Interpol urges world response to Iraq extremists

Paris - Interpol says the killing of an American journalist kidnapped in Syria shows the need for a co-ordinated international effort against the stream of foreign fighters joining extremists in the Middle East.

The international policy agency said in a statement on Thursday that James Foley's death shows the "depravity" of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq and "highlights the ongoing plight of other innocent people across the region".

France-based Interpol is particularly concerned that a man who appears in a video of Foley's death may be British.

Interpol says this highlights "the need for a multilateral response against the terror threat posed by radicalised transnational fighters travelling to conflict zones in the Middle East".

More than a thousand radicals from Europe have joined militant fighters in Syria and Iraq.