In Islamic State Stronghold of Raqqa, Foreign Fighters Dominate

SANLIURFA, Turkey—In Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, a Syrian city on the banks of the Euphrates, few Syrians hold positions of power these days. Running the show, residents say, are the thousands of foreigners who have converged there to establish an Islamic utopia they believe will soon conquer the planet.

“What we have is a foreign occupation,” said Sarmad al-Jilane, a former electronics student from Raqqa who now runs a website from neighboring Turkey documenting Islamic State abuses in his hometown called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. “Those who are paid by them, like them, of course. But most others hate them because of all these killings and beheadings.”

Around 20,000 foreign fighters have joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the past two years, Western intelligence officials estimate. While virtually all nationalities are represented, countries such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Russia and France have produced some of the largest contingents.

As this unprecedented influx continues, mostly through Syria’s long and porous border with Turkey, the rise of the foreign fighters is changing the very nature of the Syrian war.

In the early days of the conflict, many of these combatants came to Syria because of their desire to defend fellow Sunni Muslims against President Bashar al-Assad ’s regime.

Now, their main motivation often appears to be participating in the experiment of creating a new Islamic society—an experiment in which the fate of Syria and Syrians is secondary at best.

“People go now because they envisage a future there, not just because they want to fight on behalf of the Syrian people,” said Thomas Hegghammer, an expert on Islamic State and director of terrorism research at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. “Many think it is a historical project that they can be part of, and that they will be remembered for being among the first—almost like the companions of the prophet.”

In fact, Islamic State ideologues often compare this migration of foreign fighters to Raqqa with the “hijra” or journey of Prophet Muhammad to the city of Medina, a milestone that established the original Islamic state 14 centuries ago—and which marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi like many of the group’s other senior officials, has declared a caliphate that he vowed would eventually take over the world. He called on all Muslims to make a similar hijra to the territory his group has captured in Syria and Iraq.

The group’s chief military commander in Syria is Tarkhan Batirashvili, an ethnic Chechen from Georgia. The executioner in its videos, known as “Jihadi John,” is a Briton.

Frictions between such foreign fighters and the local tribes brought the demise of jihadist rule in Iraq’s western province of Anbar during the so-called Sunni Awakening in 2007-08. The scale of foreign presence, however, is exponentially larger in Islamic State-held territory now—especially in places such as Raqqa, abandoned by a large portion of its native population.

The privileges afforded to the foreigners are clear everywhere and they begin with pay. While foreign fighters are usually not drawn by financial considerations, in Raqqa they earn about $800 including special allowances a month compared with $400 a month for Syrian fighters, according to local residents and Syrian rebels whom Islamic State had tried to recruit. By contrast, rebels in the moderate, U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army say they earn $100 or less.

The foreigners are also considered more valuable than Syrians during prisoner exchanges.

“For one foreign fighter, we can exchange many Syrians,” said Nidal Salem, who commands a unit of the Free Syrian Army in the northern Aleppo province, the westernmost point of Islamic State’s advance.

On the front lines, the Free Syrian Army troops have learned to fear and respect these foreign fighters. Many have arrived in Syria with military experience from other jihadists battlefields. Others, driven by ideology, are simply far more willing to die than their enemies.

“You shoot at them, and they continue to advance, walking all over their dead friends,” says Bakri Kaakeh, an officer with the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo province. “They just don’t care.”

While Islamic State’s Syrian soldiers can often be bribed to turn a blind eye to offenses against the group’s strict rules, the idealistic foreigners have the reputation of being hard to corrupt.

“You can pay off a Syrian to get out of jail, but the foreigners just won’t take your money,” said Taim Ramadan, a former coffee-shop owner in Raqqa who recently escaped to Turkey, and who has had conversations with a Finnish convert to Islam within Islamic State ranks.

Seeing their presence in Syria as permanent, many of these foreign fighters seek to marry local women—often by coercing or paying off parents, Mr. Ramadan and other local residents said.

“They are trying to create a new country and a new generation—and many of our women have no other choice,” he said.

Migrants to Islamic State from the West often bring with them valuable technical skills, especially in media and communications. Some others—such as Mr. Ramadan’s Finnish acquaintance—serve as doctors and nurses.

Arab migrants, on the other hand, play particularly prominent roles in running the feared Hesba, or morality police, which patrols cities under Islamic State control and enforces bans on smoking, immodest dress and work during prayer times.

“The foreigners are the authority in my city. And the Tunisians are the worst, always the most aggressive, ” said Omar Mohammed, 28, a former teacher who fled the Syrian city of Deir Ezzour last month to Turkey.

Mohammed Ali, a 19-year-old student who left the town of Al Boukamal, near the Iraqi border deep inside Islamic State-held territory, last month, agreed.

“They don’t have any idea about the customs of our people. Even if they see an old man smoke somewhere, they would hit him without pity,” he said. “A Syrian would never do something like that.”

Source : http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-islamic-state-stronghold-of-raqqa-foreign-fighters-dominate-1423087426