SwAggeR
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2013
- Messages
- 2,991
- Reaction score
- -13
- Country
- Location
They come from the suburbs of Paris, from the East End of London, from the cities along Germany's Fulda River, and even from the small towns of Ireland: a small army of up to 1,000 European irregulars joining the Syrian civil war to help rebels topple President Bashar al-Assad.
But while ministers from these irregulars' governments say they too are in favor of toppling Assad, these same officials are doing everything they can to stop these fighters -- or at least develop new laws to criminalize their activities. The reason: fear that these irregulars will one day return to Europe, equipped with deadly military skills, trained in the tradecraft of international terrorism, and steeped in the extremist anti-Western ideology of al Qaeda and its Syrian brethren, the al-Nusra Front. On a single day in April and in a single country, Belgium, the authorities launched 48 raids on suspected ****** recruiters believed to be luring Belgians to fight in Syria.
"It is a ticking time bomb," French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told Foreign Policy at a small press breakfast with American reporters in New York. Tallies of these European fighters vary. But by Valls' count, there are more than 600 of them involved in the Syrian war, including 140 French citizens, 100 Brits, and 75 Spaniards. This new generation of fighters forms a kind of European Union of jihadists, hailing from the traditionally Christian cities and villages of Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. Most are young men from Muslim families, about 80 percent, with the remainder being French converts to Islam. "Some go for humanitarian reasons," he said. "Some go to fight against Bashar."
Whatever the fighters' motivations, European officials are trying to dissuade these militants from taking up arms -- or, failing that, trying to gather as much intelligence in order to monitor them if they return home.
European, U.S., and Turkish intelligence agencies have been working together to try to track the individuals seeking to cross the border into Syria from Turkey. In some cases, the Turks have turned them back. Belgium has grown so alarmed about the prospects for blowback that it has already launched raids on suspected fighters in an effort to gather intelligence, according to a confidential internal memo obtained by Foreign Policy.
But they face rising calls from radical clerics and fighters to join the holy war. In June, 86-year-old radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, speaking at rally in Doha, Qatar, issued a call to arms: "Every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that [must] make himself available" to support the Syrian rebels, he said. "Iran is pushing forward arms and men [to back the Syrian regime], so why do we stand idle?" Reflecting the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict, Qaradawi also denounced his former ally Hezbollah, which means the "Party of God" in Arabic, as the "Party of Satan."
Germans were invited to join the struggle in their own tongue. Hajan M., a former resident of the German town of Kassel, produced a YouTube video inciting "every brother who hears me" to "wage jihad," according to Der Spiegel. Hajan M. -- who is married to a German woman and serves as a neighborhood commander in Homs -- addresses a German-speaking audience from a sofa, his right leg amputated as a result of a battle wound. "You can fly from Germany to Syria," he says. "You can come here to wage jihad."
Dozens of German nationals have gone to fight in Syria. And that has Peter Wittig, Germany's U.N. ambassador, calling the "reports of European citizens fighting alongside with jihadists in Syria a cause for great concern." However, he added, "Let us not forget that the involvement of jihadist groups in Syria is ultimately the result of Assad's intransigence and the war he is waging against his own people."
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told a gathering of regional interior ministers in Nuremberg, Germany, on July , that there are as many as 60 young Germans in Syria. "Our fear is that they are being radicalized in training camps by organizations close to al Qaeda," he said, according to the DPA (German Press Agency). The camps, he said, provide training in weapons and explosives, making the young Germans a threat upon their return to Germany. "We therefore have to ensure that these individuals are treated and monitored appropriately after their return."
The perceived threat of the returning jihadists varies from country to country. The Netherlands, for one, has designated Syrian blowback as among its top international security threats. On July 1, the Netherlands' National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism, which claims that 50 to 100 Dutch jihadists has traveled to Syria, warned in a statement that "one of the most salient potential threats to the Netherlands is posed by jihadist travelling to Syria and their potential return to the Netherlands."
"The threat level in the Netherlands remains 'substantial', which means that the chance of an attack is real," the advisory stated. "Although not every person to return from a jihadist conflict zone poses a threat, it should be remembered that these people are not only coming back with radical ideas; they are also traumatised and fully prepared to use violence."
