This is the short edition of Morales, first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

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Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

I'm Wesley Stevenson.

In the last year, we've heard the following headlines

from the likes of folks news, CNN, and the Times of India.

The number of foreign fighters traveling to join the Islamic State

or rival militant groups in Syria is continuing to grow.

When you see these kinds of estimates, the size of the influx

of foreign terrorists into ISIS and al-Qaeda, that's really frightening.

1,000 new foreign fighters streamed into Syria and Iraq.

There are now 16,000 there. Nearly 3,000 are Westerners.

So we keep hearing this, that foreign fighters are becoming

an increasingly important component of the Syria conflict.

But on this week's programme, we're going to look at the numbers behind this.

And with me to help me out is Federica Cocoa.

So foreign fighters flocking to other countries to wage war

isn't a new phenomenon.

Around 30,000 foreign fighters went to fight in Spain in the 1930s

and remember Lord Byron fought for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.

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