Foreign fighters bent on joining jihadis in Syria, Iraq and North Africa are changing tactics to avoid detection, increasingly resorting to tortuous travel routes and relying on middlemen, according to Interpol.

The 15-member council was meeting interior ministers for the first time late Friday after a U.N. study showed a surge in the number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide.

A study by a U.N. panel of experts showed a 71 percent increase in the number of foreign fighters between mid-2014 to March 2015 .

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that most foreign fighters are young men, aged between 15 and 35, and stressed the need to address the factors leading women and girls to join the ranks of extremist groups.

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