Recruits stream into Syria, Iraq to join militants

WASHINGTON — Almost 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria and Iraq, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters.

Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

President Obama will take stock of the international campaign to counter the Islamic State at the United Nations on Tuesday, a public accounting that comes as U.S. intelligence analysts have been preparing a confidential assessment that concludes that nearly 30,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Iraq and Syria from more than 100 countries since 2011. A year ago, the same officials estimated that flow to be about 15,000 combatants from 80 countries, mostly to join the Islamic State.

Failing to stop jihadists

The grim appraisal coincides with the scheduled release Tuesday of a six-month, bipartisan congressional investigation into terrorist and foreign fighter travel, which concludes that “despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists.”

Other parts of the Obama administration’s policies on Syria and for combatting the Islamic State have suffered significant setbacks, as well.

A $500 million Pentagon effort to train rebel forces to take on the Islamic State in Syria has produced only a handful of fighters. Russia has defied U.S. attempts to block Moscow’s buildup of a new air base with warplanes in Syria — a topic Obama will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the U.N. on Monday. In a break in continuity for the mission, John Allen, the retired four-star general who since last September has served as the diplomatic envoy coordinating the coalition against the Islamic State, has told the White House he will step down at the end of 2015.

Refugees flee violence

The focus on shortcomings in the global effort to combat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is playing out as tens of thousands of refugees flee strife in the Middle East and North Africa, including many seeking to escape the violence in Syria and oppression in areas under the control of the Islamic State.

A year ago, Obama and other top U.S. officials spent a great deal of diplomatic capital rallying support for a legally binding Security Council resolution that would compel all 193 U.N. member states to take steps to “prevent and suppress” the flow of their citizens into the arms of groups that each country considers to be a terrorist organization.

But earlier this month, Tina Kaidanow, the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, offered a sobering summation of the problem. “The trend is still upward,” she said. Mainly, she added, because of the Islamic State’s unprecedented ability to recruit and to radicalize followers over the Internet and on social media.

Despite Pentagon reports that coalition strikes have killed about 10,000 Islamic State fighters, the group continues to replenish its ranks, drawing an average of roughly 1,000 fighters a month.