Interpol uses AI-driven operation to identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters

From early June, Interpol coordinated a five-day AI-enabled investigation named Shams II, based in Tunis and staffed by 28 experts representing eleven countries. The team harvested a large volume of visual content posted by jihadist groups, filtered it down to a collection of unique, high-resolution faces, and applied Interpol’s facial-recognition technology, which led to the identification of 126 presumed foreign terrorist fighters.

Analysts reviewed the AI-generated matches to confirm their validity. The operation also incorporated intelligence supplied by Interpol’s central office in Baghdad, adding hundreds of further images for processing. While one outlet's tally stands at 126, the agency expects the figure to rise as more data are examined. The identified leads are already supporting legal proceedings in participating states, and the collected information is being integrated into Interpol’s databases to aid future investigations.