Western-born Jihadists Rally to ISIS’s Fight in Iraq and Syria
CNN
By: Atika Shubert and Bharati Naik
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(CNN) — The extremist Sunni militants sweeping across Iraq may have a singular goal, but there’s a broad coalition of recruits from outside of the Middle East willing to help them achieve it.
The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, wants to establish an Islamic state stretching from northern Syria into Iraq. And as the brutal terror group racks up victory after victory on the battlefield, more foreign fighters are considering joining their ranks.
Who are they?
Three young men we spoke to have traveled to Syria to answer the call to jihad. They agreed to speak to us from the northwestern city of Idlib over Skype, provided we masked their identities and didn’t use their real names.
Abu Anwar, as he asked to be called, is 25 years old and from Britain…
There are thousands like Abu from all across Europe in Syria and Iraq, according to some estimates. The Soufan Group, a security consulting firm, believes there are around 700 from France, 800 from Russia and almost 300 from Britain. But these figures relate to people analysts have been able to track, and the true numbers may be even higher. And as ISIS’s onslaught in Iraq grows, there are fears even more foreigners will be drawn to fight.
Last month, U.S. officials said Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, a 22-year-old American known as Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki, drove a truck full of explosives into…
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