Some 5,000 people, including teachers and police officers, are being trained to recognise signs of ‘radicalisation’ in young Muslims and the supervision of youngsters who have been to Syria is being stepped up, the AD says on Thursday.

Amsterdam, The Hague and Almere are among the three cities where most young men and women who have gone to fight in Syria come from and where surveillance will be increased, the paper says.

Rotterdam, Delft, Zoetermeer, Gouda, Arnhem and Zeist are also possible ‘jihad cities’.

The AD bases its claims on secret documents from the Dutch counter-terrorism body NCTV and the security service AIVD.

Disruption

The surveillance will be carried out by trained police officers who will be charged with openly monitoring the young people and ‘disrupting’ their plans. ‘Every jihad returnee will be kept an eye on by the authorities’, one document said.

The military police are stepping up border security, the AD says. So far, 13 young people have had their passports withdrawn and several dozen have lost social security benefits. On four occasions, their financial resources were frozen.

Around 100 Dutch men and women are thought to be serving with rebel forces in Syria but this may be as high as ‘several hundred’, the AD says.