Homeland Security secretary cites threat from Americans fighting in Syria, returning home

Published February 07, 2014

Associated Press

The civil war in Syria has become a matter of U.S. homeland security over concerns about a small number of Americans who have gone to fight with Syrian rebels and returned home, new Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday.

Johnson said he and other law enforcement and security officials around the world were focused on foreign fighters heading to the bloody war, including those from the United States, Canada and Europe.

In excerpts from his first major speech since taking office last year, Johnson did not discuss how many U.S. fighters may be in Syria.

U.S. intelligence officials have said a handful of Americans and hundreds of Europeans have already returned to their home countries. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the topic.

The State Department has no estimates of how many Americans have gone to fight with Syrian rebels, but British defense consultant IHS Jane's puts it at a few dozen. An estimated 1,200 to 1,700 Europeans are among rebel forces in Syria, according to government estimates.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee last month that al-Qaida groups in Syria have started training camps "to train people to go back to their countries" -- one of the newest threats emerging in the past year to U.S. security.

Clapper told senators that as many as 7,000 foreigners from some 50 countries, including Europe, were fighting with rebels and extremists in Syria.

To Johnson, it's not just people joining the fight in Syria that are a concern.

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Homeland Security secretary cites threat from Americans fighting in Syria, returning home