DHAKA: German jihadists are heading for Syria in increasing numbers, unencumbered by travel formalities and able to integrate quickly into foreign militant groups where Arabic is not needed.

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence said, reports gulfnews.com.

Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz since 2012, said intelligence officers knew of 220 German citizens fighting in Syria, but the actual number could be much higher, and had risen sharply this year.

‘For young people wanting to wage jihad, Syria is very interesting,’ he said in an interview.

‘It is easy to get to you only need an identity card, a flight to Turkey then a domestic flight to the border.’

‘Once you are there you can be quickly integrated into brigades, and you can fight alongside people with the same language,’ he said, noting that in the past a lack of language skills particularly among converts had made it difficult for German Islamists to join other wars.

Syria’s 2-1/2-year-old conflict began as a wave of peaceful protests against four decades of rule by the family of president Bashar Al Assad, but it has transformed into a full scale civil war which has cost at least 120,000 lives.

BDST: 1640 HRS, NOV 14, 2013
RoR/BSK