Chinese extremists wage quiet war in Syria

Thousands of militants have formed elite force within Turkistan Islamic Party to battle Assad’s troops in country’s north

BEIRUT // Their role in Syria’s civil war is little known, but thousands of Chinese militants have been instrumental in fights against the forces of president Bashar Al Assad in the country’s north.

Many don’t speak Arabic but the Chinese fighters of the Turkistan Islamic Party are organised and battled-hardened.

Thousands have gone to Syria since the war began in March 2011, to fight against government forces and their allies.

Some have joined Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, the group that was known as Jabhat Al Nusra before it announced it was separating from Al Qaeda.

Others paid allegiance to ISIL and a smaller number joined factions such as the ultraconservative Ahrar Al Sham.

But most are with the Turkistan Islamic Party, whose vast majority are Chinese Muslims, particularly those from the Turkic- speaking Uighur majority native to China’s Xinjiang region.

Their growing role in Syria has resulted in increased cooperation between Syrian and Chinese intelligence agencies who fear the militants could one day return home and cause trouble.

The Turkistan Islamic Party is the other name for the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, which considers China’s Xinjiang to be East Turkistan.

Like most extremist groups in Syria, its aim is to remove Mr Al Assad’s secular government from power and replace it with strict Islamic rule.

But unlike other extremist and opposition groups in Syria, it is a very secretive organisation whose members live among themselves.

They operate in parts of Idlib province in Syria’s north-west and in Jisr Al Shughour, a strategic town on the edge of Latakia province in Syria’s west, Mr Al Assad’s main stronghold.

They are also active in Latakia province’s Kurdish Mountains. Abdul- Hakim Ramadan, a doctor who worked in Idlib province, says that unlike other foreign fighters who have come to Syria, the Chinese have not merged into local communities and the language has been a major barrier.

Despite this, Abu Dardaa Al Shami, a member of the now-defunct extremist group Jund Al Aqsa, says the Turkistan Islamic Party has the best “Inghemasiyoun”, Arabic for “those who immerse themselves”. Inghemasiyoun have been used by extremist groups such as ISIL and Jabhat Fatah Al Sham.

Their role is to infiltrate their targets, unleash mayhem and fight to the death before a major ground offensive begins.

“They are the lions of ground offensives,” says Mr Al Shami, who fought alongside them several times in northern Syria.

The Chinese extremists’ participation in the war, which has killed nearly 400,000 people, comes at a time when Beijing is one of Mr Al Assad’s strongest international backers.

Along with Russia, China has used its veto power at the UN Security Council several times to block international sanctions against its Arab ally.

Xie Xiaoyuan, China’s envoy to Syria, said in November that the two countries had normal military exchanges focused on humanitarian issues, although Chinese officials had repeatedly rejected the possibility of sending troops or weapons.

But in the past year, Chinese and Syrian officials have begun holding monthly high- level meetings to share intelligence on militant movements in Syria.

“These people not only fight alongside international terrorist forces in Syria but they will possibly return, posing a threat to China’s national security,” says Li Wei, a terrorism expert at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says there are about 5,000 Chinese fighters in Syria, most of them with Turkistan Islamic Party fighters in northern Syria who along with their families make about 20,000.

But Mr Li says Mr Abdulrahman’s numbers are too high, adding that he believes there are about 300 Chinese fighters in Syria who brought with them about 700 family members.

“As the control of the passage along the borders between Turkey and Syria is being tightened, it is becoming more difficult for them to smuggle into Syria,” he says.

Despite this, Syrian opposition activists and pro- government media say dozens of Turkistan Islamic Party fighters have carried out suicide attacks against Syrian government forces and their allies.

For the past two years the party fighters have led battles mostly in the north of the country.

Mr Al Assad last month spoke about the role of Chinese extremists in the Syrian war. “They know your country more than the others, so they can do more harm in your country than others,” he said.