US law enforcement and security agencies for months have expressed growing anxiety about a steady stream of Western militants, including Americans, heading to Syria. Most of the foreigners join up with the most extreme factions trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, including al-Qaeda linked groups the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
US and allied officials say their main fear is that veteran fighters, radicalized by their Syrian experience, will launch terror attacks once they return home. Authorities in Western Europe say they have uncovered such plots by fighters returning from Syria.
The Justice Department prosecutor dealing with the issue, Stephen Ponticello, works for the department’s national security division.
In late March, the State Department also picked career diplomat Robert Bradtke to address the perceived threat. Bradtke will be the lead US diplomat in “engaging foreign partners to prevent and interdict foreign extremist travel to Syria,” a department spokeswoman said.
Until recently, US intelligence officials had estimated that since 2012 around 7,000 foreigners have joined about 23,000 anti-government rebels fighting with the most extreme anti-Assad groups. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the estimate stands at 9,000 foreign fighters since the war started.
“We are engaged in a focused outreach effort with key partner governments regarding our shared concern over the flow of fighters to the Syrian conflict,” Psaki said. She described US allies in the Middle East and Europe as being “gravely concerned” by the threat.
We are engaged in a focused outreach effort with key partner governments regarding our shared concern over the flow of fighters to the Syrian conflict."
Psaki declined to estimate how many Americans have gone to Syria to fight. US officials say that several dozen US citizens or residents have done so to join anti-government groups.
Hundreds of others from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and other countries whose citizens are afforded easy entry to the United States also have fought in Syria, US and European officials say.
“It’s an area in which we are devoting significant time and resources,” said a spokesman for the US government’s National Counterterrorism Center.
US authorities have already indicted a handful of individuals for alleged involvement in the conflict, often on charges of providing material support to militant groups. At least one US citizen, Michigan native Nicole Mansfield, was killed in Syria last year, reportedly while fighting with rebels.
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