Metastases: Exploring the impact of foreign fighters in conflicts abroad

ABSTRACT

This article examines the historical impact of foreign fighters and how the international community has sought to counter this threat. It argues that foreign fighters have contributed significantly to the metastasis of Salafi-jihadism over the past 30 years. They have globalized local conflicts. They have brought advanced skills to battlefields. Further, the logistics infrastructure built by foreign fighters has allowed Salafi-jihadism to expand rapidly. The challenge for security officials today is how to prevent the foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq from expanding the threat of Salafi-jihadism further. To inform this effort, this article derives lessons learned from past efforts against Arab Afghans in Bosnia (1992–1995) and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s foreign volunteers in Iraq (2003–2008).

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign fighters
• ISIS
• terrorism
• Iraq
• Bosnia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, ‘Opening Statement – Senate Appropriations Committee’, 27 Apr. 2016, <http://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech-View/Article/744,092/opening-statement-senate-appropriations-committee-defense-fy-2017-budget-request>.

² Patricia Zengerle, ‘US Fails to Stop Flow of Foreign Fighters to Islamic State’, Reuters, 29 Sept. 2015, <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/us-mideast-crisis-congress-fighters-idUSKCN0RT1VZ20150929>; and, Michael Pizzi, ‘Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq have doubled since anti-ISIL intervention’, al-Jazeera, 7 Dec. 2015, <http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/7/foreign-fighters-in-syria-iraq-have-doubled-since-anti-isil-intervention.html>. As of publication, this number had increased to an estimated 40-42,000 individuals.

³ Lara Jakes, ‘Who’s Part of the Islamic State? Depends on Who You Ask’, Foreign Policy, 21 May 2015, <http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/21/whos-part-of-the-islamic-state-depends-whom-you-ask/>.

⁴ Karen Yourish Derek Watkins, Tom Giratikanon, Jasmine C. Lee, ‘How Many People Have Been Killed in ISIS Attacks Around the World?’ The New York Times, 22 Mar. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/25/world/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world.html>. As of publication, these numbers had increased to 366 attacks in 34 countries.

⁵ ‘Salafi-jihadism’ refers to Salafists who want to force the adoption of religiously conservative practices through the use of violence. See Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (London: I.B. Tauris 2002); and Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (New York: Cambridge University Press 2005).

⁶ Thomas Hegghammer, ‘The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters’, International Security, 35/ 3 (Winter 2010/11), 61; R. Kim Cragin, ‘The Challenge of Foreign Fighter Returnees’, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (July 2017), <http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043986217697872>.

⁷ The Office of the Director of National Intelligence hosts a website, ‘Bin Laden’s Bookshelf’, which contains documents captured by US forces in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. They are available at <https://www.odni.gov/index.php/resources/bin-laden-bookshelf?start=1>. The West Point Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center hosts additional al-Qaeda and ISIL documents captured by US forces, available at <https://www.ctc.usma.edu/programs-resources/harmony-program>.

⁸ Michael D. Silber and Arvan Bhatt, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (New York: New York City Police Department 2007).

⁹ John Horgan, Walking Away from Terrorism (New York: Routledge 2009).

¹⁰ Information on this program and its related publications can be found at https://extremism.gwu.edu/.

¹¹ Information on this program and its related publications can be found at http://icsr.info/.

¹² R. Kim Cragin, ‘The Challenge of Foreign Fighter Returnees’, release online April 2017, published July 2017, <http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043986217697872>.

¹³ Abdullah Azzam, Defense of Muslim Lands, William McCants (trans.), unpublished manuscript, 1984, <http://hegghammer.com/_files/’Azzam_-_The_Defence_of_Muslim_Lands.pdf>.

