German Outlet Highlights the Rising Threat of Foreign Fighters in Syria

ARK News.. The German news platform Deutsche Welle Arabic has drawn attention to the growing threat posed by foreign fighters in Syria, amid escalating tensions between the newly formed interim government led by Ahmad al-Sharaa and extremist groups—chief among them the Islamic State (ISIS), which has recently intensified its hostile rhetoric and openly called for attacks against the new regime.

According to the report, ISIS has been actively encouraging foreign fighters to turn against the interim government, labeling its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, as a “traitor to the cause,” a “disbeliever,” a “servant,” and “submissive to U.S. President Donald Trump,” as published in the group’s latest weekly bulletin.

The German outlet also highlighted that this antagonism is not new. ISIS has long maintained a tense relationship with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group originally founded and led by al-Sharaa under the name Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Between 2012 and 2013, HTS was briefly aligned with the so-called Islamic State before shifting allegiance to al-Qaeda.

After severing ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, HTS spent nearly a decade engaged in direct conflict with ISIS in parts of Syria under its control. Thus, ISIS’s harsh criticism of al-Sharaa’s more moderate political direction comes as no surprise, the report notes.

Deutsche Welle also reported that ISIS is now explicitly calling on disaffected foreign fighters to defect from the Sharaa-led government. Those who are frustrated with al-Sharaa’s diplomatic outreach to the United States are being urged to join the Islamic State instead.

Commenting on the matter, Aaron Zelin, a researcher at the Washington Institute, told Deutsche Welle that it remains difficult to gauge the overall importance of foreign fighters to Syria’s current security forces, largely because Syrians significantly outnumber them.

However, he noted that some foreign fighters hold key roles. “For example,” Zelin explained, “Uyghur fighters now serve as Ahmad al-Sharaa’s personal security detail. They are essentially his protectors because he trusts them and views them as comrades-in-arms from the fight against Assad.”

This evolving dynamic raises serious concerns about security and stability in Syria’s complex and fragmented post-war landscape.

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