GERMANY has admitted losing track of 160 former ISIS fanatics after their return from fighting for the brutal terror group in Syria.

A new intelligence report released by the German government found that, of the 1,000 Germans who travelled to join the group, 350 have returned.

6 Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia, killed 12 when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin Credit: HOGP

6 Syrian refugee Mohammad Daleel, 27, let off a suicide bomb outside a wine bar in the city of Ansbach. Credit: AFP

6 ISIS lost its last stronghold of Baghuz in March of this year

Some of those are in German jails, while others await trial, but others were able to get back into Germany and go into hiding.

Of those that have not returned, some have died while others remain in Kurdish prisons in Syria and Iraq.

The report says that the returnees could pose a significant security risk.

"The spectrum is assessing these persons ranges from the 'disillusioned,' whose activities significantly decline after return and/or are no longer detectable, to persons with combat experience ready to commit violence," it says.

"In principle, it must be assumed that Islamist attitudes prevail in most cases.

"Their ability to move inconspicuously in Western countries, from the jihadi groups' perspective, predestines the returnees to plan and commit attacks in their home countries."

Many of the attacks to have hit Western countries in recent years have been carried out by people pledging allegiance to Islamic State.

ISIS has now lost almost all of the territory of which it took control after coming to prominence in 2014.

It lost its last stronghold of Baghuz in March of this year, but is still thought to pose a threat.

The group claimed responsibility for an attack last month in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in which at least eight were killed.



'DELIVERING JUSTICE A BIG CHALLENGE'

A German woman, identified only as Jennifer W., is currently on trial in Germany accused of having committed war crimes as a member of Islamic State.

She reportedly bought a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave before chaining her outside and leaving her to die of thirst in the heat.

Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were sold to ISIS members as slaves when the fighters overran the Yazidi homeland in northern Iraq.

German teen Linda Wenzel, who ran away from home to join ISIS, was captured by Iraqi soldiers after the group lost its grip on the city of Mosul.

In 2018, a Baghdad court sentenced her to six years in jail.

Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German government, has said the government faces a big challenge in bringing former ISIS soldiers to justice.

Trying other former fighters in Germany has proved difficult in the past, owing to high standards of evidence, such as photos or social media accounts, demanded in German law.

The German parliament has now passed legislation that strips Germans with dual nationality of their citizenship if they join foreign terrorist militias.

Germany has been the target of a number of attacks in recent years carried out by people pledging allegiance to Islamic State.

In July 2016, 27-year-old Syrian refugee Mohammad Daleel let off a suicide bomb outside a wine bar in the city of Ansbach.

In December of the same year, Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 56 others.

Four days later, he was killed in a shootout with police near the city of Milan in Italy.

Frank Jensen, who writes about extremism for German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, told Fox News that each prisoner must be thoroughly investigated in Syria or Iraq before they can be brought to trial in Germany.

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“We have a huge danger from Islamic terror in Germany, and many people don’t want them to come back," he said.

"I don’t know whether the government is willing to accept a lengthy de-radicalization program."

6 A woman identified only as Jennifer W. is currently on trial in Germany for war crimes committed as a member of ISIS Credit: AFP

6 German teen Linda Wenzel was tried in Baghdad after her capture by Iraqi soldiers Credit: AP:Associated Press

6 ISIS first came to prominence in 2014. when it began taking control of cities in Iraq and Syria Credit: Reuters

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