Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The West faces an Al Qaida blowback based on Sunni foreign fighters in Syria, a report said.

The Soufan Group has warned that Al Qaida could use any of thousands of foreign fighters in Syria to attack the West.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant parade through the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the border with Turkey. /Reuters[/caption]

In a report, Soufan, a risk assessment consultant based in New York, cited threats from Ahrar Al Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Nusra Front for the Defense of Levant.

“The Al Qaida leadership has also taken a close interest in Syria, seeing it as an opportunity to recover from the hammering it has suffered since 2001, and it has sent senior operatives there to work with and influence affiliated groups,” the report, titled “Foreign Fighters in Syria,” said.

Author Richard Barrett asserted that more than 12,000 foreign fighters from 81 countries have fought in Syria since 2011. Barrett, a vice president at Soufan, said some 3,000 of these fighters were from the West, the majority of them converts to Islam, with many of them linked to Al Qaida. Morocco was said to represent the largest contingent, with 1,500 fighters.

“Leaving aside what may happen in Syria, if Al Qaida can maintain a
network of even a small number of motivated returnees, or recruit fighters
to its terrorist agenda while they are still in Syria, it may once more pose
a significant global threat,” the report, issued on June 3, said.

Soufan, which consults for such U.S. agencies as the FBI and Defense
Department, said the Syrian war was likely to be an incubator for a “new
generation of terrorists.” The report said the three largest recruiters of
the foreigners were Ahrar, ISIL and Nusra.

“All these were founded by people who at the time were members of Al
Qaida,” the report said. “These groups tend to be more inclusive, better
organized, and better financed than their more moderate counterparts.”

The report cited attacks by ISIL, led by Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in
Syria’s neighbor, Turkey, in 2014. Barrett said ISIL, in a better position
than at any time since 2001, could be establishing branches outside the
Levant. The most likely target for ISIL was said to be Iraq.

“Advances in technology, communications, travel, and tactics — from a
decade of fighting in the region — mean that even a very small percentage
of returning foreign fighters could have a major impact on their homelands,”
the report said.

  000 potential terrorists from 81 nations got combat training in Syria, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, ISIL, Nusra Front, Report: 12, Soufan Group