WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are increasingly worried that terror groups such as the Islamic State will recruit new foot soldiers from among the 11.4 million Syrians displaced by the country’s civil war, according to the president’s top intelligence adviser.
Four years of brutal warfare have uprooted more than half the nation’s prewar population with the resulting refugee flows “placing a huge strain on the likes of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey,” James Clapper, 73, the director of national intelligence, said Monday in New York.
Roughly two-thirds of Syria’s displaced population remains inside the devastated country; the remainder is in refugee camps in neighboring countries.
“You can imagine some of the living conditions, which create the environment for recruiting,” said Clapper. “That’s a great concern.”
The U.S. is the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to victims of the Syrian conflict, having contributed more than $3 billion since March 2011, according to the website of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The recruiting worry comes roughly 18 months after President Barack Obama decided not to intervene in Syria following evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against rebels.
The U.S. plans to train and equip 5,000 Syrian rebels in each of the next three years in an effort to field a moderate counterpoint to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
Islamic State may need additional manpower. More than six months of U.S. airstrikes have killed roughly 6,000 Islamic State fighters, leaving the group with an estimated 20,000 to 32,000 soldiers, Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.
Two-thirds of that number is based in Syria, the Pentagon says.
The U.S. and its allies also are seeking to prevent sympathizers from their countries from reaching Syrian battlegrounds, Clapper, told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday. About 180 Americans have traveled to Syria or tried to reach the country, he added.
Of that number, about 40 later returned to the U.S., including some who had been involved in humanitarian work, he said. U.S. intelligence agencies have no evidence that any of the returnees are engaged in plotting attacks.
The Islamic State’s brutality is reshaping attitudes in the Middle East, said Clapper, who has served as director of national intelligence since August 2010. The burning alive of Jordanian Air Force pilot Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh has led to a drop in donations to extremist groups from nations such as Saudi Arabia.
“There’s been a big decline,” Clapper said.
Islamic State — which earns more than $2 million a day from oil sales, smuggling, extortion and taxes — received less than 1 percent of its revenue last year from such donations, Clapper said.
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