ISIS returnees giving security fears to Bosnia and Herzegovina

Nahla Abdelmonem

Bosnia and Herzegovina prepares for the security challenges that will be posed by the potential return of nationals from the battlefields in Syria and Iraq where they had joined terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The southeastern European state also tries to keep the lid on growing extremism, one that tries to control youth.

Leading these extremism are groups that use religion with the aim of reaching power.

On Oct. 23, security agencies in Sarajevo announced the arrest of a 21-year-old man who had joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Allegiance strategies

Information provided by Bosnian authorities throws light on the conditions of some of the extremist groups operating in Syria.

The man arrested, they said, travelled to Syria in 2014 when he was 15 years old.

He joined Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra Front, there, but later joined ISIS, they added.

This man had apparently joined ISIS after he saw the al-Qaeda-affiliated Tahrir al-Sham becoming weaker.

This gives insights into the way the very junior members of these terrorist organizations think. They apparently prefer to be within terrorist organizations that enjoy considerable stability, regardless of whether they approve the ideology of these organizations or not.

The same man left Syria on the road to Turkey after the killing of ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the collapse of his organization in 2019.

Returnees

Security agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina shudder in fear at the prospect of the return of nationals from Syria and Iraq.

Hardened by years of fighting within terrorist groups in these countries, these returnees will pose a series security challenge to Sarajevo.

States of the Balkans are especially afraid of this scenario because they have an experience dealing with militant Islamism.

Around 300 Bosnians had travelled to Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2016, according to data provided by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Political psychology professor Said Sadek referred to the problems the countries of the Balkans are facing because of the extremist groups operating in them.

“These states are afraid that the same groups will turn them into new battlefields,” Sadek told The Reference previously.