¹⁴ Abdullah Anas, Birth of the Afghan Arabs: A biography of Abdullah Anas with Mas’oud and Abdullah Azzam, Nadia Masid and Zainab al-Maliky (trans.), unpublished manuscript (London: 2002); Basil Muhammad, Muhammad, Basil, Al-Ansar al-Arab fi Afghanistan [The Arab supporters in Afghanistan], 2nd ed, Zainab al-Maliky (trans.) (Riyadh: Lajnat al-Birr al-Islamiyya 1991).

¹⁵ Abdullah Azzam, ‘Do not think that we have forgotten Palestine’, al-Jihad Magazine, Nadia Masid (trans.), unpublished manuscript, Mar. 1985.

¹⁶ Kim Cragin, ‘Early History of al-Qa’ida’, The Historical Journal 51/4 (2008), 1047–1067.

¹⁷ Dr. Sayyid Gharib, ‘Abu Hamza on Life, Islam, Islamic Groups’, al-Majallah, 21 Mar. 1999; and, Kamil al-Tawil, ‘Islamic activist supportive of the Armed Islamic Group’, al-Hayat, 1 May 1997.

¹⁸ al-Zawahiri, Ayman, Bitter Harvest: The Muslim Brotherhood in Sixty Years, Nadia Masid (trans.), unpublished manuscript (Egypt, 1991); and for a biography of Ayman al-Zawahiri, see also Lawrence Wright, ‘The Man Behind Bin Laden: How an Egyptian Doctor Became a Master of Terror’, The New Yorker, 16 Sept. 2002.

¹⁹ Tim McGirk, ‘Holy Warriors Outstay their Welcome’, The Independent, 14 Apr. 1993; and, Muhammad Salah, ‘Events of the Jihad Years: The Journey of Afghan Arabs from Everywhere to Washington and New York’, al-Hayat, 20 Oct. 2001.

²⁰ It is well known that approximately 5% remained in South Asia; another 5% travelled to Sudan; and 10% were identified in conflicts in Yemen, Bosnia and Somalia. Information on the remaining 80% is less clear, but interviews and other published reports suggest that they returned home. See Thomas Hegghammer, ‘The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters’, 61; Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviety Invasion to 10 September 2011 (New York: Penguin Books 2004): 260–268; Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars (London: Penguin Books 2011): 22; Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network (Oxford: Berg 2004): 27; Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New York: Penguin Books 2009): 225; as well as R. Kim Cragin, ‘The Challenge of Foreign Fighter Returnees’, 9–10.

²¹ Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 260; and ‘Fifteen Non-Afghan Muslim Volunteers Die in Afghan Jihad’, State Department Cable, 1 July 1987, declassified on 28 April 2008, available in the National Archives.

²² United States vs. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 3 May 2002, <http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/terrorism/usyousef40403opn.pdf>; and, ‘The Man Who Knew’, PBS Frontline, 3 Oct. 2002, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html>.

²³ Jamal Amed al-Fadl, United States vs Osama bin Laden et al., trial transcript, Day 2, 6 Feb. 2001, <https://cryptome.org/usa-v-ubl-02.htm>; Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, p. 22; Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 268; and, Abdel Bari Atwan, After Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation (London: The New Press 2012), 141.

²⁴ Jean-Pierre Filiu, ‘The Local and the Global Jihad of al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghrib’, The Middle East Journal, 63/2 (Spring 2009): 217; and, Muqaddam, Muhammad, ‘The Journey of the “Afghan Algerians” from the GIA to al-Qaeda: The Secret Networks of the Armed Islamic Group in the World’, Benjamin Hawthorne (trans.), al-Hayat, 23–29 Nov. 2003.

²⁵ Khalid al-Hammadi, ‘Al-Qa’ida from Within: Interview with Abu Jandal, bin Laden’s Bodyguard’, al-Quds al Arabi, 19 Mar. 2005.

²⁶ Al-Qaeda documents also reveal support for fighters in the Philippines, Tajikistan and Chechnya during the mid-1990s. See, Five Letters to the Africa Corps, documents captured in Afghanistan by US security forces, translated and released through the Harmony Project at the West Point Academy, document number: AFGP-2 – 2-600053.

