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ISIL controlling area the size of Britain, says US counter terror director

According to the latest intelligence from the United States, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) controls an area the size of Britain.

Matthew Olsen, the director of the national counter terrorism centre, put forward a detailed public assessment of the terrorist organsation, adding that Isil commands some 10,000 armed fighters and is taking in approximately £600,000 million a day from oil sales and ransoms.

“IS views itself as the new leader of the global Jihadist movement,” said Olsen, who went on to describe the British problem of foreign fighters as “substantially more significant in terms of numbers” than the American one, noting that around 500 Britons are believed to have gone to Syria.

Olsen explained what the US believes to be the three factors which explain Isil’s rapid growth: the weakness of the Iraqi and Syrian governments; its “complex and adaptive” battlefield strategy; and its ambition to be a world leader in jihad. He added: “IS threatens to outpace al-Qaeda as the dominant voice of influence in the global extremist movement.”

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