Political analysts say Jordanian jihadists in Syria threatening kingdom

The reported flow of Jordanian jihadists joining ranks with Al-Qa'idah-affiliated groups in Syria threatens to undermine the future security and stability of the Kingdom, Jordanian political analysts told The Jordan Times.

Hassan Abu Hanieh, political analyst and expert on Islamic groups, said earlier this week that Jordanians are considered among the most prominent foreign nationalities fighting alongside Islamist forces in the anti-Al-Asad rebellion, as hundreds have allegedly joined the radical and ultraconservative Salafist jihadist groups of Jabhat al-Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, both Al-Qa'idah-affiliated, he said.

Vested in their struggle against the "enemies of Islam", Jordanian Salafist militants have made Syria the latest platform for "holy war" against Westernisation, non-Sunnis and "godless" secular regimes in the Arab world, Hanieh said.

Jordanian authorities have grown increasingly wary of the rising jihadist power within the ranks of the Syrian rebellion, fearing its potential repercussions on Jordan, he added.

"They fear this could backfire on Jordan in terms of strikes," Hanieh said, making reference to the Amman bombings, the triple suicide attacks which struck three Amman hotels in November 2005, killing scores of people.

Jordanian Salafist jihadist leader Mohammed Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, claims that 700 Jordanians are currently fighting alongside radical Islamist forces in Syria to help Syrian Sunnis against the "Alawite infidel regime" and to "implement Sharia [Islamic law]".

"Injustice has fallen on the Sunnis by the Alawite regime. The struggle against Bashar al-Asad is a duty for each Muslim," Abu Sayyaf told The Jordan Times.

The sectarian dimension to the uprising and the current involvement of Assad's regional Shi'i allies, has further boosted the influx of Salafist jihadists seeking to counter the Shi'i presence on the Syrian battlefield, Hanieh added.

Considering the Assad regime non-Muslim, the jihadist movement has called for jihad to defend Syrian Sunnis against Alawite Shi'i violence, he noted.

According to Hanieh, dozens of Jordanians have reportedly climbed ranks within the jihadist and US terror-listed Jabhat al-Nusra [Al-Nusrah Front] with Zarqa-hailing Mustafa Abdul Latif al-Salih, known as Abu-Anas Al Sahaba, currently holding the rank of field commander.

"They fight to establish an Islamic state," said Muhammad Abu-Rumman, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.

Should jihadist groups gain a permanent foothold in Syria, some Jordanian jihadists may envision Jordan as another object for expansion, said Osama Al Sharif, journalist and political commentator.

Abu Sayyaf has rejected the charge directed against the Salafist movement of undermining Jordan's security, but authorities have implemented tighter restrictions on the mobility of his jihadist co-believers.

Members of the group were protesting Monday, demanding the release of some group leaders from prisons, it was reported.

To curb the traffic of potential Jordanian jihadists into neighbouring Syria, the authorities have tightened security and increased patrolling along the 370km-border, arresting suspected jihadist "infiltrators" caught on their attempted departure or return, trying several before the State Security Court.

"Jordan is committed to guarding its borders," Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Muhammad Mumani told The Jordan Times when questioned about the flow of Jordanian jihadists into war-torn Syria.

"They [the government] are trying to make sure there is no direct confrontation," said Sharif, with regard to the government's current security campaign. "It is a subtle kind of repression. The government does not want public hysteria... because so far they [the Salafist jihadists] are small in numbers so they are known and are monitored," he said.

Jordanian officials have previously expressed concern that Jordanian militant radicals venturing into Syria could subject Jordan to retaliation from the Syrian regime.

Hanieh is convinced Jordanian security agencies are keeping the domestic Salafist jihadists under close surveillance.

"They monitor every breath they take," he said.

The cities of Zarqa (hometown of the hunted-down Al-Qa'idah in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi), Salt and Maan remain fertile soil for recruitment of jihadist fighters due to poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment and marginalisation prominent in these areas, experts say.

The flow of fighters into conflict-ridden corners of the region is not a new phenomenon as scores of Jordanians have pursued martyrdom on foreign battlegrounds. Hundreds fought American troops after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and in the 1980s and 2000s Afghanistan constituted another main scene for aspiring Jordanian jihadists vested in "liberating Muslim lands" from foreign occupation.

While numbers are disputed, 60-80 Jordanians are believed to have been killed fighting alongside Sunni Islamist fighters in Syria.

Source: Jordan Times website