"He is a traitor, an infidel and a slave who bowed down to US President Donald Trump" - in the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, the extremist group "Islamic State" (IS) makes it clear what it thinks of Syria's new interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, in response to his recent meeting with Trump.
This hostility between IS and the group that al-Sharaa used to lead - – – „Hayat Tahrir al-Sham“ (HTS) - is nothing new. Between 2012 and 2013, HTS was part of the so-called "Islamic State" before it allied with "Al Qaeda". After cutting ties with "Al Qaeda" in 2016, HTS spent almost a decade fighting IS in the parts of the country it controlled. So criticism of al-Sharaa's more moderate political course is not unexpected.
The appeal of IS
But the text of the weekly newsletter contains another interesting aspect: IS calls on foreign fighters in Syria to turn away from the current government of Ahmed al-Sharaa. All foreign fighters who are unhappy with al-Sharaa's course towards the US should join IS, the Islamist group has appealed.
These two stories - the meeting of the interim Syrian president with Trump and the call from IS - have focused attention on one of the most difficult problems of the Syrian interim government, namely what to do with the foreign fighters in the country. Donald Trump advised al-Sharaa to "tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria" and set this as one of the conditions for easing sanctions. French and German envoys have made similar statements. There are concerns that Syria could become a haven for groups with extremist ideology, which could then launch operations internationally.
How many foreign fighters are there in Syria?
It is difficult to determine exactly how many foreigners are fighting on the side of “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham“. They may be between 1,500 and 6,000, with many experts suggesting that the number is somewhere in between. The largest group consists of Uyghurs, many of whom are affiliated with the Turkestan Islamic Party in Central and East Asia, including China. Other fighters come from Russia and former Soviet republics, the Balkans, France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, various Arab countries, and other countries.
Most of them arrived in Syria at the beginning of the country's civil war, in response to calls from ISIS, which at the time was trying to establish a caliphate. After HTS severed ties with both ISIS and al-Qaeda, some of the foreign fighters left the group, but others remained. In late 2024, during the HTS-led battle that toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, several groups of foreigners, including Uighurs and Chechens, appeared to have played a significant role in the campaign's success. Syria's interim president then decided to reward them for their help in overthrowing the previous regime and appointed their representatives to senior positions in the new Syrian army - a decision that has caused some controversy.
It is difficult to say how important foreign fighters are to the Syrian security forces, where there are still "more Syrians than foreigners", Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute told DW. However, some of them are more important than others, he added. For example, the fighters from the Uyghur contingent are a kind of personal bodyguard for Ash Sharaa. "They are essentially the ones who protect him because he trusts them - they are seen as brothers in arms since the fight against Assad," Zelin said.
A Syrian refugee who now lives in Germany told DW that he had encountered quite a few foreign fighters in the fighting in Aleppo. "They were very committed to the fight against the Assad regime, they had Salafist views and they insisted on being where the fighting was going," he recalled. "Those who stayed in Syria have families there. If we expel them, we will have to expel their women and children at the same time," said the refugee, who asked not to be named.
How dangerous are foreign fighters?
Foreign fighters with more extreme religious orientations have been blamed for recent violence against Syrian minorities. They have also been accused of controlling women, their dress and social mores in the larger Syrian cities. Until recently, HTS still presented itself as the "defender of Sunni Islam," says Orwa Ajoub, an analyst and expert on Syria. But after the fall of the Assad regime, the group took a more liberal course, he points out.
"This abrupt change requires significant adjustment for rank-and-file members. This transition can be challenging for fighters accustomed to a narrower sectarian perspective. Many HTS fighters who never left the conservative environment in Idlib are now encountering less conservative communities in Damascus," Ajoub added.
"If HTS remains relatively moderate – by remaining tolerant of women who do not wear the veil, or by tolerating the sale of alcohol and participation in the Western-style political process – "hardliners in the group, especially foreign jihadists, could break away and start collaborating with ISIS or al-Qaeda," warned Mohammed Salih, a fellow at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Institute.
However, his colleague Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute is much more reserved - he doubts that foreign fighters in Syria can pose "any large-scale threat." According to him, those of them for whom HTS is no longer radical enough have most likely left, and many of those who are not so radical are extremely disciplined. He also recalls that for years Al-Sharaa has been trying to eliminate all foreign fighters who oppose the group's new course.
Of course, individual foreign fighters can still commit crimes or cause problems, Zelin says. "But the bigger threat comes from foreign fighters already in the "Islamic State" - those who continue to fight in eastern Syria, as well as those held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in camps run by Syrian Kurds.
What next for foreign fighters?
After al-Sharaa's meeting with Trump, rumors emerged that Syrian security forces had raided foreign fighter bases in Idlib. But local observers said it was unclear whether this was just rumors, political theater or the truth. A crackdown on such fighters seemed unlikely. Members of the new Syrian government argue that the foreign fighters pose no threat to other countries, that they are too few to have a significant impact on the new Syrian army, and that they are loyal to the new al-Sharaa administration anyway. Experts say that integrating them into the new Syrian security forces may actually be the best way to deal with them.
Yet, Zelin concludes, "of all the demands made by the United States, this is probably the hardest for Syria. I don't think they really want to give up the foreign fighters unless they are doing something illegal.“
Author: Catherine Scheer