How Dangerous Are Syria's Foreign Fighters?

Members of the Free Syrian Army perform prayers in Damascus in this handout photo provided by the Shaam News Network. (Reuters)

Jihad Tourists: How Dangerous Are Syria's Foreign Fighters? -- Christoph Reuter, Spiegel Online

Once just a small group, now there are several thousand foreign jihadist fighters present in Syria today. Though some rebel leaders say their presence does pose a danger, the impact of these groups is often exaggerated by the Western media.

The role of foreign jihadists linked to al-Qaida in Syria has been the subject of intense discussion in the Western media, among think tanks and inside governments. Yet despite the attention paid to the issue, the research behind the reports published is often thin.

There's a good reason for this, too: Very few foreign journalists are still traveling within the areas of Syria that are no longer controlled by the regime of dictator Bashar Assad. Of course, other factors also influence the reporting. Right from the start, the regime described the insurgency in its propaganda as the action of "foreign terrorists," and it has often used the Russian media in particular as a platform for spreading false accounts of events.

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My Comment: A few thousand heavily armed and fanatical foreign jihadists is a very dangerous situation .... especially since they are now carving safe havens in Syria.