Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad by Daniel Byman

Author:Daniel Byman [Byman, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: political science, Terrorism, Political Ideologies, Radicalism, World, Middle Eastern
ISBN: 9780190646523
Google: oNmUDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-05-02T00:30:44.096550+00:00

Training Camps and Hard Fighting

As would be true when entering any country, travelers entering the Caliphate had to present passports, fill out forms, get their documents stamped, and be interviewed by border officials. To prove their bona fides, often recruits had letters of reference from former volunteers, mosques, or recruitment networks back home. Volunteers had to give standard information such as their names and family histories, but also their blood type, level of religious knowledge, occupation, and name of a facilitator and recommender, if available. They were also asked whether they wanted to be fighters, suicide bombers, or suicide fighters and if they had other special skills. The Islamic State was particularly interested in volunteers with military experience and hackers.146 (Conveniently, the form also had an entry for “date and location of death.”147) The Islamic State used the forms to find those in their ranks with rare skills and to take advantage of those who had fought in their home countries’ militaries or in previous jihads.148

After screening, recruits then received training. Some had trained in other countries. Libya proved a stopping ground for the many North Africans en route to Syria, with one U.S. defense official calling it “the I-95 for foreign fighters [pouring] into Syria from Africa.”149 For others, the Islamic State ran training camps in both Syria and Iraq. Training camps, often named after heroes of jihad like Bin Laden or Zarqawi, varied in their length and content. Some recruits received only two weeks of training, while others trained for up to a year. Recruits also learned the basics of Arabic to ensure that foreigners could communicate with the Arab core of the Islamic State. Much of the training for recruits was straightforward, such as learning firing positions for various weapons along with their ranges. However, as with Al Qaeda previously, some individuals were selected for more advanced training, ranging from combat in difficult conditions to diving courses.150 Some recruits found the training inadequate. “Frankly, the course prepares you for nothing,” recalled one defector.151

Training camps also imbued recruits with the Islamic State’s worldview and mission. “By proselytization and sword,” one Islamic State cleric explained, “they cleanse you.” A sign declaring, “remember that we didn’t come for this life, we came for the afterlife” hung at one camp.152 Many of the religious leaders themselves had little religious education and used sayings of the prophet and other sources, often out of context, to justify their choice of enemies and tactics. This indoctrination changed many recruits. Chinese volunteers, for example, fled China because of harsh state repression and anger at Beijing, but while in Syria imbibed the broader, more global vision of the Islamic State.153 The indoctrination also focused on the Islamic State’s jihadist enemies. One recruit for the Islamic State’s chief rival in Syria, the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, noted that much of the indoctrination he received “focuses on the danger of ISIS.” The Islamic State returned the favor in its rhetoric.154 They also tried to implicate recruits, making them commit atrocities and thus be unable to return home or leave the group without fear of punishment.

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