKCJA PRASOWA Navy explosives experts retrieve one of three World War II-era bombs from the Baltic Sea bed in the vacation resort of Kolobrzeg, Poland, on Monday. Some 2,200 people were evacuated to allow for the removal of the bombs which were taken to a test range for controlled detonation.