Map shows the 31,000 mercenary gun for hire terrorists from 86 countries who left their homes to join ISIS

The number of foreign fighters who have joined ISIS and other extremist groups on the battlefield has doubled to more than 30,000 in the last 18 months, a new report has revealed.

It found fanatics from all corners of the globe including western Europe, Asia and Russia and parts of north Africa are heading to Iraq and Syria in greater numbers than ever before.

The well trained, battle hardened returnees are capable of orchestrating deadly lone wolf attacks such as the one that devastated Paris attacks, respected terror analysts told MailOnline.

New figures show 31,000 fighters from 86 countries have travelled to join ISIS in the Middle East – up from just 12,000 last year, according to the anti terror think tank Soufan Group, which advises governments on terror.

From the 31,000 who travel to the Middle East, up to 30 per cent could return to their home countries to carry out terror attacks, the report says.

All nine of the Islamic militants behind last month’s Paris terror attacks had spent time at training camps in Syria before returning back to France and Belgium to commit mass murder.

U.S. based terror expert Peter Chalk, of respected anti-terror think tank RAND, told MailOnline disenfranchised young men who feel marginalised at home leave behind their families in search of adventure and the lure of money and women.

‘ISIS pays fighters $200 a month salary, which is a lot of money for unemployed Muslims coming from poor, underdeveloped states where the prospect of a well-paying job is effectively zero.

‘ISIS has also devoted a lot of attention to recruiting women, exhorting females to fulfill their religious duty to the caliphate by being mothers and helping to populate a future Islamic State in the Middle East.

‘This message has clearly resonated, both in the Arab world as well as wider a field in central, south east Asia and the West.’

Fighters are paid with funds raised from the sale of Syria’s oil, the militant group’s main resource.

Last summer ISIS announced a religous tethe known as zakat – or charitable donation – to keep its economy churning and pay those travelling to Syria to fight.

Source: Daily Mail