TerrorismFBI monitors Americans back from fighting in rebel ranks in Syria
Western intelligence services estimate that 2,100 Europeans and seventy Americans have fought in Syria. U.S. intelligence officials report that some of these Americans have returned to the United States and are under FBI surveillance. There is a concern that individuals who have been trained by al-Qaeda affiliates will ultimately use their battlefield experience to launch attacks in the United States.
Syrian rebels have included Americans fighting alongside them // Source: ahram.org.eg
More than fifty Americans have been fighting alongside al-Qaeda affiliated extremist groups in Syria to overthrow President Bashar Assad. U.S. intelligence officials report that some of those individuals have returned to the United States and are under FBI surveillance. There is a concern that individuals who have been trained by al-Qaeda affiliates will ultimately use their battlefield experience to launch attacks in the United States. “It’s probably one of the most significant threats we’re dealing with,” a senior intelligence official told the Los Angeles Times.
CIA director John Brennan testified at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday and confirmed that al-Qaeda-linked groups are training Americans and Europeans in Syria and Iraq. “We are concerned about the use of Syrian territory by the Al Qaeda organization to recruit individuals … to use Syria as a launching pad” for attacks on the West, Brennan said.
James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, recently estimated that 7,500 fighters from fifty countries are in Syria. “Not only are fighters being drawn to Syria, but so are technologies and techniques that pose particular problems to our defenses,” he said in reference to al-Qaeda operatives who have already fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Officials note that Americans who have traveled to Syria come from different backgrounds. “Some are defending their family, some fighting perceived Shiite [Muslim] aggression, some are seeking the fall of Assad. Some are going for humanitarian reasons and they get sucked into the extremism. Some want to participate in global jihad, and some are just adventure seekers,” said the senior intelligence official.
The Times notes that the FBI has scrutinized more than a dozen individuals who have returned from Syria. Some were ruled out as a threat while others are under surveillance. Last year, federal prosecutors charged U.S. Army veteran Eric Harroun, 31, of Phoenix, with crime relating to fighting alongside AL Nusra Front, a Syrian rebel group with ties to al-Qaeda. Harroun pleaded guilty in September 2013 to a lesser charge and was released. Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, or Flint Michigan, a convert to Islam who was married to a Saudi, was killed in May 2013 with rebels in northwestern Syria.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli research group, estimated that 2,100 Europeans and seventy Americans have fought in Syria.
