Jihadists From Syria Pose New Terror Threat

Series of Arrests Heighten Fears, Problem Expected to Grow as Conflict Drags On

Scores of jihadist fighters from Europe who streamed to Syria to join Islamic extremist rebels have begun returning home, where some are suspected of plotting terror attacks, according to U.S. and European intelligence and security officials. Authorities in the U.K. and France recently made several terror-related arrests of individuals suspected of links to Syria. "They're real committed jihadists," a senior U.S. intelligence official said. "The concern is that we're at the very early stages of this." For the U.S. and Western countries, the returning jihadists pose the biggest long-term concern of the Syrian civil war, the official said. Governments are rushing to counter the new terror threat.

 "We monitor very closely people seeking to travel [to Syria]—and also people traveling back—because of the potential risk they may pose upon their return to the U.K.," said Britain's security minister James Brokenshire. The total number of fighters from Europe is difficult to track, but officials and academics estimate it at about 1,000 or more, including from Germany, France and the Netherlands. Dozens have traveled to Syria from the U.S. Once there, many are believed to fight alongside al Qaeda-affiliated groups such as Jabhat al Nusra, or the Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS. The European Union doesn't ban membership in Syrian groups affiliated with al Qaeda, which makes it difficult to crack down on the flow of jihadists to the war.

 The U.S. has designated ISIS and the Nusra Front as terrorist groups and countries such as the U.K. are pressing to do the same. The flow of fighters to causes in the Middle East started with Afghanistan in the 1980s and continued during the Iraq war. But the number going to Syria has mounted more rapidly, U.S. and European officials said.
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