• Tunisie/ Syrie. Résumé: Entre 6 et 10.000 Tunisiens auraient rejoint les rangs des combattants anti-Assad. Les recrutements se feraient par le truchement des mosquées et d’organisations caritatives. Leurs familles, qui n’apprennent qu’a posteriori le départ de l’un des leurs, recevraient jusqu’à 4000 dollars par combattant. Les autorités tunisiennes estiment qu’elles n’ont pas le droit d’empêcher un jeune de partir combattre en Syrie.

    INTER PRESS SERVICE
    News Agency

    Tunisia Now Exporting “Jihadis”
    By Giuliana Sgrena
    Friday, April 12, 2013

    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/04/tunisia-now-exporting-jihadis

    TUNIS, Apr 6 2013 (IPS) –
    “Tunisian families have begun to dread knocks on their doors, or late-night phone calls, fearing that the messenger will bear the news that their son has been smuggled out of the country to join the “jihad” in Syria. Families here told IPS that they have no way of contacting their sons once they leave — whether by choice or coercion they will never know — for the warring nation nearly 3,000 miles away. At most, family members receive an inaudible telephone call from Libya, where the soon-to-be militants are trained, the muffled voice on the other end of the line saying a quiet and final goodbye.

    (…) There are no reliable data on exactly when young Tunisian men began rushing to join the Free Syrian Army, currently engaged in a battle to depose Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, but experts and civil society activists are agreed on one thing: the number is increasing. On Mar. 29, local sources reported that between 6,000 and 10,000 men have left the country, while the Algerian press say the number could be closer to 12,000.

    (…) The election of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda in October 2011 further raised hopes that the country would stay on track towards a more inclusive future. But beneath the moderate veneer, a strong ultra-conservative undercurrent remained, steered by Salafist-controlled mosques – like Fath, Ennassr, Ettadhamen, and the great mosque of Ben Arous located on the outskirts of Tunis – that are now serving as headquarters for the smuggling of fighters.

    (…) Charity organisations like Karama wa Horrya, Arrahma, Horrya wa Insaf, which provide basic humanitarian assistance to the poor, also play a role in this network that gathers able-bodied Tunisians, transports them to Libya and then, after a brief stop in Turkey, sends them onwards to the frontlines of the Syrian war such as the north-western border with Lebanon, and the city of Aleppo. Young fighters’ first point of contact in Syria is with the Jabhat al Nusra (meaning the ‘Support Front for the People of Syria’), considered the most aggressively militant arm of the FSA. (…)”

    #Jabhat_al_Nusra #Tunisia #Syria #Free_Syrian_Army #jihad #jihadi #Fath #Ennassr #Ettadhamen #Ben_Arous #Karama_wa_Horrya #Ennahda #Arrahma #Horrya_wa_Insaf