"The intelligence community estimates that since January 2012, over 16,000 Foreign Fighters have traveled to Syria from more than ninety countries, including the United States. These fighters, many of whom have joined ISIL, al-Nusrah Front and other terrorist organizations, are a threat to people across Syria and Iraq and endanger the stability of the entire region," Senior Adviser for Syria Foreign Fighters Robert Bradtke said during the US Congress session.
According to Brandtke, Turkey remains the "prime entrance" for foreign fighters to infiltrate Syrian territory, despite the fact that Ankara cooperates actively with the United States and international society to suppress the flow of mercenaries.
"The Turks have more than a million refugees from Syria inside Turkey. Turks have a nine-kilometer border with Syria, there are 37 tourist arrivals in Turkey every year," Brantke said adding that all these factors prevent Turkish law enforcement agencies to control flaw of mercenaries to Syria.
"We believe that Turkey… is taking steps to try to deal with the flaw of foreign fighters," the official concluded.
Unrest in Syria, which later turned into a civil war, erupted in 2011, with government forces fighting rebels and jihadists, some of which have links to al-Qaeda. Since 2012, the country has been suffering from the advances of the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The extremist group seized large parts of Syria, forcing many people to flee the region.
