Syria ‘breeding ground’ for a new generation of militants
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SYRIA has become the pre-eminent global incubator for a new generation of militants after Islamist groups more than doubled the recruitment of foreign fighters to as many as 31,000 over the past 18 months, according to a former British spy chief.
In the chaos of Syria’s civil war, the majority of foreign fighters end up in militant groups like Islamic State, which uses an extreme interpretation of Islam to justify attacks on its foes and impose highly repressive rule in large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
“The Islamic State has seen success beyond the dreams of other terrorist groups that now appear conventional and even old-fashioned, such as al-Qaida,” said Richard Barrett, formerly head of global counter-terrorism at Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6.
“Despite sustained international effort to contain the Islamic State and stem the flow of militants traveling to Syria, the number of foreign fighters has more than doubled,” Barrett said in a report.
Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for a November 13 attack on Paris that killed 130 people and the October 31 downing of a Russian passenger plane that killed 224. They promise more attacks on the West and Russia.
Al-Qaida militants killed nearly 3,000 people in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Western leaders say Islamic State — which has proclaimed a caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq — now poses a greater danger.
Attacks claimed by Islamic State have prompted intensified airstrikes on the militants by a US-led coalition that includes Britain and France. Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, is also bombing Islamic State.
Western intelligence officials say foreign fighters who join militants in Syria pose a menace to national security as they can become battle-hardened and radicalized in Syria before returning with ease to Western states to carry out attacks.
“Even if the Islamic State is a failing enterprise in steady decline, it will be able to influence the actions of its adherents, and it may become more dangerous as it dies,” Barrett wrote.
Barrett, who works for the Soufan Group, a New York intelligence consultancy, said most of the foreign fighters flocking to Syria are Arabs from the Middle East and Africa.
Significant numbers came from Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the former Soviet Union, while about 5,000 have traveled from the European Union, he said.
The headline estimate of 27,000-31,000 foreign fighters who have traveled to Syria and Iraq compares to an estimate of 12,000 foreign fighters who had journeyed to Syria that Barrett made in June 2014.
Though individual countries provide estimates of the number of their nationals who have gone to Syria, there are few broad global estimates.
Around 6,000 fighters from Tunisia have gone to Syria, 2,500 from Saudi Arabia and 2,400 from Russia, according to Barrett. Of the roughly 5,000 EU recruits, around 3,700 come from four countries — France, Britain, Germany and Belgium.
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