²⁷ Five Letters to the Africa Corps, np.

²⁸ Ibid.

²⁹ United States vs. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, np.

³⁰ ‘Interview with Steven Kashkett’, Memorandum for the Record, MFR 03010909, 3 October 2003, declassified as part of the 9/11 Commission notes, US National Archives, np; and, ‘The Man Who Knew’, np.

³¹ Muhammad Muqaddam, ‘The Journey of the ‘Afghan Algerians’, np; Paul Webster and Greg Mcivor, ‘Paris Bomb Suspect Held In Stockholm’, The Guardian, 22 Aug. 1995; ‘Islamic extremists use Europe as support base’, Calgary Herald, 30 Jul 1995; and, ‘The “A-team of Islamic extremists,”’ The Ottawa Citizen, 31 Dec. 1999.

³² Author interviews, officials in the Ministry of Justice, Algiers, September 2016.

³³ Muhammad Salah, ‘Events of the Jihad Years’, np; ‘Yemen Opposition Papers Report Sanaa Clampdown on Islamists’, Al-‘Arab Al-Alamiyyah, 3 Oct. 1997.

³⁴ Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010): 74; ‘Six “Arab Afghans” Reportedly Confess to al-Khubar Bombing’, al-Quds al-‘Arabi, 10 Aug. 1996; Craig Turner, “Mubarak Survives Assassination Attempt,” La Times, 27 June 1995, <http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-27/news/mn-17703_1_president-mubarak>; and Thomas Jocelyn, “Bin Laden Loyalist Transferred from Guantanamo to Sudan,” Long War Journal, 12 July 2012, <http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/07/bin_laden_loyalist_t.php>.

³⁵ ‘The Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism’, General Secretariate of the League of Arab States, 22 Apr. 1998.

³⁶ Khalid Sharaf al-Din, ‘Surprises in the Trial of the Largest International Fundamentalist Organization in Egypt’, al-Sharq al-Awsat, 6 Mar. 1999; Khalid Sharaf al-Din, ‘Fundamentalists’ Leaders Formed Bogus Organizations to Confuse the Security Organs’, al-Sharq al-Awsat, 7 Mar. 1999; and, Muhammad Salah, ‘Events of the Jihad Years’, np.

³⁷ Lia Brynjar, Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of al-Qa’ida Strategist Abu Mus’ab al-Suri (New York: Columbia University Press 2008): 39. This book also includes a translation of the central chapters of the 1600-page book, Call for Global Islamic Resistance, by Abu Musab al-Suri.

³⁸ Ibid., 41.

³⁹ Ibid., 71–75, 81.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 79; for a brief summary, see Lawrence Wright, ‘The Master Plan: For the new theorists of jihad, al Qaeda is just the beginning’, The New Yorker, 11 Sept. 2006.

⁴¹ For an analysis of this document, see M.W. Zackie Masoud, ‘An Analysis of Abu Musa’b al-Suri’s Call to Global Islamic Resistance’, Journal of Strategic Studies 6/1 (Spring 2013), 1–18.

⁴² Lia Brynjar, Architect of Global Jihad, 352.

⁴³ Cited in Lia Brynjar, Architect of Global Jihad, 349.

⁴⁴ Ibid., 371.

⁴⁵ Ibid., 380–381.

⁴⁶ See, for example, Mark Stout, ‘The Makers of Jihadist Strategy’, War on the Rocks blogpost, 4 Feb. 2014; and, ‘Leaderless Resistance: The New Face of Terrorism’, Defence Studies 12/2 (Sept. 2012).

⁴⁷ ‘Key Points and Pressing Issues in Initial Sampling of Questions Submitted by Jihadist Form Members of Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri’, SITE Intelligence Group, 23 January 2008, document number 2008012302; and, ‘Open Meeting with Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri, Part I’, As-Sahab Media, Apr. 2008, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-rv/world/OpenMeetingZawahiri_Part1.pdf>.

