The Justice Department is strengthening its overseas counterterrorism program, including sending a high-level prosecutor to the Balkans region to help coordinate efforts to prevent foreign fighters from joining terrorist groups, the agency said Thursday.
“These personnel will provide critical assistance to our allies in order to help prosecute those who have returned from the Syrian region bent on committing acts of terrorism,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference.
The prosecutor, who will serve as the department’s regional counterterrorism coordinator, will join other U.S. lawyers present in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia, officials said. The Justice and State Departments work together to send prosecutors overseas to aid in developing foreign nation’s capacity to investigate and pursue crimes as well as take them to trial.
The department works with 40 countries worldwide on issues such as fighting cyberterrorism and organized crime, but there has been an increasing emphasis placed recently on the Middle East and Northern Africa in response to the growing threat of extremist groups such as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Mr. Holder met Thursday with Andrea Orlando, the Italian Minister of Justice, and Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Union Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship. The three discussed ongoing international efforts to combat the flow of foreign fighters attempting to join the Islamic State.
Some international experts have become increasingly concerned about Egypt, as support for the Islamic State has grown recently in some areas there. Mr. Avramopoulos said that Europe and the U.S. would likely be making announcements soon addressing the concerns.
• Phillip Swarts can be reached at pswarts@washingtontimes.com.
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