Belgian Jihadi's in Syria and Iraq ~ August 2014

Introduction:

The total number of Belgian fighters who are or were in Syria and Iraq is stable at a total of 385. Two of them are known to be fighting in Iraq in the ranks of The Islamic State (IS / ISIS)

The number of killed Belgians has risen to 32 in total. The number of those returned in our count would be about 27 (official numbers however of the Belgian government speak of at least 70 who have returned).

Although it is most likely that we are dealing with double mentions in our data, by these figures we might conclude that a maximum of about 325 Belgium originated Jihadist fighters are still active in Syria and Iraq

Group affiliation & current Location:

At least 59 of the Belgians who are or have been in Syria are in some way affiliated to Sharia4Belgium. Of these at least 28 have proven ties with the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS). One still fights in the ranks of Jabhat an-Nusra and one, who has arrived on May 2nd 2014, claims to be affiliated with Jaysh al-Muhajireen wa’l-Ansar. It must be pointed out however still more of the unidentified are most likely fighting in the ranks of these last two groups. This could be explained by the mere fact that outside IS the use of social media seems to be in some way regulated.

In total at least 50 Belgians are affiliated with the Islamic State, 10 are linked to Jabhat an-Nusra, one with Kata’ib Al Muhajireen Fi Ard Sham, the previously mentioned one with Jaysh al-Muhajireen wa’l-Ansar, one is linked to Liwa Shuhada Idlib, one is affiliated with Faylaq as-Sham and 10 are linked to Suqur as-Sham.

For the first time we also found a Belgian fighting on the side of the regime. One guy from Mazée (Namur) is openly proud about fighting in the ranks of Bashar al-Assad’s army. Atleast two Belgian fighters are now in Iraq.

Origins & Identities:

Of the 385 Belgians fighting in Syria, 20 of them females, 113 have been identified fully and an additional 38 are known by one or more kunya’s (nom de guerre). Hereby the total of (semi-) identified Belgians fighting in Syria and Iraq

As for their origins; the previous trend continuously builds up:

Brussels : 54 Antwerp : 46 Vilvoorde : 25 Mechelen stable at a maximum of 14; only one female identified by kunya 10 people originate from smaller towns or cities.

It still remains remarkable most of the known Belgian fighters stem from Flanders and especially the axis Antwerp – Mechelen – Vilvoorde – Brussels. As noted in the previous update the amount of Walloon fighters stays remarkably low (updated to three, including the pro-regime fighter)

We know the ages of about 100 of them, varying between 13 (Younes Abaaoud) and 65 (Shaykh Bassam al-Ayashi). The average age of the Belgian fighters is about 24,5 years old.

Locations:

As far as our open source intelligence gathering allowed us, we were able to locate 73 Belgians in Syria. Some of them over the course of due time moved to ar-Raqqa as they became affiliated with the Islamic State.

Original count:

Aleppo : 35 Idlib : 12 ar-Raqqa : 9 (most of them recently arrived) Homs : 7 Damascus : 5 Latakkia : 3 Deir ez-Zor: 1 Saraqib : 1

Updated count:

Aleppo : 2 (but most likely more based on recent field-research by Montasser AlDe’meh. Idlib : 4 ar-Raqqa : 20 Homs : 0 Damascus : 4 Latakkia : 0 (killed in action) Deir ez-Zor : 0 (killed in action) Saraqib : 0 (killed in action)

The Belgian “Convoy of Martyrs”:

(in random order)