Syria's American-Born Rebels Pose National Security 'Nightmare'

CAIRO, Egypt Foreign fighters returning home to the U.S., Britain and other countries after honing their skills in Syria's civil war are posing a "nightmare for security services," experts and officials say.

About 11,000 people have crossed into Syria seeking to help topple President Bashar Assad's regime including about 60 who are believed to have traveled from America. However, many have now been left disillusioned by bitter infighting between rival rebel groups and some have given up their weapons and returned to the West.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson earlier this month said that the U.S. government was "very focused" on the issue of militants returning to the country.

"Based on our work and the work of our international partners, we know individuals from the U.S., Canada and Europe are traveling to Syria to fight in the conflict," he added.

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute think tank, said recent history shows that "battlefields that have Sunni jihadist ideology have produced some sort of a threat."

The bombers who killed dozens of passengers on London's transport network on July 7, 2005 were "British nationals who went out to Pakistan and Afghanistan, before returning home to make the impact," he added.

Bilal Abdullah, one of two terrorists behind a failed 2007 attack on Scotlands Glasgow International Airport, also trained with the group now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) before returning home to the U.K., according to Pantucci.

Bolstered by an influx of foreign fighters, ISIL has become one of the strongest actors on Syrian battlefields, Pantucci said. They are also active in Iraq where they gained control of Fallujah and Ramadi last month.

Due to their extreme ideology, it was thought that ISIL was linked with al Qaeda but the global terror groups general command denied that earlier this month.

According to The International Center for the Study of Radicalization think tank, an estimated 11,000 foreign militants have entered Syria between late 2011 and December 2013 including about 60 Americans.

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Syria's American-Born Rebels Pose National Security 'Nightmare'