Germany to strip Islamic State fighters of citizenship under certain criteria – reports

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have reportedly agreed a plan to strip some Germans who fight for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) of their citizenship. More than 1,000 Germans have left their country for war zones in the Middle East since 2013. About a third have returned to Germany, another third are believed to have died, and the rest are believed to be still in Iraq and Syria, including some detained by Iraqi forces and US-backed fighters in Syria, Reuters said. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily cited government sources as saying that three criteria must be met to allow the government to denaturalize Germans who take up arms for the Islamist group. Such individuals must have a second citizenship, be adults and they would be stripped of their citizenship should they fight for IS after the new rules go into effect. US President Donald Trump last month urged Britain, France and Germany to take back more than 800 captured IS fighters and put them on trial.