Artificial intelligence has helped INTERPOL identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters from more than 108,000 facial images obtained from jihadist-related online content.
The breakthrough was recorded during Operation Shams II, an international counter-terrorism exercise involving Nigeria and 10 other countries. The operation was held in Tunis, Tunisia, from June 1 to 5, 2026.
According to INTERPOL, 28 specialised officers and experts from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan took part in the exercise.
During the operation, law enforcement officials extracted 108,076 facial images from visual materials published online by jihadist groups.
AI tools and automated scripts were then used to assist investigators with processing the huge volume of information. The technology helped eliminate duplicate images and identify photographs that met the required quality standards.
After the initial processing, the dataset was reduced to 6,362 unique and high-quality facial images. These were subsequently checked against INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.
INTERPOL stressed that the results generated with AI were not accepted without human oversight. Trained officers and analysts reviewed and verified the findings in accordance with the organisation’s rules for handling data.
Through Operation Shams II, investigators identified 126 suspected Foreign Terrorist Fighters from the processed images. INTERPOL said the matches could provide additional intelligence about the individuals, including their possible locations and social connections.
The information is being incorporated into INTERPOL databases to help law enforcement agencies identify, monitor and disrupt the cross-border movement of suspected terrorists.
The organisation said investigative leads generated from the operation were already supporting judicial proceedings in participating countries. One of the cases involves two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently in detention.
INTERPOL added that thousands of other images were still awaiting processing and could produce additional leads.
The operation also focused on terrorist financing, with investigators using cryptocurrency-tracing tools to follow suspected illicit financial flows. INTERPOL said the work resulted in three urgent requests to a virtual asset service provider for customer information.
Authorities also held discussions with representatives of the online gaming industry over concerns that digital platforms could be used in ways that expose young people to radicalisation.
INTERPOL’s Director of Counter-Terrorism, MarÃa Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated how international police cooperation could be combined with responsible AI-assisted analysis.
The organisation said Operation Shams II was conducted under the CT TECH+ Project, funded through the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
INTERPOL described the exercise as the first operation of its kind to use AI-assisted capabilities on such a large scale to process terrorist-related visual material and generate investigative leads.
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