A rapidly increasing flow of Europeans is streaming to Syria to fight on the side of rebel groups aligned with al-Qaeda, raising concerns about homegrown terrorism, top European security officials said Thursday.| Europeans? Sven? Heinrich? Jose? Nigel? Pierre? |
Europeans are able to reach Syria far more easily than other past locations of jihadist activity, such as Afghanistan and Iraq. All it takes to get to Syria is a budget flight to Turkey and a quick transit over the mostly non-existent border. European security officials have said there are an increasing number of training camps on Syrian soil that are composed almost exclusively of Europeans. Many fear that combatants could return home and commit acts of terror on European soil or serve as inspiration to others.
European officials said they were stunned by the speed of the radicalization and flow of their citizens to Syria, and some officials urged new measures, such as collecting and sharing more airline passenger information, in an effort to slow the migration. Individual European countries have also stepped up their own efforts to stop citizens from fighting in Syria. The Interior Minister of the German state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, this week proposed a nationwide hotline and network of counseling centers to try to combat radicalization. He said a new government-sponsored study in Hesse had found that jihadist recruiters had begun to systematically target students.