British Jihadists in Syria Claim Hundreds From Britain Have Come To Join Fight Against Assad

U.K.-based
Sky News has released a video of a brigade of British jihadists
fighting in Syria. According to the interviewed jihadists, private
funds from the U.K. are the largest source of funding for jihadist
fighters, and hundreds of fighters from Britain have traveled to
Syria to fight against Assad.

In the video, the British jihadists claim that they only intend
to fight Assad and have no plans of returning to the U.K. to wage
jihad. They also reject being labeled as terrorists.

Earlier this month, European security officials said that the

number of Europeans fighting in Syria against Assad was
increasing.

That the British jihadists in the video claim that they have no
interest in waging jihad in the U.K. is unlikely to reassure
British authorities, who have already
arrested
men who have returned to the U.K. from Syria.

It shouldn’t be surprising if there is increased coverage of the
number of foreigners fighting with Islamic groups within Assad’s
opposition if the Western-backed Free Syrian Army continues to

lose ground
to the Islamic Front, a group that welcomes foreign fighters
and despite its unpleasant goal (the establishment of an
Islamic state in Syria) is becoming more important to the

Obama administration’s pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the
Syrian civil war. According to The Daily Beast’s Jamie
Dettmer, the Islamic Front has fought with jihadists
before.  

Although American diplomats were willing to talk to the Islamic
Front, it was reported today that the Islamic Front
refused to talk to U.S. representatives.

To give an idea of the sort of people involved with the Islamic
Front, here are some of the thoughts of the Islamic Front’s
military chief, as reported by
Foreign Policy:

Zahran Alloush, the Islamic Front’s military chief, has
demonized Syria’s Alawite minority and called for them to be
cleansed from Damascus. As he put it in a recent video: “The
jihadists will wash the filth of the rafida [a slur used to
describe Shia] from Greater Syria, they will wash it forever, if
Allah wills it.”

More from Reason.com on Syria here.