Interactive: Where do the foreign fighters in Iraq come from?

Thousands of people from around the world have travelled to join militants fighting in Iraq and Syria. Just where do all these people come from?

(File: AAP)

According to figures from London-based think tank the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, via the Human Security Centre, there are thousands of foreign fighters taking part in conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

This includes an estimated 250 Australians.

This data provided in the interactive map includes fighters who have returned to their home countries.

Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Professor Peter Neumann, said the Syrian conflict had sparked the most significant mobilisation of foreign fighters since the 1980s war in Afghanistan.

The Afghan conflict produced al-Qaeda and the Syrian conflict was now forging new networks that would carry out terrorist attacks, he said.

Professor Neumann has been consulting the UN Security Council ahead of its September 24 summit meeting, chaired by US President Barack Obama, on foreign terrorist fighters and the threat they pose.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the deployment of 600 combat aircraft and special forces advisers to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, with departure expected by the end of the week.

“This is not the task of weeks or even necessarily just a few months,” he said.

“But this is not Australia on its own. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Jordan, the UAE and Bahrain have all committed to military action.”

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