⁴⁸ See, for example, ‘The Murthad Brotherhood’, Dabiq, Issue 14, 13 Apr. 2016, pp. 30–32.

⁴⁹ Cited in Brynjar Lia, Architect of Global Jihad, 409.

⁵⁰ Bill Roggio, ‘US Strikes in Pakistan, HVTs’, The Long War Journal, 23 May 2016, <http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes-hvts>; and, Brian Fishman, ‘Al-Qa’ida’s Spymaster Analyzes the US Intelligence Community’, Blogpost for the West Point Combatting Terrorism Center, 6 Nov. 2006, <https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-qaidas-spymaster-analyzes-the-u-s-intelligence-community>.

⁵¹ Abu Bakr Naji, Management of Savagery: The Most Critical State Through Which the Ummah will Pass, William McCants, (trans.), unpublished manuscript, 2004, <https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf>.

⁵² Ibid., 77.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ Ibid.

⁵⁵ Ibid., 257–259.

⁵⁶ Ibid., 78.

⁵⁷ Gerard Toal and Carl Dahlman. Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and Its Reversal (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011): 137–138.

⁵⁸ Tawfiq Tabib, ‘Interview with Sheikh al-Mujahideen Abdel Aziz’, Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqeem (The Straight Path), Aug. 1994, <http://www.assirat.org/mag/>.

⁵⁹ Ibid., see also, Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia, 33.

⁶⁰ Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe, 18.

⁶¹ Tawfiq Tabib, ‘Interview with Sheikh al-Mujahideen Abdel Aziz’, np.

⁶² Ibid., and Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe, 18.

⁶³ Esad Hecimovic, ‘Faction Deported from Bosnia’, Sarajevo Dani, 20 Aug. 1999.

⁶⁴ Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe, 24.

⁶⁵ Darryl Li, ‘Jihad in a World of Sovereigns: Law, Violence, and Islam in the Bosnian Crisis’ in Law and Social Inquiry 41/2 (2016), 385.

⁶⁶ Khalid al-Hammadi, ‘Al-Qa’ida from Within’, np.

⁶⁷ Darryl Li, ‘Jihad in a World of Sovereigns’, 386.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ Karmen Erjavec, The ‘Bosnian War on Terrorism’, Journal of Language and Politics 8/1 (2009), 5–27.

⁷⁰ ‘Combatant Forces in the former Yugoslavia’, National Intelligence Estimate, NIE 93–23/I (June 1993), declassified 31 January 2011, <https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/1993-06-01.pdf>.

⁷¹ International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991. The Prosecutor v. Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura, p.158 (15 Mar. 2006), <http://www.icty.org/x/cases/hadzihasanovic_kubura/tjug/en/had-judg060315e.pdf>.

⁷² Ibid., 204.

⁷³ Michael A. Innes, Bosnian Security After Dayton: New Perspectives (Oxford: Routledge 2006), p. 101; and, ‘Algerian militant groups recruiting poor Muslims’, Associated Press, 1 Aug. 1995.

⁷⁴ Ebru Canan-Sokullu (ed), Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century (Plymouth: Lexington Books 2013), 233.

⁷⁵ Guido W. Steinberg, German Jihad (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 106–109.

⁷⁶ International Tribunal, 172.

⁷⁷ Khalid al-Hammadi, ‘Al-Qa’ida from Within’, np.

⁷⁸ Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe, 78.

⁷⁹ Ibid., 79.

⁸⁰ Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Edwin Bakker. Returning Western foreign fighters: The case of Afghanistan, Bosnia and Somalia (The Hague 2014); a number of Salafi-jihadists also have noted this mistake. See, for example, Kamil al-Tawil, ‘Interview with Mustafa Kemal [aka Abu Hamzi al-Masri]’, al-Wasat, 23 June 1997.

⁸¹ Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Edwin Bakker, Returning Western foreign fighters, np.

