British suicide fighter highlights large number of Europeans with ISIS

LONDON - A second British fighter has killed himself in a suicide attack for Islamic State, bringing to almost 30 the number of Britons killed fighting for ISIS.

His death, with that of a Swedish ISIS fighter killed in Kobane this weekend, highlights how many Europeans are now fighting on both sides in Iraq and Syria – a number that experts say will continue rising.

The flow is not only to ISIS, however. Diaspora Kurds in Denmark, Sweden and Britain have all left to join the fight against the Islamists. On Sunday, the Federation Kurds in the Netherlands announced that a Dutch Kurd, Yusuf Kocher, was killed while taking part in clearing bombs laid by ISIS in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The man identified as the British suicide bomber was named as Kabir Ahmed, a 32-year-old married father of two from Derby. He is believed to have been involved in a suicide bomb attack in the town of Baiji, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, two days ago.

The CIA estimates that ISIS may have up to 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria from at least 90 different countries - three times as many as previously feared.

And while the greatest number of fighters in the region - more than 5,000 - comes from Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, over 3,000 are believed to have left homes in Europe to join jihadist groups.

The consequences of the mobilisation have been far-reaching says Shiraz Maher, of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London, who monitors the flow of foreign fighters into Syria.

“The Syrian crisis revived the fortunes of the global jihad movement and it has never been stronger. It is better manned, better equipped and better financed than at any other point in the past century,” he says.

Maher believes that the sheer number of ISIS fighters – many of them foreign – makes it impossible to see how the group will be uprooted anytime soon.

This was a concern raised by Masrour Barzani, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s security chief, when he addressed the European Parliament last week.

He called on European countries to do more to prevent young people from travelling to join ISIS forces in the region.

“There is a definite increase in the number of ISIS fighters (coming from abroad). The numbers are increasing as they have more time now to recruit,” he said.

“There should be much more pressure on the countries of origin to stop this flow of fighters.”

While the stream of jihadi recruits to Iraq is deeply worrying for the Kurds, other minorities and Baghdad itself.  A look at the nationalities of the foreign fighters also tells of the potential for trouble if – or when – those fighters return home.

The ICSR and a New York-based research group, Soufan, have compiled figures showing the numbers of all foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. They show that while the majority come from Arab countries, almost 1,000 are from the Muslim region of Chechnya in Russia, over 700 come from France – which has the largest Muslim population in the European Union - and almost 500 are from Britain.

EU governments are deeply concerned over the issue, according to its anti-terrorism chief, Gilles de Kerchove, who told the BBC recently that ISIS's declaration of a caliphate in June may have played a role in drawing more support from Europe.

“If you believe in this, probably you want to be part of it as early as possible,” he said.

Last month the UN Security Council adopted a binding resolution compelling states to prevent their nationals from joining jihadists in Iraq and Syria, but governments are struggling to find ways of detecting and deterring young men who have been radicalised.

Several countries, including Britain and Denmark have looked at the possibility of stripping fighters of their citizenship, and have stepped-up arrests relating to support for terrorism and terrorist acts.

But the use of social media as a recruiting tool is making it harder than ever before to stop the recruitment drive, says Maher.  European recruits have brought a media-savvy approach to recruiting others.

“The effect of social media is to normalise the experience, while also inspiring potential recruits,” Maher says. He believes that British imams struggle to relate to younger Muslims and their message of moderation can’t compete with the allure of ISIS videos glorifying jihad.