An international counter-terrorism operation using artificial intelligence has identified 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters from facial images obtained from online content linked to jihadist groups.

The operation, codenamed Operation Shams II, involved Nigeria and 10 other countries and was conducted over five days in Tunis, Tunisia, according to INTERPOL.

Twenty-eight specialised officers and experts from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan participated in the operation.

INTERPOL said law enforcement officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups during the operation.

Artificial intelligence agents and AI-generated scripts were then used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative process, including the removal of duplicate images and quality assessment.

The technology reduced the dataset to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images, which were subsequently processed through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.

The organisation stressed that AI-generated results were reviewed and verified by trained officers and analysts in line with its rules on data processing.

Additional intelligence provided by INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Baghdad, Iraq, included hundreds of images linked to terrorism suspects.

INTERPOL said 126 foreign terrorist fighters had so far been identified from the images processed during the operation, with the matches expected to strengthen existing intelligence on the suspects, including information about their potential locations and social networks.

The information is being integrated into INTERPOL databases to support international efforts to detect, track and disrupt the cross-border movement of terrorist suspects.

The operation also generated investigative leads supporting judicial proceedings in participating countries, including a case involving two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently in detention.

INTERPOL said thousands of additional images remained to be processed and were expected to provide further investigative leads.

Beyond facial recognition, the operation used cryptocurrency-tracing tools to investigate terrorist financing, resulting in three urgent requests to a virtual asset service provider for customer information.

Participating countries also engaged representatives of the online gaming industry over concerns about the radicalisation of young people in virtual environments.

INTERPOL Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated the potential of responsible AI-assisted analysis when combined with international law enforcement cooperation.

Operation Shams II was conducted under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.