Hundreds of al-Qaeda recruits are being kept in safe houses in southern Turkey, before being smuggled over the border to wage “jihad” in Syria.
The network of hideouts is enabling a steady flow of foreign fighters — including Britons and Australians — to join the country’s civil war, according to some of the operatives involved in the process.
Abu Abdullah, an Australian volunteer, said that he left to fight in Syria because a “Western lifestyle stands against Islam”. He was also repelled by the atrocities of the Assad regime, Sydney Morning Herald informs.
“When you see the women and children — any human being — being shot or raped or killed in front of their fathers and families, just because they pray to Allah, you have to be moved by the humanity of it. If just one person is injured and something goes against Islam, we must react.” But he faltered as he tried to recall a passage from the Koran: “I am sorry, I am not the most knowledgeable of Muslims. Allah forgive me for that,” he said.
