Foreign Jihadists Flocking To Iraq And Syria On ‘Unprecedented Scale’ – Says United Nations
London newspaper, The Guardian is reporting this morning that “foreign jihadists are swarming into to Iraq and Syria on an ‘unprecedented scale,'” to join with the Islamic State to establish an Islamic caliphate on NATO’s doorstep. Spencer Ackerman reports that “a U.N. report obtained by The Guardian, finds that 15,000 people have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State and similar extremist groups. They come from 80 countries, the report states, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaeda.”
Mr. Ackerman writes that “the U.N.’s numbers bolster recent estimates from U.S. Intelligence, about the scope of the foreign fighter problem, which the U.N. reports finds to have spread despite the Obama administration’s aggressive counter-terrorism strikes and global surveillance dragnets.” I do know anyone other than The Guardian, and other liberal publications that would characterize U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State — as ‘aggressive.’
“Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorists fighters between 1990 – 2010; and, are growing,” exponentially, says the U.N report produced by a U.N. Security Council Committee that monitors al Qaeda.” “In recent months,” Mr. Ackerman notes, “ISIS supporters have appeared in places as unlikely as the Maldives; and, its videos proudly display jihadists with Chilean-Norwegian, and other diverse backgrounds.” Other open-source reporting indicates that in addition to Norway, Chile, the U.S. and Great Britain, foreign fighters or recruits are also coming from Canada, Somalia, South Korea, China, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Germany, Turkey and France. Britain roughly accounts for about one in every four European foreign recruits joining ISIS.
“There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together,” the report states. More than 500 British citizens are believed to have traveled to the region since 2011,” Mr. Ackerman wrote.
“With revenues just from its oil smuggling now estimated at $1M per day, ISIS controls territory in Iraq and Syria — home to between five and six million people, a population the size of Finland. Bolstering ISIS’s treasury is up to $45M in money from kidnapping for ransom, the U.N. report finds.
Recent U.S. Intelligence estimates suggest that the Islamic State “could muster between 20,000 to nearly 32,000 fighters; though, ISIS has clearly suffered hundreds of casualties — if not more — since the beginning of U.S. and coalition airstrikes. But, it would seem the numbers of new recruits flocking to join ISIS may exceed the losses the Islamic State has suffered to date — but, probably a majority of these new fighters are inexperienced, and lack a tactical and strategic understanding of the big-picture battle taking place. Of course, the U.S has also suffered from a lack of strategic acumen, as the Battle for Kobani did not become important to Washington until it was clear that the city was a major strategic and propaganda target for the Islamic State. The adversary gets a vote. V/R, RCP
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