The number of foreign fighters leaving to Iraq and Syria to fight on the side of the jihadist group Islamic State in last year drastically reduced, the US General Peter Gersten said on Tuesday. He told a news conference at the Pentagon that "when a year ago he arrived in Baghdad, between 1,500 and 2,000 fighters each month accompanied the IS".
"Now that for a year we fight that enemy, we estimate that the number of foreign fighters arriving each month fell to 200, while there was an increase in the number of fighters who desert", Gersten said.
United States general added that reducing the number partly is due to and the continuing attacks on locations where IS keeps the finances.