According to Belgian state security structures, 4-5 thousand jihadist militants with EU passports were fighting against the Assad regime in Syria, mass media of Belgium reported Friday.
There are up to twenty Chechens in the ranks of the Syrian radical Islamists; they went there from different regions of Belgium, a source in the state security agency says.
The counter-intelligence service and the police of Belgium believe that about 200 owners of Belgian passports are fighting in Syria on the side of the Islamists, and about 20 of them were killed.
It is also reported that a group of Belgian Dutch-speaking jihadists, trained in Syria, participated in at least one of the last acts of terrorism on the territory of Iraq. There is information that Belgian Islamic terrorists migrate from Syria into Turkey and Lebanon. The security services possess information about the plans of recruiters to take jihadists trained in Syria to Morocco and Tunisia. Somalia is not excluded either.
The news is alarming as the number of fighters travelling back and forth from war-torn country is increasing, according to a guidance prepared by the office of EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove.
Drawn by recruiters who arrange travel and accommodation, these men are learning to fight, being indoctrinated with the tenets of militant Islam, and could pose a potent threat once back home.
Moreover, Syrian rebels are often seen as heroes to a small section of youths upon return, making them ideal to further foster recruitment, warns a note prepared for a meeting of EU interior ministers.
"We have to anticipate the returns (of fighters from Syria), the ways to handle this, the prevention measures and especially the exchange of information on the travels," said Belgian Interior Minister Joelle Milquet.
Andrew Parker, head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, said on November 7 that the UK intelligence service has "seen low hundreds of people from this country go to Syria for periods and come back - some large numbers are still there - and get involved in fighting."
"Syria has become a very attractive place for people to go… those who support or sympathize with the al-Qaeda ideological message," Parker stated.
In May, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said militants from 29 different countries were operating in different parts of the country.
Voice of Russia, presstv.ir, Interfax, Daily Mail
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_27/EU-under-terror-threat-thousands-of-European-jihadists-training-in-Syria-in-fights-on-Al-Qaeda-side-6288/
27/12/13
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Syrie: l'opposition se déclare prête à suspendre les hostilités (CNS)....
ReplyDeleteL'opposition syrienne armée est prête à suspendre les hostilités dans les villes du pays si des observateurs internationaux y sont déployés, a déclaré vendredi à RIA Novosti le porte-parole du Conseil national syrien (CNS) Mahmoud al-Hamza lors d'une conférence de presse à Moscou.
"Le CNS et la Coalition nationale des Forces de la révolution et de l'opposition syrienne ainsi que d'autres forces révolutionnaires sont prêtes à suspendre pour une certaine période les hostilités à condition que des observateurs de la Ligue arabe et d'autres pays soient déployés à Homs, Alep et dans d'autres villes", a indiqué le porte-parole.
Selon lui, la présence d'observateurs internationaux garantirait le respect de l'armistice éventuellement conclu entre les deux parties opposées.
La ville d'Alep, divisée depuis l'été 2012 entre secteurs rebelles et zones contrôlées par les forces fidèles au pouvoir de Damas, reste le théâtre de violents combats entre les deux parties.
Depuis mars 2011, la Syrie est secouée par un conflit armé entre les forces gouvernementales et les groupes armés de l'opposition. D'après les Nations unies, le conflit a déjà fait près de 100.000 morts.
http://fr.ria.ru/world/20131227/200124823.html
27/12/13
Europa fürchtet Rückkehr der Gotteskrieger aus Syrien....
ReplyDeleteDer Syrien-Konflikt hat in diesem Jahr die Weltgemeinschaft am meisten beschäftigt, schreibt die Zeitung „Kommersant“ am Freitag.
Der Konflikt hielt sowohl die Länder, die Assad unterstützten, als auch diejenigen, die seinen Rücktritt forderten, in Spannung. Obwohl eine Militärintervention dank Russlands Vorstoß zur Vernichtung der syrischen Chemiewaffen verhindert wurde, verschärft sich der Konflikt. In diesem Jahr kam es zur Internationalisierung dieses Konfliktes. Er ist mittlerweile weit mehr als ein lokaler Bürgerkrieg.
Nach einem Chemiewaffenangriff nahe Damaskus schien es, dass ein militärischer Eingriff unvermeidlich ist. Die USA und ihre Verbündeten standen kurz vor einem Angriff auf Syrien und hätten damit die heftigste Krise seit dem Irak-Krieg 2003 auslösen können.
Doch die Intervention wurde verhindert. Mit seiner Initiative zur Vernichtung der syrischen Chemiewaffen hat auch Russland dazu beigetragen. Die Weltgemeinschaft konnte dadurch verhindern, dass sich Massenvernichtungswaffen im Nahen Osten verbreiten und in die Hände von Extremisten fallen.
Doch viele andere Probleme sind weiterhin ungelöst. Das größte ist die humanitäre Katastrophe. Im Laufe von zweieinhalb Jahren starben mehr als 120.000 Menschen. Mehr als zwei Millionen Flüchtlinge verließen das Bürgerkriegsland..................http://de.ria.ru/zeitungen/20131227/267557512.html
27/12/13
Casi diez mil terroristas extranjeros han sido derrotados por Ejército sirio...
