French Muslim convert killed in Syria fighting

A French Muslim convert has been killed fighting the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. "Abu Mohammad al-Faransi, a Frenchman who converted to Islam, was killed while fighting against regime forces on Sunday in the south of Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Thousands of foreigners, mostly Arabs, have joined rebels seeking to bring down President Bashar Assad's regime. France's interior minister revealed on Thursday that hundreds of homegrown Islamist militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned that they could pose a security threat when they return home. More than 300 French nationals or residents are currently fighting in Syria's civil war, planning to go or have recently returned, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said last week. Most of them were young men, often with a delinquent past, who had become radicalized, he said. "This is a phenomenon which worries me because they represent a potential danger when they return to our soil," Valls said. "We have to be extremely attentive." France has the largest Muslim population in western Europe. It has increased its monitoring of Islamic radicals since al-Qaida-inspired gunman Mohammed Merah killed seven people in and around the southwestern city of Toulouse last year. It subsequently emerged that Merah had spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan and that French intelligence had been aware of his contacts with militants in those two countries.