Aaron Y. Zelin is the Gloria and Ken Levy Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy where his research focuses on Sunni Arab jihadi groups in North Africa and Syria as well as the trend of foreign fighting and online jihadism.
Articles & Testimony
As extremist foes fight for supremacy in Syria, their rivalries could threaten Europe.
Al-Qaeda, its branches, and sympathizers viewed the 2011 Syrian uprising, which turned into a civil war, as a great opportunity to expand their reach. Of all of the Arab Spring countries, Syria was the most prized because of its religious-historical significance, relative closeness to the West (compared with other jihadist battlefields), and proximity to Israel. What al-Qaeda viewed as a promise, though, has turned into a nightmare because of its now-existential battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) for supremacy of the global jihadist movement...
