Tunisian Youth Head to Syria to Fight in Civil War

Extremists Recruiting for Attacks Against Regime

by Jason Ditz, June 21, 2012

As violence takes off nationwide, fears of a Syrian Civil War continue to grow. Often lost in this is the growing number of suicide attacks carried out against the regime by al-Qaeda style organizations. But where are they getting their recruits?

As it turns out, a number of the recruits are coming from Tunisia, where religious extremists who were in that nation for the first Arab Spring revolution have taken to heading abroad to launch bombing attacks against the Assad regime.

Its surprising, given Tunisia’s secular nature, but decades of violent repression against Islamists have turned what the nation does have into extremely radical and extremely violent jihadists. It is believed that Tunisians are the largest group of foreign fighters in Syria.

This is just another of Syria’s many problems today, but could become Tunisia’s problems tomorrow, as the fighters gain experience and international terrorist contacts and will eventually return home.

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