Crossing borders to fight alongside local militants is not new.The Soviet Union faced foreign fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and more recently, the U.S. faced them in Iraq.Former CIA official Paul Pillar says the foreign fighters in Syria may eventually cause instability in other parts of the region and the world."You look at the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets, which went on about a decade.That spawned militants and militant groups that went on to be active in many different places around the world.So there’s no reason to expect that Syria is going to be anything different.We have people, militants who acquire skills, acquire inspiration, acquire some organization, and that’s not going to go away once the dust settles in Syria," said Pillar.Pillar says in many instances, people joining conflicts like the one in Syria may not have been militant before,but once they become battle-hardened, they can cause instability in their own countries."This is something that, for example, Saudi officials have worried about for a long time,as well as the other Gulf Arab countries,where they have had their own nationals go to fight in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and now some of them in Syria," he said.The 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, with 19 US serviceman killed,is often cited as an example of how those inspired by foreign fighters have carried out terror attacks in their own countries.
