TerrorismExpatriate Jihadists operating in Syria explain views, alarm West
More than 3,000 Westerners — among them 70 Americans — are believed by intelligence and counterterrorism officials to have traveled to Syria to join the war against the government of president Bashar al-Assad. Many of them engaged in what they believe is a holy war. This increase in the number of expatriate jihadists has led to a more aggressive response by security officials. In Britain, the Home Office stripped more than twenty individuals of their citizenship, and in just the first three months of this year there was a spike of more than forty “Syria-related arrests.”
Many countries worry that battle-hardened jihadis will come back // Source: tuoitre.vn
More than 3,000 Westerners — among them 70 Americans — are believed by intelligence and counterterrorism officials to have traveled to Syria to join the war against the government of president Bashar al-Assad. Many of them engaged in what they believe is a holy war.
This danger was heightened recently when Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a Florida native, launched a suicide bombing in Syria — marking him as the first American believed to have done so. Additionally, there is growing concern of Syria being used as a training ground for Western jihadists to then launch attacks in their homelands.
As theNew York Times reports, this increase in the number of expatriate jihadists has led to a more aggressive response by security officials. In Britain, the Home Office stripped more than twenty individuals of their citizenship, and in just the first three months of this year there was a spike of more than forty “Syria-related arrests.”
Timesreporter Kimiko De Freytas-Tamura secured revealing snippets of interviews with some of these fighters via social media and text.
Abu Muhajir went to Syria two years ago with a substantial sum of money, having left the prospects of becoming a teacher in North America (likely Canada). In the brief exchanges he substantiated the fear that Western jihadists might someday return home, “Attack occurring on the soil of Middle Eastern countries, we can only expect a response. Americans are still in Afghanistan.”
Abu Sumayyah, an American, said that he has no plans of bringing jihad to the West, but rather he intends to die fighting in Syria, “It’s not something you can really think about, you know, by looking at it in a worldly view. I’m looking at the hereafter because the reward is a lot.”
Both of these men — just teenagers at the time of Sept. 11 — claim to have been very affected by the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the drone strikes that have occurred in Pakistan and Yemen.
Serving as a summary to the mindset and situation, Sumayyah told the paper, “I saw our brothers in Afghanistan, and I realized there is something very wrong that is happening in society. I saw this taking place in front of my eyes, so I had to do something about it, otherwise I would feel sinful. In Britain and in Europe we are living in a bubble, living in a dreamland, that everything is O.K.”
It is estimated that roughly 11,000 foreign fighters are currently operating in Syria.
