Radio Free Europe: Foreign fighters gain positions in the Syrian army and raise concerns in their countries
The Radio Free Europe spoke about the foreign appointments made by the new Syrian administration in the Syrian army.
Radio Free Europe gave two examples: Sayfuddin Tajibov (Colonel Sayfuddin Mamur Muhammad Tajili), a citizen of Tajikistan, who has assumed a leadership position in the Syrian army, according to what the site reported from Tajik bloggers affiliated with Hay’at Tahrir al Sham.
The Radio Free Europe quoted a Tajik security source as saying that the authorities are aware of the developments related to Tajibov, adding that the latter and his brother have been in Syria since 2013, and have participated in the battles there and recruited other Tajik citizens, so a case will now be filed against him.
Tajibov’s name can be found on the website of the Central Bank of Tajikistan, on the list of people accused of having links to terrorism and with whom any monetary transactions are prohibited, and Tajik state media have repeatedly spoken about his role in recruiting Tajiks to participate in armed conflicts outside the country.
Before leaving for Syria, Tajipov, (41), was a member of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party and briefly the head of the party’s branch in his hometown of Spitamine.
He is now in the wanted list in his home country on charges of acting as a mercenary, participating in foreign armed conflicts, belonging to terrorist organizations and recruiting people for them.
The Tajik authorities said that between 2013 and 2017, more than 2,000 Tajik citizens went to fight in Syria and Iraq, most of them for the ISIS organization, while those belonging to the Hay’at Tahrir al Sham were stationed in Idlib.
The number of Tajiks in Idlib is estimated – according to the Tajik authorities around 400 people.
The second example is Macedonian Abdul Samriz Yashari, (48), known as Abu Qatada al Albani, who leads the Simati Alban group, which has an Albanian majority, and is linked to Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, which is classified by the United States and Europe as a terrorist group.
Yashari himself is on the terrorist lists issued by the US Treasury Department in 2016.
Radio Free Europe added that the authorities in the countries of these militants consider them potential threats to stability and national security, and quoted a Tajik security source as saying after a video of Tajik fighters in Syria went viral last month, that the authorities were worried and nervous after seeing their citizens participating in foreign wars.
“They may return to Tajikistan one day and try to cause serious problems… They are like a time bomb”ز
“The appointment of these foreigners to senior positions in the Syrian army doesn’t mean that the new rulers of Syria, led by Ahmad al Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Muhammad al Julani, have any plans to seize territory outside Syria,” according to writer and political researcher Aaron Zelin, author of The Age of Political Jihad: A Study of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, who was interviewed by Radio Free Europe.
“This is a move by al Julani and the organization to ensure that these people obey the orders of the Syrian state after the war has ended in one way or another, and thus there is no freelance work anymore… al Julani is trying to integrate them and make them Syrians… This is what it seems at least,” Zelin said.