⁸² Paul Webster and Greg Mcivor, ‘Paris Bomb Suspect’, np; ‘Islamic extremists use Europe as support base’, np; and, ‘The “A-team of Islamic extremists”’, np.

⁸³ Guido W. Steinberg, German Jihad, 109–118.

⁸⁴ Jacob Zenn, ‘The Western Balkans’ Islamic State problem’, Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Monitor, 8 Jan. 2016.

⁸⁵ Author interview, academic, Sarajevo, September 2016.

⁸⁶ Vlado Azinović and Muhamed Jusić. The Lure Of The Syrian War: The Foreign Fighters Bosnian Contingent (Sarajevo: The Atlantic Initiative 2016), 34.

⁸⁷ Author interview, academic, Sarajevo, September 2016.

⁸⁸ Jamal Amed al-Fadl, United States vs Osama bin Laden et al., np.

⁸⁹ Khalid al-Hammadi, ‘Al-Qa’ida from Within’, np.

⁹⁰ Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia, 36.

⁹¹ Dayton Peace Agreement, General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovinia, 21 Nov. 1995, <http://www.refworld.or”g/docid/3de495c34.html>.

⁹² Evan F. Kohlmann, Al-Qa’ida’s Jihad in Europe, 86.

⁹³ Ibid., 156.

⁹⁴ Steven J. Woehrel, Islamic Terrorism and the Balkans, Congressional Information Service, (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2005), 6.

⁹⁵ Karmen Erjavec, ‘The “Bosnian War on Terrorism”’, 8; Jennifer Mustapha, ‘The Mujahideen in Bosnia: The Foreign Fighter as Cosmopolitan Citizen And/Or Terrorist’, Citizenship Studies 17/6–7 (2013), 1–14.

⁹⁶ Author interviews, academic and government official, Sarajevo, September 2016.

⁹⁷ Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Bosnia and Herzegovina (Brussels: European Parliament, Document Number 11700 2008).

⁹⁸ Author interviews, government officials and academics, Sarajevo, September 2016.

⁹⁹ Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos, 281–282.

¹⁰⁰ William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of The Islamic State (New York: St Martin’s Press 2015), 10; Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 164–165; ‘The Short, Violent, Life of Abu Musab Zarqawi’, The Atlantic, 8 June 2006, <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/07/the-short-violent-life-of-abu-musab-al-zarqawi/304983/>: and Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi: The New Face of al-Qaeda (New York: Other Press 2005): 93.

¹⁰¹ Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi, 93.

¹⁰² Ibid., 94–95; see also Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos, 282; Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 165.

¹⁰³ Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi, 83–86.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid.

¹⁰⁵ William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse, 10–11; and Mary Anne Weaver, ‘The Short, Violent, Life’, np.

¹⁰⁶ Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (New York: Regan Arts 2015): 27; and, Robert S. Leiken, ‘Europe’s Angry Muslims’, Foreign Affairs 84/4 (July/Aug. 2005), 120–135.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ Steve McKenzie, ‘The Real Terror is Just Beginning’, The Sunday Mail, 12 Oct. 2003; David Malet, ‘Framing to Win: The Transnational Recruitment of Foreign Insurgents’, in Nonstate Actors in Intrastate Conflicts (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 35.

¹⁰⁹ Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi, 120.

¹¹⁰ ‘Perpetrator of 27 Oct. Explosions Arrived 48 h Prior Attacks’, Voice of the Mujahidin, 3 Nov. 2003.

¹¹¹ Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 173.

¹¹² Halim al-A’raji, ‘Reports indicate that 50 foreign fighters infiltrated’, al-Hayah, 23 Jan. 2004.

¹¹³ Ann Scott Tyson, ‘U.S. Kills a Leader Of Al-Qaeda in Iraq; Tunisian Directed Foreign Fighters’, The Washington Post, 29 Sept. 2007; and, Jim Michaels, ‘Foreign fighters getting out of Iraq, military says; Despite fissures, al-Qaeda not giving up, general warns’, USA Today, 21 Mar. 2008.

