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Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4 2015
In Islamic State Stronghold of Raqqa, Foreign Fighters Dominate
Influx is Altering the Course of Syrian War
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
SANLIURFA, Turkey—In Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, a Syrian
city on the banks of the Euphrates, few Syrians hold positions of power
these days. Running the show, residents say, are the thousands of
foreigners who have converged there to establish an Islamic utopia they
believe will soon conquer the planet.
ANALYSIS
“What we have is a foreign occupation,” said Sarmad al-Jilane, a former
electronics student from Raqqa who now runs a website from neighboring
Turkey documenting Islamic State abuses in his hometown called Raqqa Is
Being Slaughtered Silently. “Those who are paid by them, like them, of
course. But most others hate them because of all these killings and
beheadings.”
Around 20,000 foreign fighters have joined Islamic State in Syria and
Iraq over the past two years, Western intelligence officials estimate.
While many nationalities are represented, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia,
Morocco, Russia and France have produced some of the largest contingents.
As this unprecedented influx continues, mostly through Syria’s long and
porous border with Turkey, the rise of the foreign fighters is changing
the very nature of the Syrian war.
In the early days of the conflict, many of these combatants came to
Syria because of their desire to defend fellow Sunni Muslims against
President Bashar al-Assad ’s regime.
Now, their main motivation often appears to be participating in the
experiment of creating a new Islamic society—an experiment in which the
fate of Syria and Syrians is secondary at best.
“People go now because they envisage a future there, not just because
they want to fight on behalf of the Syrian people,” said Thomas
Hegghammer, an expert on Islamic State and director of terrorism
research at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. “Many think it
is a historical project that they can be part of, and that they will be
remembered for being among the first—almost like the companions of the
prophet.”
Islamic State ideologues often compare this migration of foreign
fighters to Raqqa with the “hijra” or journey of Prophet Muhammad to the
city of Medina, a milestone that established the original Islamic state
14 centuries ago—and which marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi like many of the
group’s other senior officials, has declared a caliphate that he vowed
would eventually take over the world. He called on all Muslims to make a
similar hijra to the territory his group has captured in Syria and Iraq.
The group’s chief military commander in Syria is Tarkhan Batirashvili,
an ethnic Chechen from Georgia. The executioner in some of its videos,
known as “Jihadi John,” is a Briton.
Friction between such foreign fighters and local tribes brought the
demise of jihadist rule in Iraq’s western province of Anbar during the
so-called Sunni Awakening in 2007-08. The scale of foreign presence,
however, is exponentially larger in Islamic State-held territory
now—especially in places such as Raqqa, abandoned by a large portion of
its native population.
The privileges afforded to the foreigners are clear everywhere and they
begin with pay. While foreign fighters are usually not drawn by
financial considerations, in Raqqa they earn about $800 a month,
including special allowances, compared with $400 a month for Syrian
fighters, according to local residents and Syrian rebels whom Islamic
State had tried to recruit. Rebels in the moderate, U.S.-backed Free
Syrian Army say they earn $100 or less.
Foreigners are also considered more valuable than Syrians during
prisoner exchanges.
“For one foreign fighter, we can exchange many Syrians,” said Nidal
Salem, who commands a unit of the Free Syrian Army in the northern
Aleppo province, the westernmost point of Islamic State’s advance.
On the front lines, the Free Syrian Army troops have learned to fear and
respect these foreign fighters. Many have arrived in Syria with military
experience from other jihadist battlefields. Others, driven by ideology,
are simply far more willing to die than their enemies.
“You shoot at them, and they continue to advance, walking all over their
dead friends,” says Bakri Kaakeh, an officer with the Free Syrian Army
in Aleppo province. “They just don’t care.”
While Islamic State’s Syrian soldiers can often be bribed to turn a
blind eye to offenses against the group’s strict rules, the idealistic
foreigners have the reputation of being hard to corrupt.
“You can pay off a Syrian to get out of jail, but the foreigners just
won’t take your money,” said Taim Ramadan, a former coffee-shop owner in
Raqqa who recently escaped to Turkey, and who has had conversations with
a Finnish convert to Islam within Islamic State ranks.
Seeing their presence in Syria as permanent, many of these foreign
fighters seek to marry local women—often by coercing or paying off
parents, Mr. Ramadan and other local residents said.
“They are trying to create a new country and a new generation—and many
of our women have no other choice,” he said.
Migrants to Islamic State from the West often bring with them valuable
technical skills, especially in media and communications. Some
others—such as Mr. Ramadan’s Finnish acquaintance—serve as doctors and
nurses.
Arab migrants, on the other hand, play particularly prominent roles in
running the feared Hesba, or morality police, which patrols cities under
Islamic State control and enforces bans on smoking, immodest dress and
work during prayer times.
“The foreigners are the authority in my city. And the Tunisians are the
worst, always the most aggressive,” said Omar Mohammed, 28, a former
teacher who fled the Syrian city of Deir Ezzour last month to Turkey.
Mohammed Ali, a 19-year-old student who left the town of Al Boukamal,
near the Iraqi border deep inside Islamic State-held territory, last
month, agreed.
“They don’t have any idea about the customs of our people. Even if they
see an old man smoke somewhere, they would hit him without pity,” he
said. “A Syrian would never do something like that.”
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