REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PARIS - Around 930 French citizens or residents, including at least 60 women, are either actively engaged in jihad in Iraq and Syria or are planning to go there, the interior minister said Sunday.

In an interview with Le Journal de Dimanche weekly, Bernard Cazeneuve said: "930 French citizens or foreigners usually resident in France are today involved in 'jihad' in Iraq and Syria."

According to the minister, "350 are on the ground, including 60 women. Around 180 have left from Syria and 170 are en route for the zone."

In addition, some 230 people are looking to head to areas held by militants. Added to this total of 930, an estimated 36 have already died out there, said Cazeneuve.

Western governments have voiced concern about the possibility of their citizens joining Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and then returning home to commit atrocities. The man who carried out the apparent beheading of British aid worker David Haines speaks with a British accent. Cazeneuve said that some returning militants boast about what they have done and "say they are ready to leave again."

"Others, destroyed by the violence and atrocities they saw or participated in, say they no longer want to be involved."

France has created a law aimed at stopping aspiring militants from travelling, which includes a ban on foreign travel of up to six months for individuals suspected of radicalization and gives authorities powers to temporarily confiscate and invalidate their passports.

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