¹¹⁴ Ibid., see also Thomas Hegghammer, ‘The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters’, 61.

¹¹⁵ ‘US Freezes Assets of Syrian Said to Finance Iraq Insurgents’, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2005, <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/politics/us-freezes-assets-of-syrian-said-to-finance-iraq-insurgents.html?_r=0>; see also Bill Roggio, ‘Strike Aimed at al-Qaeda’s Coordinator in Syria’, The Long War Journal, 27 Oct. 2008, <http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/syrian_strike_aimed.php>.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., see also Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, From George W. Bush to Barack Obama. (New York: Pantheon Books 2012), 557.

¹¹⁷ Muhammad Muqaddam, ‘Algeria: Egyptian Recruiting Fighters for al-Zarqawi’s Group Arrested. Established Wide Network and Covered Costs of Travel to Iraq via Syria’, al-Hayah, 2 July 2005; and ‘Algeria Arrests Egyptian Said to be Involved in Recruiting Insurgents for Iraq’, El Khabar, 2 July 2005.

¹¹⁸ Ibid.

¹¹⁹ Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, ISIS, 101.

¹²⁰ See Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, Al-Qa’ida’s Fighters in Iraq: A First Look at the Sinjar Records (New York: West Point Combating Terrorism Center, 2008).

¹²¹ Richard A. Oppel, ‘Foreign Fighters Are Tied to Allies of US’, The New York Times, 22 Nov. 2007, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/world/middleeast/22fighters.html>

¹²² Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, ISIS, 27.

¹²³ Ibid., 27.

¹²⁴ Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, Counter Strike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign against al-Qaeda (New York: St Martins 2011), 78.

¹²⁵ Casualty figures vary somewhat. These estimates were taken from the not-for-profit Iraq Body Count website, which utilizes public sources. It can be accessed at <https://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/2007/>

¹²⁶ Karen de Young, ‘Papers Paint New Portrait of Iraq’s Foreign Insurgents’, The Washington Post, 21 Jan. 2008.

¹²⁷ Kim Cragin and Phillip Padilla, ‘Old Becomes New: Kidnappings by Daesh and other Salafi Jihadists in the 21^st Century’, Studies in Conflict in Terrorism 40/8, Jan. 2017, <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/1057610X.2016.1237217>.

¹²⁸ Randall Chase, ‘Berg: No Good in al-Zarqawi’s Death’, Washington Post, 8 June 2006, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060800402.html>; and, James Harkin, Hunting Season: James Foley, ISIS and the Kidnapping Campaign that Started a War (New York: Hachette Books 2015), 177.

¹²⁹ ‘Zarqawi Group Kills American Hostage’, CNN News, 22 Sept. 2004.

¹³⁰ James Harkin, Hunting Season, 177.

¹³¹ Kim Cragin and Phillip Padilla, ‘Old Becomes New’, 13, see also Abu Bakr Naji, Management of Savagery: The Most Critical State Through Which the Ummah Will Pass, William McCants (trans.), unpublished manuscript, 2004, <https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf>.

¹³² Ayman al-Zawahiri, ‘Letter to Zarqawi on the Campaign in Iraq’, 9 July 2005, translated and released by the West Point Counter Terrorism Center, <http://www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Zawahiris-Letter-to-Zarqawi-Translation.pdf>.

¹³³ General McChrystal, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq, beginning in October 2003, has made a similar argument. See Stanley A. McChrystal, ‘Becoming the Enemy’, Foreign Policy, 185 (Mar./Apr. 2011), 66–70.

¹³⁴ Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi, 136.

¹³⁵ Ann Scott Tyson, ‘“U.S. Kills a Leader”, np; and, Bill Roggio, Senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders killed in airstrikes’, The Long War Journal, 29 Sept. 2007, <http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/09/senior_al_qaeda_in_i.php>.

