The number of foreigners making their way to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq continues to grow, despite international efforts to stem the flow, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report by The Soufan Group says there are now an estimated 27,000 to 31,000 foreigners fighting in Syria, more than double the 12,000 it estimated 18 months ago and an increase over the 25,000 estimate in a September report by the House Homeland Security Committee.
Helping fuel the rise is a dramatic increase in the number of recruits from Western Europe and the former Soviet Union, the report said.
“Foreign fighters from Russia and Central Asia have shown a significant rise; some estimates suggest a near 300 percent increase in known fighters since June 2014,” it said.
Curbing the flow of foreign fighters has been a key element of the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State from the start, and the security threat posed by those who return home was shown dramatically in the deadly Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.
Some 250 U.S. nationals are known to be among those who have traveled to Syria to fight with the Islamic State, and nearly 50 already have returned.
U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation to make it easier to block that flow.
“We must do more, urgently, to shut down the jihadi superhighway to and from the conflict zone,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Monday in a speech at the National Defense University.
Many of those fighters get to Syria through Turkey. Washington has pressed Ankara to seal its border with Syria, a task that mostly has been accomplished with the help of Syrian rebels on the other side. But there’s a 98-kilometer (60-mile) stretch through which people and support for the Islamic State can still flow that has U.S. officials concerned, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.
“So there is more that we would like to see the Turks do to secure that border. And, frankly, we’ve seen the Turks already act effectively to shut down large portions of their border. We just need them to finish the job.”
