Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Baghdad

URGENT: 300 Americans fighting with ISIL according to US intelligence agencies

ISIL-insurgents(IraqiNews.com) On Wednesday the Washington Times quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official who claims that the U.S. government is monitoring nearly 300 American citizens who are fighting on the side of the terrorist organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and likely to be a major threat to the USA.

The official said that concern is widespread in Washington that radicalized foreign fighters could return to the homeland and commit terrorist attacks with skills acquired overseas, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Washington Times newspaper. Those concerns were heightened by the disclosure Tuesday that an American man from California was killed fighting alongside ISIL jihadists.

The U.S. government is doing its best to keep track of the foreign fighters, who have been shifting back and forth between Iraq and Syria, according to a senior U.S. official.

“We know that there are several hundred American passport holders running around with ISIS in Syria or Iraq,” the official said, offering a figure well above widespread reports of about 100 such fighters. “It’s hard to tell whether or not they’re in Syria or moved to Iraq.”

The threat of jihadists returning to the United States is “a new hazard” for the Department of Homeland Security, said retired Army Maj. Mike Lyons, a senior fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a CBS Radio News analyst. As a result, the department must plan for a future where the jihadists leave their Middle East battlefield and trickle back to America, he said to the Washington Times.

“If these people have been identified, there needs to be a discussion with regard to how and when they are allowed back in the U.S.,” he said.

Heightening concerns about Americans joining the Islamic State group were reports Tuesday that a California man who fought side by side with militants was found dead on the battlefield.

U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that the body of Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, was found after a brutal battle. He was identified based on the U.S. passport he had in his pocket.

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