¹³⁶ Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 157; and, Brian Glyn Williams, ‘El Kaide Turka: Tracing an al-Qaeda Splinter Cell’, Terrorism Monitor 2/22, 6 May 2005, <https://jamestown.org/program/el-kaide-turka-tracing-an-al-qaeda-splinter-cell/>.

¹³⁷ David Mays, ‘Iraqi Citizen Tips Lead to Killing of Notorious “Emir of Taji”, American Forces Press Service’, 20 Sept. 2007, <https://www.army.mil/article/4959/iraqi-citizen-tips-lead-to-killing-of-notorious-emir-of-taji-terrorist/>; and, Bill Roggio, ‘Senior al-Qaeda in Iraq’, np.

¹³⁸ Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 157; and, Brian Glyn Williams, ‘El Kaide Turka’, np.

¹³⁹ Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task (New York: Penguin 2014), 152.

¹⁴⁰ Jean-Charles Brisard, Zarqawi, 137. For more information about Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, see Joas Wagemakers, ‘Invoking Zarqawi’, CTC Sentinel 2/6 (15 June 2009), <https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/invoking-zarqawi-abu-muhammad-al-maqdisi%e2%80%99s-jihad-deficit>.

¹⁴¹ Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 137.

¹⁴² Ibid., 25.

¹⁴³ Jason Burke, 9/11 Wars, 254; Stanley A. McChrystal, ‘Becoming the Enemy’, 66–70; General Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task, 150–156; Bill Roggio, ‘Senior al-Qaeda in Iraq’, np; and, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, Counter Strike, 81–85.

¹⁴⁴ Stanley A. McChrystal, ‘Becoming the Enemy’, 66–70.

¹⁴⁵ Jason Burke, 9/11 Wars, 254; and, General Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task, 150–156.

¹⁴⁶ Abdel Bari Atwan, After Bin Laden, 30–33.

¹⁴⁷ Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, Counter Strike, 95.

¹⁴⁸ Emrullah Uslu, ‘Jihadist Highway to Jihadist Haven: Turkey’s Jihadi Policies and Western Security’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, published online 22 December 2015.

¹⁴⁹ Jason Burke, The 9/11 Wars, 276.

¹⁵⁰ Abdel Bari Atwan, After Bin Laden, 85.

¹⁵¹ Joshua Keating, ‘Dr Fadl’s new book’, Foreign Policy, 29 Jan. 2010, <http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/01/29/dr-fadls-new-book/>; see also Assaf Moghadem and Brian Fishman, eds., Self-Inflicted Wounds: Debates and Divisions within al-Qaeda and its Periphery (New York: West Point Combating Terrorism Center 2010), 120–122.

¹⁵² Assaf Moghadem and Brian Fishman, eds., Self-Inflicted Wounds, 120–125.

¹⁵³ Jason Burke, 9/11 Wars, 282.

¹⁵⁴ Arie Perlinger and Daniel Milton, From Cradle to Grave: The Lifecycle of Foreign Fighters in Iraq and Syria (New York: West Point Military Academy 2016), 37–48; ‘Thomas Hegghammer, ‘The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters’, 61.

¹⁵⁵ ‘Action Against Threat of Foreign Terrorist Fighters Must be Ramped Up, Security Council Urges in High-Level Meeting’, Press Release No. 11912, 29 May 2015, <http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc11912.doc.htm>.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R. Kim Cragin

R. Kim Cragin is a senior research fellow at the National Defense University. She recently served as senior staff to the 9/11 FBI Review Commission and also was an advisor to the Multi-National Force – Iraq in 2008. Kim’s mixed methods research focuses on terrorism, radicalization and recruitment, terrorists’ use of new technologies and counter-terrorism. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Cambridge (Clare College) and master’s degree from Duke University.

Susan Stipanovich

Susan Stipanovich is the Director for the Program on Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Studies at National Defense University. She holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.