ReplyDeleteUn total de nueve mil 936 terorristas integrantes extranjeros de Al-Qaeda perecieron en territorio sirio durante los enfrentamientos con el Ejército Nacional de ese país, según el informe elaborado por el Movimiento jordano Salafí-Takfiri.
Así lo informó la agencia libanesa, Al-Aahd que reseña cómo desde el inicio del conflicto en Siria, casi diez mil terroristas han perdido la vida.
De acuerdo a este informe, esos terroristas fallecidos procedían de Arabia Saudí, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos (EAU), Catar, Túnez, Libia, Egipto, Yemen, Jordania y Kuwait, entre otros países.
En el mes de septiembre, la consultora británica de defensa IHS Jane indicó que alrededor de 100 mil terroristas secundados por el extranjero y organizados en un mil grupos, en su mayoría terroristas, realizan operaciones en Siria, donde luchan contra el gobierno y la nación.
Desde mediados de marzo de 2011, Siria ha sido escenario de ataques terroristas contra la población civil y militar con el fin de derrocar al presidente sirio, Bashar Al Assad. Estas acciones de violencia han dejado más de 100 mil víctimas, según estimaciones de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU).
http://www.telesurtv.net/articulos/2013/12/28/casi-diez-mil-terroristas-extranjeros-han-sido-derrotados-por-ejercito-sirio-2309.html
28/12/13
Up to 350 UK recruits among 2,000 Westerners now fighting in Syria...
ReplyDeleteIsraeli report shows drastic rise in Muslim combatants coming from Europe, calls them ‘ticking bombs’ who could take their violent ideology back home.
“The foreign fighters in the ranks of the Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State [of Iraq and Greater Syria] are a potential threat to international security,” the authors wrote. Some will return home and “continue their terrorist and subversive activities” on their own initiative; some “may be handled by al-Qaeda…exploiting the personal relationships formed in Syria”; and some, like the veterans of Afghanistan, may sow terror internationally, traveling with a Western passport that raises fewer red flags.
The authors put the total number of foreign fighters at between 6,000 and 7,000, with roughly 4,500 hailing from the predominantly Sunni states of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Libya. They estimated that 15-20 Israeli Arabs were engaged in the war and that, while the number of Palestinians was low, the trickle from Gaza has “risen sharply” over the past several months......http://www.timesofisrael.com/up-to-350-uk-recruits-among-2000-westerners-now-fighting-in-syria/#ixzz2sLylLzGK
4/2/14
Some 50 Americans fighting alongside Syrian rebels and Al Qaeda – US officials...
ReplyDeleteMore than 50 US citizens have joined Syrian rebels and are fighting to overthrow Syrian government. Some of the US citizens, who have been trained by al-Qaeda-linked groups and have returned back to America, are under FBI surveillance, US intelligence officials said Thursday. Counter-terrorism officials fear that these trained ready-to-be terrorists will try to mount terrorist attacks in US, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"It's probably one of the most significant threats we're dealing with," said a senior intelligence official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The White House and the CIA are highly concerned that al-Qaeda linked militants train Americans and Europeans at camps in Syria and Iraq.
James R. Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, said that there are "7,500 or so" fighters from 50 countries have been trained by al-Qaeda, but he failed to name the exact number of US citizens, which means that the US intelligence cannot take under control alleged terrorist that come to the US, putting under the threat the national security.................http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_06/Some-50-Americans-fighting-alongside-Syrian-rebels-and-Al-Qaeda-US-officials-1642/
6/2/14
Western recruits seen as emerging terror threat to Europe, US - report....
ReplyDeleteMore and more young al Qaeda recruits are pouring into war-torn areas of the Muslim world from the United States, Canada and Europe. They pose a direct threat to national security as they develop connections to jihadist leaders and acquire battlefield skills and weapons training, US officials and European analysts warn.
The increased recruitment, mostly of men in their early 20s and particularly as rebel fighters in Syria’s civil war, attracted the attention of intelligence agencies last year when several of those recruits were killed in gunfire
US officials say, however, that limited human assets on the ground have minimized the collection of information to track American and European recruits. They say it is obligatory that intelligence agencies appropriately allocate resources to combat terrorism and increase human intelligence collection in the most afflicted regions.
“We failed to take control of this situation early on [in Syria] — two years ago, we didn’t even know who we were dealing with on the ground in Syria,” a US official with knowledge of the Syrian crisis explained. “We twirled our thumbs and expected [Syria] to resolve itself and now it’s much worse. It’s a failed policy and difficult to change the course because this war could continue for years to come. No doubt, we’ve got to worry about a new rise in foreign fighters, particularly in the upcoming year.”
There is no exact figure on how many Americans are actually fighting in Syria currently but it is believed that the number is somewhere between 50 and 100 recruits, according to the US official. But those numbers are just “a best guess because there are some we don’t know of, others who have slipped off the grid and some who may be there now who left little to trace of where they were heading. ”.................http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_02_06/Western-recruits-most-worrying-emerging-terrorist-threat-to-Europe-US-report-9585/
6/2/14