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Telegraph
December 19, 2013
Up to 11,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined the struggle in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, almost doubling estimates made earlier this year.
The number of individuals from western Europe taking up arms has tripled to up to 1,900 and includes up to 366 from Britain, according to research by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College, London. The number reported from France has quadrupled while Belgium has the highest per capita rate.
The report showed that Arabs and Europeans made up the bulk of foreign fighters, with up to 80 per cent, but militants from southeast Asia, North America, Africa, the Balkans and countries of the former Soviet Union were also represented.
Syria is becoming as big a magnet for Muslim fighters as Afghanistan was in the 1980s when an estimated 35,000 foreigners joined the mujahideen ranks against Soviet invaders.
Prof Peter Neumann, a director of the centre, said the dramatic increase from its previous estimate in April may be linked to the fact that some European governments had paid more attention to the issue.
But the greater cause was more probably the deepening involvement in the war of Shia fighters from Lebanon and Iraq on the side of Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam and who is backed by Iran, the major Shia power.
“For radical Sunnis, if you see this Syrian government supported by Shia Iran and Hizbollah, it becomes almost a civilisational conflict, almost as if America has intervened in the Middle East,” said Prof Neumann. “We believe that has had the most significant effect on mobilising people.”
