who are the French jihadists of the Idlib “caliphate”?

While the regime of Bashar al-Assad ended this Sunday, some of the French who went to Syria to join the jihadist ranks in 2012 are worrying the French intelligence services.

There are around a hundred French people who constitute “the main concern” of the authorities. According to anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen, the latter were in the rebel stronghold of Idlib in Syria before the fall of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.

Initially, in 2012, 1,490 fighters from France went to the Iraqi-Syrian zone to join jihadist groups. With the fall of the Islamic State (IS) in March 2019, marking the end of the so-called “caliphate”, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor declared today that of this figure, 390 individuals returned to France, 500 died, “a large hundred” were in the Idlib pocket, “around 150” were detained or held in northeastern Syria and Iraq and 300 “disappeared”.

The newspaper Le Monde lists around 170 French people aged over 13 – including 115 adults – who are believed to be stationed in this 3,000 square meter enclave located in north-west Syria and, what is more, is managed by the Islamist rebel group. , Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). As the daily pointed out, a ceasefire concluded between Turkey and Russia is in force, but remains fragile.

Three big families

“Among the fighters who overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad in less than a week, there are French jihadists from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) movement as well as the Omar Omsen brigade [considéré comme le recruteur de dizaines de jihadistes, Ndlr]», indicated Olivier Christen in the pages of Le Figaro.

“Around fifty belong, in fact, to the brigade of Omar Omsen, who founded the Firqat Al-Ghouraba (“foreigners brigade”), an independent Salafist group. Finally, a final group without allegiance continues its jihadist activities, according to Le Monde.

It is this last category which arouses the greatest concerns of the French authorities. In fact, it counts among its ranks former al-Qaeda suspects of still being attached to global jihad. Still according to the daily newspaper, a dozen individuals are considered by intelligence as “top priorities” and around thirty women from the Islamic State are also present in the enclave with their children.

Given this information, the authorities fear action. Indeed, French people from Idlib are said to have incited attacks on the territory over the past twelve months.