I remember a lot of rumors and speculations about Iranian fighters, but I don't recall any "proof" or any of them being captured. Same for Canada...not sure about Syria....but certain about Israel.
Looks like we should look some up.
Relying on interviews with US and Saudi intelligence officials, as well as the findings of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, which is directed by Obaid and is described as a private group, the paper says that Algerians make up the largest group of foreign fighters at 20 percent, followed by Syrians (18 percent), Yemenis (17 percent), Sudanese (15 percent) and Egyptians (13 percent).
abcnews.go.com
That's ~83%. I accept that Canada and Israel are one-offs so to speak. [There was a story I put up earlier on Canada.] You would think that Algerians would be all over the lips of the Administration. Guess not. No Saudis on the list, but there are still 17% unaccounted for by country. I wouldn't expect the Saudis to report that.
Further in the article ... Cordesman and Obaid's findings seem to back up Al Islami's advice. They point out that 270,000 Saudis visited Syria alone in the first half of this year.
"Separating the legitimate visitors from the militants is nearly impossible," they write. "The problem of successfully halting the traffic of Saudis through Syria into Iraq is overwhelmingly difficult, politically charged, and operationally challenging."
jttmab |
