Syrian commander got Irish residency AFTER he fought in Afghanistan war
A HARDLINE Islamist and Irish resident has travelled to Syria and back several times since getting involved in that country’s civil war in 2012, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Eyad Sha’ar, who leads a jihadi group, lived in Dublin for 10 years before leaving for Syria in 2011.
He returned to Dublin as recently as last year and members of his family continue to live in a quiet, suburban estate.
Speaking from his Dublin home this week, Sha’ar’s son told the Irish Mail on Sunday that his father was home around two years ago but that he does not often speak to him.
Sources, however, confirmed that Sha’ar was ‘definitely’ home last year and ‘may’ have been back as recently as last December.
Locals also reported seeing Mr Sha’ar at his detached home last summer.
Sha’ar’s son said he left Ireland ‘not too long ago, maybe two years’.
‘You can contact him on Twitter… I don’t really talk to him or see him much,’ he added.
When pressed about when Sha’ar was last here, his son replied: ‘I’m not going to confirm anything or comment.’
Sha’ar, a Syrian, is one of the top commanders of Ahrar al-Sham, a Jihadi group fighting in Idlib Northern Syria.
Sha’ar’s brother was involved in the infamous Moscow theatre siege in 2002, which resulted in the deaths of at least 170 people.
In 2014, Eyad Sha’ar tweeted a picture of his brother with the words: ‘This is my brother who get me to like him Allah bless BRO. Yasser, how I miss thee to be my side in Sham.’
The hardline Islamist lived in Ireland for a decade and gained residency here, despite his links to top al-Qaeda figures.
Gardaí have been keeping an eye on his whereabouts and monitor his home whenever there is a suggestion he is in Ireland.
Using the Kunya or Arabic name Abu al-Hassan al-Tabuki, he has rubbed shoulders with some of al-Qaeda’s most influential figures during his time in Afghanistan in the 1990s.
Sha’ar, whose jihadi unit Ahrar al-Sham aims to create Sharia law in Syria, retained his extremist views while living in this country. He returned to Syria in 2011 to fight in the civil war but has come back to Ireland an unknown number of times since then.
It is unclear what Sha’ar has been doing in Ireland but he has stated that he is an Irish resident after he moved here during a period of exile from Syria.
During his time in Ireland, Sha’ar’s brother Yasar was part of the terrorist group that carried out the Moscow Nord-Ost theatre siege. In 2014, Sha’ar made a boastful claim on social media that Yasar was ‘martyred’ during the siege and lamented his brother wasn’t alive to fight jihad in Syria with him.
Originally from Idlib, Sha’ar now fights with Ahrar al-Sham in his home province, a rebel-controlled enclave in northern Syria.
Questions remain over how this known jihadi, had been granted residency in Ireland despite his history fighting in Afghanistan and his links – through his brother – with hardline Chechen Islamists.
In the past, Ahrar al-Sham has fought alongside Isis. The group has close ties to al-Qaeda in Syria and was backed by both Qatar and Turkey, allowing it to purchase sophisticated weapons.
In 2013, the group was accused of executing, kidnapping and torturing members of the Alawite community in Latakia, the principal port city of Syria. Sha’ar was one of the key commanders during this offensive and, in the last year, Amnesty International accused Ahrar al-Sham of war crimes.
In recent years, Sha’ar has claimed his group is moderate Islamist, yet critics say Ahrar’s main aim is Sharia law, differing only in tactics to Isis and al-Qaeda.
Sha’ar was born in Syria in the 1960s. However, his family fled in the 1970s after a crackdown on
‘You can contact my dad on Twitter’
Islamists, moving to the Saudi city of Tabuk. He and his brother later fought in the Afghanistan civil war.
Sha’ar arrived in Ireland in the early 2000s and settled here.
He returned to Syria in 2011 and rose quickly through the Islamist ranks due to his hardline stance and experience.
A report by Human Rights Watch in October 2013 said 190 civilians were killed by jihadis led by Sha’ar and his allies in their offensive on the villages. The victims included 57 women, at least 18 children and 14 elderly men.
Ahrar al-Sham also fought alongside Nour al-Din al-Zenk, who chillingly filmed and posted the beheading of a child online.
An Amnesty report in July last year, outright accused Ahrar of war crimes. Sha’ar became leader of Ahar al-Sham and rebranded himself as a moderate in recent years.
In an interview with the Financial Times in 2015, Sha’ar said that his group wanted to go mainstream. ‘We are not from Mars. We are part of Syrian society and the international community. . . We want to be part of the solution,’ he had said.
Further attempts to contact Eyad Sha’ad this week through his Twitter account, as suggested by his son, were not successful.
This week, it was reported that gardaí had separately identified an Isis network – of up to 25 people – in Ireland, who focus on recruiting fighters for missions abroad.
The cell, which is said to have members across the country, is also thought to be concentrating on the recruitment of young Irish-based Muslims to fight for Isis in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
‘Fought alongside group that beheaded child’