BERLIN
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called for stronger cooperation among countries to prevent young radicals travelling to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
His comments came on Wednesday at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin, as he was asked about three American teenagers detained in Frankfurt over the weekend on suspicion of travelling to Syria to join ISIL.
Kerry, who is paying a two-day visit to Germany to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, said: "Everybody in the world can do more with respect to foreign fighters, ourselves included, and that is what we are doing."
"We are very grateful to Germany for their cooperation with us on this particular incident of some young folks who were travelling."
"It is under investigation now ... I don’t want to violate any of that process except to say that this is an example of good cooperation between us," he added.
Young radicals
Steinmeier has acknowledged difficulties in preventing young radicals from travelling to join ISIL, but underlined the need for further cooperation.
Steinmeier said: "It is not that easy, even by cooperating more closely in the field of the security services. It is not easy to control the movement of these young people."
Steinmeier stressed the importance of cooperation among the security services of Germany, the U.S. and Turkey.
'Difficult task'
"The security forces are making an effort but it is a very difficult task in light of the mobility of these young people. They are enjoying this mobility because there is a freedom of mobility in our countries," he said.
Western intelligence organizations estimate that about 4,000 foreign fighters from European countries have joined ISIL to date.
The organization is believed to have between 20,000 and 31,500 militants in Iraq and Syria.
Kerry and Steinmeier had a bilateral dinner on Monday night with their official delegations where they discussed Ukraine, Ebola, ISIL and Iran, according to U.S .diplomats.
Kerry and Steinmeier visited the Berlin Wall Memorial the next day and answered questions from a group of German teenagers; among them Turkish immigrants and a Palestinian immigrant.
Kerry told reporters that, as a small child in the early 1950s, he lived in Berlin because of his father’s assignment as a diplomat to Germany, and he had a lot of personal memories in the then-divided German city.
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