Germany mulls stripping citizenship from jihadists

German citizens with dual nationality who fight for a terror group should be stripped of their German citizenship, the interior minister said yesterday, unveiling tough new measures after two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

"Germans who participate in fighting abroad for a terror militia and who have another citizenship should lose their German nationality," Thomas de Maiziere said.

Some 820 people have left Germany to fight alongside jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to estimates by Germany's secret services.

With around one in three fighters having since returned to Germany, fears are running high of the threat they may pose on European soil.

But the issue of stripping German citizenship is controversial, with Green lawmaker Volker Beck swiftly condemning it as "desperate activism".

The measure, as well as other plans he unveiled for fighting terror threats, must still be approved by the right-left coalition as well as in the German parliament.

In the wake of the November 13 Paris attacks, French President Francois Hollande had proposed stripping convicted terrorists of their French nationality. But the suggestion had to be dropped after a fierce debate, as critics warned it would create stateless persons.

Looking beyond the problem of homegrown jihadists, de Maiziere also introduced plans to tackle threats posed by foreigners to Germany, including speeding up the deportation process for those convicted.

The link to migrants has put intense pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her liberal asylum policies that had brought 1.1 million refugees to Germany last year.

Meanwhile, Canadian police shot dead an alleged Islamic State sympathizer armed with an explosive device on Wednesday, media reports said, as police confirmed they thwarted a "potential terror threat".

They did not say where the incident took place.

Media reports said the suspect was a 24-year-old man who had been arrested in 2015 for expressing support for the Islamic State group in postings on social media. He had been released in February but was being monitored.