cials said is rising rapidly, is 100200, according to government and analyst figures. Denmark’s intelligence service estimates “at least 80” fighters from there – with similar numbers from Spain, Austria and Italy. Norway believes about 40 of its citizens have left for Syria in the past year. “More Europeans have gone to Syria than have gone to all the other conflict zones put together,” including Iraq and Afghanistan, said Thomas Hegghammer, an analyst at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. “It’s hard to overstate the importance of this for the future of Islamic radicalism in Europe. They’re radicalizing and training a whole new generation of militants.” Ranstorp agreed: “In the last two months, there has been an acceleration in the number of people going to Syria.” The first Europeans to leave for Syria tended to do so haphazardly – catching a flight to Turkey, hopping a bus and hoping for the best. That’s how the 21-year-old Danish man first went, meandering into a refugee camp and stumbling upon people who told him where to go. Those men are returning home or contacting friends and acquaintances by Skype, Facebook, text message, YouTube, or word of mouth to encourage them to follow. They provide the travel arrangements, and say the life of a fighter in Syria is one of comfort punctuated by the adventure of war. “I talk to fathers and mothers of young people who have left my
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Yukon News
Friday, December 6, 2013 city. It’s all well-organized. The air tickets are paid for,” said Hans Bonte, mayor of Vilvoorde, a city of 41,000 in Flemish-speaking Belgium that has seen at least 22 young people leave for Syria, including the most recent group in early November. Bonte, who is chief of security for his town as well as a federal lawmaker, speaks at length to each family and is in constant touch with both them and Belgium’s intelligence services. Bonte said Belgians who are leaving are younger now – teenagers instead of men in their late 20s, and adolescent girls are beginning to appear among the lists of the missing. “It’s a process of following others (who) are trying to convince people to go over there. They are telling stories that it’s fun over there ... they are living in a villa with a pool.” One Vilvoorde mother, whose older son had already left for Syria, was sleeping on her front steps to keep her 15-year-old from slipping out to follow his brother, Bonte said. One night this fall, the boy pushed his mother aside – threatening to kill her if she stopped him from joining the fight in Syria – and stepped into a waiting car. She has heard from neither son since. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the Assad government is discussing the issue with Western officials “and there is co-operation,” although he did not name any countries. And authorities have encountered teens trying to board airplanes, including some carry-
ing large amounts of cash for the rebellion, said Martin Bernsen, a spokesman for the police security services. “Of course it is difficult to prove where the money goes,” Bernsen said, “so we are worried that it goes to terror-related activities.” Hegghammer said Syria has worrisome parallels with Afghanistan of the 1980s, where a young Osama bin Laden was among thousands of Muslims to wage battle against Soviet forces. “The gross number of departures is so high that almost whatever the return rate is, you’re going to have substantial numbers of terrorists,” he said. Recent comments from Andrew Parker, director general of British intelligence agency MI5, underscore those concerns. “A growing proportion of our casework now has some link to Syria, mostly concerning individuals from the UK who have travelled to fight there or who aspire to do so,” Parker said in a recent speech. Maher, who is in regular contact with a contingent of Britons in Syria, said their cheery photos of fighters living bachelor-pad style in comfortable houses, with all the food they can eat and all the weaponry they could hope for, will continue draw ever larger numbers. “They send pictures of sweets – of candy – and of pop. You can get all this out there. It’s not a life full of privation,” Maher said. “You get this comfortable life in Syria with the option, the possibility to die a martyr.”
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