Disillusioned with revolution, Tunisian youths head to Syria to fight

About a quarter of the foreign fighters in Syria - some 3,000 people - are Tunisians, according to Soufan Group, a US-based intelligence consultancy.

TUNIS // Tunisian youths disillusioned with the post-revolution era have flocked to join radicals overseas, making the birthplace of the Arab Spring the top source of foreign fighters in Syria.

Since the 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has faced a resurgence in militant activity by previously suppressed extremists.

About 3,000 Tunisians have gone to Syria since the war began more than three years ago, accounting for about a quarter of the foreign fighters there, according to US-based intelligence consultancy Soufan Group.

Tunisian officials say they have managed to prevent another 9,000 would-be fighters from travelling to Syria.

One of those who fell on the battlefield is Salim Gasmi.

“We were shocked when we found out that my brother had gone to Syria. He was a moderate. He loved life,” his sister Latifa said.

Without telling his family, 29-year-old Salim packed up one day and left to join the ISIL group in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province.

He was eventually captured by the rival Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda’s Syria franchise. He died in April.

“Once we spoke to him on Skype. We hardly recognised him. He had lost weight, his eyes had lost their sparkle and he cried saying he could no longer return home,” Ms Latifa said.

While some foreigners in Syria are fighting for more moderate opposition rebels, many have joined militant groups such as ISIL.

In Tunisia, radicals long suppressed under Ben Ali took advantage of a chaotic political situation after the country’s 2011 uprising.

The country has been shaken by social unrest over poor living conditions. At the same time, many mosques fell into the hands of extremists, becoming hotbeds for incitement where hardline preachers had a free hand to speak their mind.

It allowed extremists to recruit disillusioned youths “who had lost faith in the political elite” and “who no longer believe in a democratic transition”, said political analyst Slaheddin Jourchi.

“Salafist jihadist groups made a strategic choice to dispatch youths to Syria, where they could train and then return home for eventually fighting in Tunisia,” he said.

Unemployed youths were not the only targets, with recruits hailing from diverse backgrounds, said Mohamed Iqbal Ben Rejeb, president of an association that helps Tunisians stranded abroad.

“They are aged between 17 to 27. Most are university students or high school students but there are also among them civil servants,” he said.

Mr Ben Rejeb’s own brother Hamza, a student who was already paralysed from the waist down, was lured by extremists and travelled to Syria for 10 days in 2013.

“My brother ... was manipulated through the internet and by sermons delivered in mosques by members of Ansar Al Sharia,” he said.

“They persuaded him that he was a genius but Hamza is not a genius. These terrorists only wanted to exploit him and use him in suicide attacks,” he said.

Ansar Al Sharia is a hardline Salafist movement accused of links to Al Qaeda and classified as a “terrorist” organisation by the authorities.

The group is said to be behind the assassination of two politicians last year, killings that plunged Tunisia into deep turmoil.

Its leader Abu Ayyad is wanted in connection with an attack on the US embassy in Tunis in 2012.

The Tunisian government describes militants returning from Syria as one of the top two threats facing the country, along with unrest in neighbouring Libya.

“The only way to deal with these people is with the stick. We don’t want them to return to Tunisia,” said interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui.

* Agence France-Presse