INTERPOL operation uncovers 126 foreign terrorist suspects

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Nigeria was among 11 countries that participated in an international counter-terrorism operation in which artificial intelligence was used to identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters from more than 108,000 facial images extracted from jihadist content online.

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The operation, codenamed “Operation Shams II”, was coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organisation, popularly known as INTERPOL and held in Tunis, Tunisia, from June 1 to 5, 2026.

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According to INTERPOL, in a statement published on its official website on Friday, the operation brought together 28 specialised officers and experts from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

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The international police organisation said the operation was designed to disrupt terrorist networks and their financing in the digital domain.

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It said law enforcement officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups during the five-day operation.

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Artificial intelligence agents and AI-generated scripts were then used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative process, including removing duplicate images and checking their quality.

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The technology reduced the dataset to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images which were subsequently processed through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.

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INTERPOL stressed that the AI-generated results were reviewed and verified by trained officers and analysts in line with its rules governing the processing of data.

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It said additional intelligence supplied by its National Central Bureau in Baghdad, Iraq, included hundreds of images linked to terrorism suspects.

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“To date, 126 Foreign Terrorist Fighters have been identified from the images processed during Operation Shams II,” the organisation said.

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INTERPOL said the matches would enrich existing intelligence on the suspects, including information on their potential locations and social networks.

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The data is being integrated into INTERPOL’s databases to support efforts to detect, track and disrupt the movement of terrorist suspects across borders.

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“These matches will enrich existing intelligence on suspects, including potential locations and social networks. The data is now being integrated into INTERPOL’s databases, reinforcing global efforts to detect, track and disrupt terrorist movements worldwide,” the statement read.

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The organisation said investigative leads generated during the operation were already being used to support judicial proceedings in participating countries, including a case involving two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently in detention.

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It added that thousands of additional images remained to be processed and could generate further investigative leads.

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Beyond facial recognition, the operation also deployed cryptocurrency-tracing tools to investigate terrorist financing.

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INTERPOL said the financial investigation “Employed cutting-edge cryptocurrency tools to trace illicit funding. This led to three urgent requests to a Virtual Asset Service Provider to disclose customer data, aimed at disrupting terrorist financing flows.”

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The participating countries also engaged representatives of the online gaming industry over concerns about youth radicalisation in online environments.

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INTERPOL’s Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated the potential of combining international police cooperation with AI-assisted analysis.

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“The success of Operation Shams II demonstrates the value of combining international law enforcement cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analytical capabilities,” she said.

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She added that the operational model could provide a basis for future international law enforcement operations targeting criminal networks.

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Operation Shams II was carried out under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.

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INTERPOL said the operation was the first of its kind to use AI-assisted capabilities on such a scale to process terrorist-related visual content and generate investigative leads.

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