European Fighters In Syria Raise Fears In EU

European Fighters In Syria Raise Fears In EU

The European Union’s anti-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove said in an recent interview that there are a good number of European citizens that are fighting in the civil war in Syria for the rebel forces, against the regime of president Bashar al-Assad.

De Kerchove said in the a BBC interview that close to 500 EU citizens are currently fighting against the Syrian rebels. Intelligence Agencies from the countries the fighters come from are concerned, and say that there is a risk they might join al-Qaeda linked terrorist organizations, and return to Europe to organize terrorist attacks.

The highest number of European fighters in Syria come from the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Ireland.

De Kerchove said that while they aren’t necessarily radical terrorists when they arrive in Syria, by the time they return they will probably be trained and radicalized by terrorist organization that are currently present within the ranks of the Syrian rebels.

Intelligence Agencies in Europe have been increasing efforts to find out how recruiting takes place. They are also setting up measure to ensure that citizens who return from the Syrian conflict don’t attempt to organize any terrorist attacks within the European Union.

In the Netherlands, government officials have recognized the danger of the European fighters and have raised the terror level to “substantial”.

Posted by James Fried on Friday April 26 2013, 6:30 AM EST. Ref: BBC. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0