Authorities and experts are warning about the threat of returning jihadists to the U.S. homeland since the fall of ISIS strongholds as Mosul and Raqqa with varying reports indicating hundreds are unaccounted for.
According to a report by the Soufan Center — a Washington-based security intelligence consultancy — there were 129 fighters from the U.S. who succeeded in leaving the country and joining up with ISIS as foreign jihadists, but only seven have returned with the rest unaccounted for.
At one time the U.S. government estimated that roughly only one in five of the aspiring American foreign fighters had been killed in the theater of war. But to-date, there are no precise numbers of how many were killed abroad.
Nor how many may have escaped into other countries to continue their cause — leaving the whereabouts of many unknown, with the potential of them coming stateside.
The FBI acknowledged that tracking those overseas who have fought on the battlefield is difficult and that they do not have firm numbers of how many surrendered, were killed or remain unaccounted for, but said that 300 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq to participate in the conflict.
Additionally, in recent years there was a marked rise in the number of foreign women traveling to or, in the case of children, being born in the Islamic State which can pose a problem. Returning ISIS women could have joined the fight willingly and engaged both in combat and effective recruitment of militants, while returning children can be ISIS indoctrinated.
National security expert Ryan Mauro, from the Clarion Project said that “America does not strip the citizenship of those who join ISIS, so we can’t prevent them from coming home.”
He went on to say “A lot of these returning ISIS recruits are likely disillusioned with the caliphate, but we must not mistake disappointment with a rejection of jihadist thinking overall.”
A security expert from the Abbey Grey Group, observed, “The borders going into the U.S. are seen as porous and could be an ideal spot for returning ISIS fighters to filter undetected back into society.”
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