Foreign Terrorists Phenomenon a Major Threat

When sir Andrew  Parker, the newly appointed head of the U.K. Security Services, gave his recent first public speech in London, he issued a stern warning: Jihadi fighters migrating to Syria are a major security threat to Britain, Europe, and beyond.

It was making the world a more dangerous place. “It’s more complicated,” Parker told the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall, the heart of the British government. “More unpredictable,” according to Newsweek.

“There is good reason to be concerned about Syria,” Parker said. “A growing proportion of our casework now has some link to Syria, mostly concerning individuals from the U.K. who have travelled to fight there or who aspire to do so. Al Nusrah and other extremist groups there aligned with Al Qaeda aspire to attack Western countries.”

Parker warned that thousands of Islamic extremists operating in the U.K. see the British public as a legitimate target for attacks. Around 330 people were convicted of terrorism-related offenses in Britain between September 11, 2001 and March 31, 2013. Four British trials have been related to terrorism plots, including an intercepted plan to repeat the July 2005 “7/7” backpack attacks on London that killed 56 and injured 700.

The foreign fighter phenomenon in Syria is clearly a major threat, leaving European governments jittery. It was “one of the things that most worries a number of European government agencies,” according to Italian Defense Minister Mario Mauro. The FBI estimates that as many as 700 American Muslims are fighting in Syria.

The accumulation of fighters has happened quickly. “The mobilization has been stunningly rapid,” says the ProPublica report. “What took six years to build in Iraq at the height of the U.S. occupation may have accumulated inside Syria in less than half that time.” Matthew G. Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Aspen Security Forum in July that Syria has become the predominant jihadist battlefield of the world.

“There are individuals traveling to Syria, becoming further radicalized, becoming trained and then returning as part of a global jihadist movement to Western Europe and, potentially, to the United States,” Olsen said.

It is easy for Syria to become the new land of jihad. The Turkish border with Syria is porous and hundreds cross overland to join terrorist battalions in Aleppo or Idlib. Turkey and Syria are easily accessible from major European airports.

“The global jihad has prioritized the Syrian conflict as its principal front,” said a top Spanish intelligence official. The worry is that the experience of Western jihadists “could serve as preparation, as training to return to European countries and carry out attacks at home.”

Since November 2001, al-Nusrah Front – an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) – has claimed responsibility for nearly 600 hundred attacks in major city centers across Syria in which civilians have been injured or killed, according to the U.S. State Department. AQI has also sent money, people, and material from Iraq to Syria to attack Syrian forces.

M.A.