Chancellor Merkel warned that the Islamic State now controls an area half the size of Germany, and said the terror group is causing “the far-reaching destabilization of an entire region [which] affects Germany and Europe.” Defending Germany’s decision to send arms to Kurdish fighters in Iraq battling the Islamic State, she also said the more than 400 Germans who have joined the ranks of the IS present a direct threat to Germany. Some 20 former German soldiers are known to have joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said the Islamic State’s brutality has made it “much more attractive” to radicalized German Muslims than the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.
