According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, 153 nationals left the country to to fight in Syria, Libya and Iraq on the side of Islamist jihadi groups, including ISIS/DAESH. ‘We know that 153 people went there and 25 returned to Spain’, said Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz on Spanish state radio. He added that this number was substantially lower compared to other western countries. The UN estimates that more than 25,000 people from around the globe have joined extreme islamist groups to fight on their side over the past years.