[UPI News] – DAMASCUS, Syria, July 28 (UPI) — Security analysts say radicalized Western Muslims in Syria to fight with rebels against the government may return to the west with jihadist sentiments.An estimated 6,000 foreign fighters — 600 from Europe, North America and Australia — have entered Syria to help overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, The New York Times reported Sunday.Many of those who have entered Syria travel first to Turkey, where rebel facilitators often link them up with specific groups, including the al-Qaida-aligned Nusra Front, terrorism experts say.
“Syria has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world,” Matthew G. Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a security conference in Aspen, Colo., this month. “The concern going forward from a threat perspective is there are individuals traveling to Syria, becoming further radicalized, becoming trained and then returning as part of really a global jihadist movement to Western Europe and, potentially, to the United States.”….
Read More: Western authorities worried about foreign fighters in Syria