U.S. Steps Up Scrutiny of Americans Fighting in Syrian Civil War
The Justice Department has tapped a veteran prosecutor to probe the flow of foreign fighters including Americans who are joining Syrias rebels, U.S. officials said, in a sign of heightened alarm over the threat of radicalized militants returning home.
Key Excerpts
U.S. and allied officials say their main fear is that veteran fighters from the West, radicalized by their Syrian experience, will launch terror attacks once they return home. Authorities in Western Europe say they have uncovered plots by fighters returning from Syria.
Hundreds of others from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and other countries whose citizens are afforded easy entry to the United States also have fought in Syria, U.S. and European officials say.