Syria’s deadly new element
A small but growing number of Pakistanis are joining rebel forces, write ZARAR KHAN and SEBASTIAN ABBOT.
Suleman spent years targeting minority Shiite Muslims in his home country of Pakistan as a member of one of the country’s most feared militant groups. Now he is on his way to a new sectarian battleground, Syria, where he plans to join Sunni rebels battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It is a fight he believes will boost his reward in heaven.
The short and stocky Pakistani, who identified himself using only his first name, is one of an increasing number of militants who have left Pakistan for Syria in recent months. The fighters have contributed to a growing presence of Islamic extremists and complicated U.S. efforts to help the rebels.
Many fighters like Suleman believe they must help Syria’s Sunni majority defeat Assad’s Alawite regime — an offshoot of the Shiite sect. Radical Sunnis view Shiites as heretics. The presence of Islamic extremists in Syria looms large over U.S. efforts to help the rebels, especially when it comes to providing weapons that could end up in the hands of America’s enemies. The extremists have also sparked infighting with more secular rebels concerned about the increasing power of the Islamists.
Most of the foreign fighters in Syria are from Arab countries, including al-Qaida militants from Iraq on the rebel side and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon on the regime’s side. The flow of militants from Pakistan adds a new element to that mix.
Three Pakistani intelligence officials based in the tribal region that borders Afghanistan, as well as militants themselves, say the fighters leaving Pakistan for Syria include members of al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban and Suleman’s group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The fighters fall mainly into two categories. One includes foreign combatants from places like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and likely the Middle East who came to Pakistan’s tribal region to fight U.S.led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan and are now heading to Syria because they view it as the most pressing battle, said the Pakistani intelligence officials.
This group includes members of al-Qaida who trained the Pakistani Taliban in areas such as bombmaking and are now moving on to the battlefield in Syria, said Pakistani Taliban fighters.
The second group leaving Pakistan includes members of the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-eJhangvi who are heading to Syria because they are being so closely monitored by Pakistani authorities that it makes it difficult for them to carry out operations at home, said a Taliban fighter who identified himself only as Hamza. These militants are under surveillance because they have been detained previously in connection with attacks, or are on Pakistan’s radar because of their importance in their organizations, Hamza said.
The group includes Suleman, who was detained during a 2009 attack on an intelligence building in Lahore that killed at least 35 people. He was eventually released. “Our aim and purpose is to fight against Shiites and eliminate them,” said Suleman. “It is more rewarding if you first fight against the evil here and then you travel for this noble purpose too. The more you travel, the higher the reward from God.”
Suleman is one of about 70 militants who have been sent to Syria in the last two months by a network jointly run by the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Hamza said. The militants are travelling to Syria by various routes, and some are taking their families. The most closely watched are secretly taking speed boats from Baluchistan’s coast to the Omani capital of Muscat and then travelling onward to Syria, Hamza said.
Others are flying from Pakistan to various countries, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, and then making their way to Syria. The financing is coming from sources in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Hamza said. Suleman flew to Sudan with his wife and two children using fake passports, he said. He will leave his family in Sudan and then travel to Syria.