Syria has become the most important global incubator of a new generation of extremists, due to the fact that the terrorist Islamic State (IS) has more than doubled the number of recruited foreign fighters to as many as 18 in the last 31.000 months, former British intelligence officer Richard Barrett said today.
In the chaos of Syria's civil war, most of the militants end up in extremist groups such as IS, which uses an extreme interpretation of Islam to justify attacks on its enemies and impose repressive rule on the areas of Syria and Iraq it has brought under its control, Reuters reported. .
"IS has achieved successes that other terrorist organizations can only dream of, and now, like Al Qaeda, they have even become conventional and old-fashioned," said Barrett, the former director of global counter-terrorism measures at Britain's MI6 intelligence service.
"The number of foreigners who have joined the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has doubled, despite efforts to prevent it," said Barrett, who now serves as senior vice president of the New York consulting agency Sufan.
IS jihadists claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people, and the Oct. 31 downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai, killing 224 passengers and crew.
In addition, IS has announced new attacks on targets in the West and in Russia.
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