More at
Europe's New 'Time Bomb' Is Ticking in Syria - By Colum Lynch | Foreign Policy
Burn Europe just start burning, you have put fire in many countries.
But while ministers from these irregulars' governments say they too are in favor of toppling Assad, these same officials are doing everything they can to stop these fighters -- or at least develop new laws to criminalize their activities. The reason: fear that these irregulars will one day return to Europe, equipped with deadly military skills, trained in the tradecraft of international terrorism, and steeped in the extremist anti-Western ideology of al Qaeda and its Syrian brethren, the al-Nusra Front. On a single day in April and in a single country, Belgium, the authorities launched 48 raids on suspected ****** recruiters believed to be luring Belgians to fight in Syria.
"It is a ticking time bomb," French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told Foreign Policy at a small press breakfast with American reporters in New York. Tallies of these European fighters vary. But by Valls' count, there are more than 600 of them involved in the Syrian war, including 140 French citizens, 100 Brits, and 75 Spaniards. This new generation of fighters forms a kind of European Union of jihadists, hailing from the traditionally Christian cities and villages of Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. Most are young men from Muslim families, about 80 percent, with the remainder being French converts to Islam. "Some go for humanitarian reasons," he said. "Some go to fight against Bashar."
Whatever the fighters' motivations, European officials are trying to dissuade these militants from taking up arms -- or, failing that, trying to gather as much intelligence in order to monitor them if they return home.
European, U.S., and Turkish intelligence agencies have been working together to try to track the individuals seeking to cross the border into Syria from Turkey. In some cases, the Turks have turned them back. Belgium has grown so alarmed about the prospects for blowback that it has already launched raids on suspected fighters in an effort to gather intelligence, according to a confidential internal memo obtained by Foreign Policy.
But they face rising calls from radical clerics and fighters to join the holy war. In June, 86-year-old radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, speaking at rally in Doha, Qatar, issued a call to arms: "Every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that [must] make himself available" to support the Syrian rebels, he said. "Iran is pushing forward arms and men [to back the Syrian regime], so why do we stand idle?" Reflecting the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict, Qaradawi also denounced his former ally Hezbollah, which means the "Party of God" in Arabic, as the "Party of Satan."
Germans were invited to join the struggle in their own tongue. Hajan M., a former resident of the German town of Kassel, produced a YouTube video inciting "every brother who hears me" to "wage jihad," according to Der Spiegel. Hajan M. -- who is married to a German woman and serves as a neighborhood commander in Homs -- addresses a German-speaking audience from a sofa, his right leg amputated as a result of a battle wound. "You can fly from Germany to Syria," he says. "You can come here to wage jihad."
Dozens of German nationals have gone to fight in Syria. And that has Peter Wittig, Germany's U.N. ambassador, calling the "reports of European citizens fighting alongside with jihadists in Syria a cause for great concern." However, he added, "Let us not forget that the involvement of jihadist groups in Syria is ultimately the result of Assad's intransigence and the war he is waging against his own people."
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told a gathering of regional interior ministers in Nuremberg, Germany, on July , that there are as many as 60 young Germans in Syria. "Our fear is that they are being radicalized in training camps by organizations close to al Qaeda," he said, according to the DPA (German Press Agency). The camps, he said, provide training in weapons and explosives, making the young Germans a threat upon their return to Germany. "We therefore have to ensure that these individuals are treated and monitored appropriately after their return."
The perceived threat of the returning jihadists varies from country to country. The Netherlands, for one, has designated Syrian blowback as among its top international security threats. On July 1, the Netherlands' National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism, which claims that 50 to 100 Dutch jihadists has traveled to Syria, warned in a statement that "one of the most salient potential threats to the Netherlands is posed by jihadist
"The threat level in the Netherlands remains 'substantial', which means that the chance of an attack is real," the advisory stated. "Although not every person to return from a jihadist conflict zone poses a threat, it should be remembered that these people are not only coming back with radical ideas; they are also traumatised and fully prepared to use violence."
More at
Europe's New 'Time Bomb' Is Ticking in Syria - By Colum Lynch | Foreign Policy
Burn Europe just start burning, you have put fire in many countries.
