Foreigners fueled by Islamic fury are rushing to Syria to fight President Bashar Assad at a faster rate than the flow of rebels into Afghanistan in the war against a Soviet-backed regime in the 1980s, analysts say.
By Kristina Wong
The Washington Times
An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 foreign fighters have come to Syria since the outbreak of the uprising in March 2011.
“This is probably one of the biggest foreign-fighter mobilizations since it became a phenomenon in the 1980s with the Afghan jihad against the Soviets,” said Aaron Y. Zelin, a Washington Institute researcher who studies al Qaeda and Syria.
The number of foreigners in Syria has not reached the level in Afghanistan three decades ago, but that civil war lasted nine years, while the Syrian rebellion is 2 years old.
Mr. Zelin said the rate of foreign recruits streaming into Syria is “unlike anything else.”
The foreign fighters — called jihadists, or holy warriors — come from at least 60 nations. Most are Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Tunisia, but a few dozen are from Western Europe, particularly Britain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, Mr. Zelin said. Ten to 20 fighters have come from the United States, he said.
Analysts say fighters join the rebellion out of a sense of religious duty to help fellow Sunni Muslims, but they become radicalized because the most powerful rebel groups are affiliated with al Qaeda.
More and more opposition groups are peeling away from the Western-backed moderate Syrian National Coalition and its Free Syrian Army military umbrella, and joining with al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra, which are better funded, equipped and organized.
Foreigners make up about 80 percent of Jabhat al-Nusra’s leadership, and as much as 20 percent of its 6,000 to 7,000 fighters are from other nations.
About 40 percent of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s 4,000 to 5,000 fighters are foreigners, and its leadership is about 80 percent foreign, according to the Syrian Support Group, which distributes U.S. supplies to opposition rebels.
Several dozen Syrian rebel groups split from the Syrian National Coalition earlier this month, and about a dozen rebel groups formed an Islamist bloc with Jabhat al-Nusra late last month.
Those radicalized fighters will pose a threat to their home countries when they return, said Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst.
“It is clearly more serious today than ever before,” he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington last week.
“They return with confidence that victory is possible. They and their colleagues now know that they inflicted humiliating defeats on the United States military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that knowledge will boost both spirits and recruitment.
“And they come home with a list of contacts among their fellow mujahedeen from whom they can seek advice or more material forms of assistance.”
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Categories: Arab World, Asia, Syria, United States
I am always amazed how naive the international media is when it comes to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ arrangements of this and similar wars. Please consider: It was the CIA’s ‘brain child’ to bring foreign fighters into Afghanistan to fight the Soviets (and have the Saudis pay for it). Why should it be any different now? The (US) State Department says ‘we are against foreign fighters flocking to Syria’. Well, they seem to not know what the CIA is doing. Any national of Tunesia (and the other countries sending these jihadis) will know how difficult it is to obtain travel documents and visas to travel. But for the jihadists it seems to be easy to flock to Syria. The neighboring countries do not assist in their passage? (dream on…). May Allah save us from all kinds of Munafequeen..(hypocrites).(Muslims and others).
As long KSA will continue to be so called champion of Islam you will keep on getting such surprises.
Saudis are not accepting illegal offer of UN SC membership because their religious extremist murderers and butchers are not being protected and supported by UN SC with a massive attack on Syrian dictator and …………..and Iran is being taken on board.