WORLD_ Jihadist training camps expand across Syria and Iraq

The Telegraph

Jihadist training camps expand across Syria and Iraq

An investigation finds jihadist organisations are operating at least 46 training camps across Iraq and Syria

By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut
6:02AM GMT 25 Nov 2014

Jihadist organisations in Iraq and in Syria are operating at least 46 military training camps, designed to indoctrinate and train recruits, an investigation has found.

The development comes as Theresa May, the home secretary, has warned that the expansion of jihadist movements in Iraq and in Syria means the likelihood of terror attacks in Britain is higher now than at any point in the country's history.

"When the security and intelligence agencies tell us that the threat we face is now more dangerous than at any time before or since 9/11 we should take notice," she said.

A report from the Long War Journal has identified dozens of training camps belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda's branch in Syria), and several other smaller hardline units.

Compiling video footage, messages posted by jihadists on social media and US military press releases, the Journal has determined the location of 34 camps in Syria and 12 in Iraq.

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The Islamic State has operated 25 camps: 14 in Syria and 11 in Iraq. Al Qaeda's Al Nusrah Front has nine camps in Syria. Various allied jihadist groups, including Ansar al Islam, Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar, and Junud al Sham, have operated 12 camps (11 in Syria and one in Iraq).

It is not known if all those camps are operational, but it is likely that, given the usually secret nature of these facilities, there are others that have not been publicised.

The proliferation of these camps is of concern to Western intelligence agencies, who fear that the training facilities are also being used to identify potential recruits for carrying out attacks in America and Europe.

The 9/11 Commission Report found that al-Qaeda had used its camps in Afghanistan as a base from which to build up its networks abroad and plot the attacks.

Back then the US paid less attention to jihadist training camps, with Defense Secretary William Cohen reportedly defining Osama Bin Laden's training ground as primitive, being "built with rope ladders".

Today the US and its coalition of allies have made training camps a key target of their air campaigns in Iraq and in Syria.

In August, in one of its first attacks in Syria, the coalition killed Abu Yusif al-Turki, in strikes against the so-called Khorasan, a group that the US says had been plotting attacks against the West.

Al-Turki was, according to the Long War Journal, a Nusra Front commander who had also fought in Afghanistan and who was training fighters to become snipers. The jihadist, whose real name is reportedly Umit Yaşar Toprak, was also implicated in a plot to assassinate George W Bush, the former US president, during a Nato summit in Istanbul.

US planes have also reportedly conducted five bombing runs close to Raqqa, the heartland of Isil's rule.

The jihadists though have openly promoted their camps online, perhaps as part of a recruitment drive to attract more foreign fighters to join them.

A propaganda video entitled "Race Towards Good" shows Kazakh fighters undergoing physical training and practising using American, Russians and Austrian-made sniper rifles.

At the end of the video, a Kazakh child recites a speech for the camera, saying, "We're going to kill you, O kuffar [unbelievers]. Insha'allah [God-willing], we will slaughter you."

After being trained in the camps, intelligence agencies fear that radicalised Westerners will be sent back to the US and to Europe to conduct terror attacks at home.

The British government will introduce new counter-terrorism legislation on Wednesday that will focus on the danger from returning jihadists.
A map shows the locations of the identified camps:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11250606/Jihadist-training-camps-expand-across-Syria-and-Iraq.html 


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