The prime minister of Iraq says Islamic State won't be defeated if the extremist group continues to recruit foreign fighters.
Haidar al-Abadi told a German magazine that around 57 percent of IS fighters were Iraqis but they did not cause any problems as they simply ran away when Iraqi troops entered towns.
"It is the 43 percent who are foreign fighters who have been indoctrinated ideologically who have their backs up against the wall," Abadi told Der Spiegel.
He said if IS continues to recruit from other countries, "then no army in our region can stand up to it."
Abadi said foreign security services needed to take action to protect young people from IS "in the same way they trace child pornography networks around the world".
Abadi said the liberation of the city of Tikrit from IS on April 1 was encouraging but he added that IS was still a major threat.
