Foreign fighters in Turkistan Islamic Party call on Westerners to migrate to Syria

Canadian foreign fighter, identified as Abu Mansour al Muhajir, as shown in the video

In a newly released video, Western foreign fighters of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Syria call on other Western Muslims to migrate to Syria and join ranks. The fighters include one Canadian and three French-speaking members of the largely Uighur al Qaeda-linked jihadist group.

The video, which mainly focuses on the perceived shortcomings and faults of Western society, includes testimonials from the aforementioned Western members, a French speaker from Mauritius, and one Arab member of the TIP. Each of the members give detailed accounts of their lives in their respective countries, discussing reported persecution and crimes against them and other Muslims.

As such, each fighter provides these examples as reasons for why they took up arms in Syria. The foreign fighters then proceed to make the case for why Syria, despite setbacks on the ground, is still a safe-haven for Western Muslims to avoid persecution and why Muslims globally should help defend it.

Many foreign fighters, mainly Arabs, are known to fight within the TIP’s ranks in Syria. The TIP began an alliance with French jihadist outfit, Firqatul Ghuraba, sometime in 2015 according to French analyst Historicoblog. Firqatul Ghuraba is led by Omar Diaby, a US-designated global terrorist with ties to al Qaeda. At least two French fighters have been killed within the TIP’s ranks, including one that was confirmed to have also been a member of Diaby’s group. As a result, members of Firqatul Ghuraba fight under the TIP’s command structure.

In media releases since, several French fighters, most presumably members of Firqatul Ghuraba, have been spotted in the background in both combat and non-combat situations. It is therefore likely that the French-speaking fighters shown today are also members of Omar Diaby’s group.

Other foreign fighters as seen in the video:

Fighter from Mauritius:

French fighters:

Member from Morocco:

Caleb Weiss is an editor of FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

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2 Comments

  • James says:

    Let them return to Syria. There they can be neutralized. This is a golden opportunity for the French to return the favor right back to the Russians.

  • James, James, James, if only you know the Truth?
    Did you know Russia captured Berlin and defeated the nazis ?
    the Soviet Union bore an incredible brunt of casualties during WWII. An estimated 16,825,000 people died in the war, over 15% of its population. China also lost an astounding 20,000,000 people during the conflict. America Lost 420,000 lives. As to France owing us? The second agreement, the Treaty of Alliance, made the fledgling United States and France allies against Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. The French decided to back the U.S. in its military efforts until the U.S. had full independence from Great Britain. I Suggest you get your knowledge outside of All Americans Corporate Media and anything the government. Do global search’s for the real truth. And remember all the crap you hear on FACEBOOK or half what you see on YouTube

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