Canada's intelligence head says returning Islamist militants pose threat

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Michel Coulombe waits to testify before the Senate national security and defence committee in Ottawa February 3, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadians who go abroad to join militant groups such as Islamic State pose a threat on their return home and could use their foreign contacts to set up networks in Canada, the country's intelligence director said on Saturday.

Michel Coulombe, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wrote in a Globe and Mail article that "well over 100 Canadians," both men and women, have left the country to join groups such as al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab.