EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: One of Australia's top security analysts is warning that the Middle East is now more unstable than the years leading up to 9-11. Former Australian diplomat and intelligence analyst Anthony Bubalo says a new group of violent jihadists are being drawn to Syria and Egypt and extremists are gaining military skills, including bomb-making. John Stewart reports.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: It's estimated that about 200 Australians have fought in the Syrian conflict during the past three years and at least nine Australians have been killed in the fighting. Anthony Bubalo from the Lowy Institute says that for jihadists, Syria is the new Afghanistan.

ANTHONY BUBALO, LOWY INSTITUTE: In Syria today you have something like 50 different nationalities represented in the over 7,000 foreign fighters that are participating in that conflict. That's many more than were ever in Afghanistan at any one time.

JOHN STEWART: Anthony Bubalo warns the Middle East is becoming more unstable and the Syrian conflict is providing new opportunities for extremist groups to network, train and gain specific skills, like bomb-making.

ANTHONY BUBALO: Not all of these people returning from Syria are going to be a cause for concern, but even if a small minority are, that's a significantly more difficult extremist threat than we've faced in the past, where you didn't see many Australians go to Afghanistan, you didn't see many Australians gain those kinds of skills that can be very, very dangerous in an extremist context.

JOHN STEWART: Between 2012 and 2013, ASIO confiscated 18 passports from Australians planning to travel to Syria.

ZAKY MULLAH, STUDENT (YouTube video): Being on the frontline, it's scary as hell. Your heart pumps fast.

JOHN STEWART: Zaky Mullah travelled to Syria in 2012 after visiting refugee camps in Turkey. He supported the Free Syrian Army, but says he did not participate in the fighting.

ZAKY MULLAH: It was bloodshed, it was chaos, you'd hear bombs every day.

JOHN STEWART: Zaky Mullah was charged and then acquitted of terrorism offences in 2005. He says that most of the Australians travelling to Syria are dispossessed young men with little chance of finding a job.

ZAKY MULLAH: They feel like they can't find proper employment. They feel like, um, they're not wise or academic enough, they can't meet the requirements to get something made or something done in Australia. So because they feel left out, isolated, segregated, separated from mainstream society, they want to go somewhere where they can change that - change all that around and be part of something.

JOHN STEWART: Anthony Bubalo says that after the Bali bombings, Indonesian authorities successfully cracked down on local extremists. But now a new group of Indonesians are travelling to Syria and Egypt.

ANTHONY BUBALO: Very much like the concern that Australia has about Australians fighting in Syria, the Indonesians will have concern that people will be going there getting that military experience, getting those bomb-making skills, linking up with other extremist groups and then bringing them back to Indonesia, where we have seen in the past a very successful campaign against terrorist groups and you don't want now for those successes to be undermined by this retraining and retooling of a new generation.

JOHN STEWART: Zaky Mullah says the key to stopping young Australian Muslims from wanting to fight in Syria is to better integrate Australia's Muslim communities.

ZAKY MULLAH: The Middle Eastern community, the Muslim community in general need to spread themselves out, rather than always just living amongst themselves in Bankstown, Lakemba, Punchbowl, whatnot, we need to spread ourselves out and far out. We need to have an Australian-Asian neighbourhood, we need to have an Australian-Islander neighbour.

JOHN STEWART: Anthony Bubalo says there's little sign of the conflict in Syria being resolved in the near future and foreign fighters are still being drawn to the conflict.

John Stewart, Lateline.

EDITOR'S NOTE (Tuesday 1 April): References to Anthony Bubalo as 'Dr' in the original broadcast story have been removed from the transcript to accurately reflect his position.