US intelligence officials believe at least 50 Americans have joined the mix of extremist groups that are fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, and some could try to mount terrorist attacks at home, a newspaper report said.
A report in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday said Intelligence officials believe the Syrian civil war has become one of the biggest magnets for Islamic extremists around the globe since CIA-backed militants fought to oust Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the 1980s, a war that ultimately gave rise to al Qaeda.
On Tuesday, James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, told the House Intelligence Committee that “7,500 or so” foreign fighters are in Syria from 50 countries, the paper said.
Meanwhile, an unnamed US intelligence official told The Times that the total includes at least 50 Americans, a more concrete estimate than authorities have given previously.
According to the report, CIA Director John Brennan said Tuesday that Al Qaeda is training foreign fighters at camps in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
“We are concerned about the use of Syrian territory by the Al Qaeda organization to recruit individuals … to use Syria as a launching pad” for attacks on the West, Brennan said.
James B Comey, the FBI director, has said that counter-terrorism officials are trying to track US veterans of the Syrian war who have returned home.
