WORLD_ SYRIA_ U.S. Says Dozens of Americans Have Sought to Join Rebels in Syria

U.S. Says Dozens of Americans Have Sought to Join Rebels in Syria

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: November 20, 2013
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Dozens of Americans have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to fight with the rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad since 2011, American intelligence officials said Wednesday.

The Americans are a small subset of the mostly radicalized young Muslims with Western passports who are entering Syria from Europe, North America and Australia, a group that numbers roughly 600, according to the officials and classified estimates from Western spy agencies. That represents a fraction of the roughly 6,000 to 11,000 foreign fighters over all who have poured into Syria by way of the Middle East and North Africa.

The Americans’ numbers are small — intelligence officials would not be more precise than saying “dozens” were involved — and they have so far not distinguished themselves on the battlefield. But they are part of what officials said was a growing presence of foreigners who are fighting Mr. Assad’s government.

“It’s a very steady increase, and I expect that to continue as long as the fighting there continues,” a senior American intelligence official said.

He was one of four intelligence officials who spoke in a wide-ranging background briefing for reporters who had requested information on the most current assessments by American and other Western spy agencies of foreigners fighting in Syria, including how they are recruited, trained and financed.

The influx of young Muslims with Western passports into Syria has raised fears among American and European intelligence officials of a new terrorist threat when the fighters return home.

In Syria, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has emerged as the leader in attracting foreign fighters as it exploits the chaos of the civil war and tries to lay the groundwork for an Islamic state. The group has repeatedly clashed with other rebel brigades, including another group aligned with Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front.

Mr. Assad has foreign fighters of his own helping his army, though in smaller numbers than those battling his government, American officials said. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, has sent armed followers to fight in Syria, as has Iran’s Quds Force.

In addition to these two Islamic extremist groups, the American officials said “migrant brigades,” which do not have the strict vetting requirements of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or Nusra to weed out Western spies, are also proliferating.

Among the best known of these emerging units is Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, a group that actively recruits armed followers from Central Asia and Europe, often using Twitter, online training videos and other social media, the officials said.

While the intelligence officials said there had not yet been any confirmed cases of foreign fighters carrying out attacks in their home countries upon their return — most of those suspected militants are still in Syria — it is the militants from groups like Jaish, they say, that pose the greatest threat when they come home.

One American, Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, of Flint, Mich., a convert to Islam, was killed in May while in the company of Syrian rebels in Idlib Province. Another, Eric Harroun, 30, a former Army soldier from Phoenix, was indicted in Virginia by a federal grand jury this year on charges related to allegations that he fought alongside the Nusra Front. In September, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge involving conspiracy to transfer defense articles and services, and was released from custody.

In February, Mr. Harroun bragged about his involvement, posting a photo on his Facebook page saying, “Downed a Syrian Helicopter then Looted all Intel and Weapons!”
A version of this article appears in print on November 21, 2013, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Says Dozens of Americans Have Sought to Join Rebels in Syria.




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