ISIS most brutal threat ever to region, says Merkel

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday warned that Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria were one of the greatest ever threats to the region.

She said the radical militia "is one of the most brutal threats to the lives of the people in the region... that there has ever been".

"The ISIS is also attracting thousands of foreign fighters... from all G20 countries, whether it's in the other hemisphere or here in Europe," she told parliament after recently attending a summit of 20 leading economies in Australia.

"Their radical lack of inhibition and willingness to murder also threatens our security," she said of the extremist group.

Germany believes that some 550 of its citizens have joined the jihadist cause in Iraq and Syria, of whom some 60 have died in combat or suicide attacks and about 180 have returned home.

Germany is supplying Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq with weapons, ammunition and other aid to fight the IS but says it will not join the US, Britain and other nations in air strikes against the jihadists.