Key Sarin Ingredients Sold by UK Firms

The BBC’s investigative team says that Britain “sold chemicals and components to Syria that ended up being used in the manufacture of the deadly nerve agent sarin.” A leaked document from Britain’s Foreign Office says they were supplied in the mid-1980s.

“Ministers will confirm within days that U.K. firms provided the materials and that Syria has admitted they played a role in its chemical weapons program.They will say there were no proper regulations at the time, but that tighter rules and controls exist now,” the network writes. “Sarin has been linked to a number of attacks in Syria’s bloody three-year conflict.”

A report by U.N. chemical weapons inspectors has found “clear and convincing evidence” that rockets containing sarin were used in the Damascus suburbs last August. Western governments blamed Assad, who in turn blamed rebel factions.

Jihadis Tug at Edges of Jordan, a Staunch U.S. Ally

Ben Hubbard of the New York Times reports from Ma’an, Jordan, a microcosm of the frustration, unemployment and restlessness that so often leads to radicalization.

“For many [in Jordan], the radical Sunni jihadis of ISIS are seen as a force battling oppression, an unsettling prospect for Sunni rulers, like the king of Jordan, as much as for Shiites, like the prime minister of Iraq,” he writes.

“As other Arab nations have fallen prey to protests, wars and Islamist insurgencies, Jordan has maintained its reputation as a pro-American bastion of stability better known for hosting refugees than for civil unrest. But Maan has long challenged that image with a mixture of poverty, Islamism, criminality and neglect that has fueled recurrent clashes between the government and the town’s heavily armed populace.”

Jihadi Brides Swap Lives in West for Front Line With Syria Militants

NBC News reports on the growing trend of young women going to Syria to marry jihadists.

“The sixteen-year-old twins slipped out of their beds in the middle of the night, grabbing passports and a few possessions. With that they were gone, hopping a flight from Britain to Turkey and sparking fears they were lost to a troubling and growing sisterhood: jihadi brides,” it says.

“Since the civil war in Syria erupted in 2011, numerous reports have surfaced of Western women traveling to marry Islamist fighters. Two Somali sisters from Norway reportedly took the same route as the teens who disappeared from England’s northern city of Manchester this week, flying to Turkey and disappearing along the border with Syria.”

ISIS’s announcement of an Islamic state could increase the flow. “Of course when building a state, what better way to build a state for longevity than to have families,” one analyst tells the network. “To have families you need women to come over as well.”

On the Frontline: Meet the Danish Gangster Turned Jihadi

Documentarist Nagieb Khaja details his experiences following two Danish gangsters-turned-jihadis for the Guardian.

“Two Danes lie in the back of a pickup truck on the Turkish-Syrian border waiting for a call. They’re with a young British jihadi and a group of ultra-conservative Syrian Salafi Islamists. Soon they’ll be smuggled into Syria to join the fight against the Assad regime,” he writes.

“On the streets of Copenhagen he is known as Big A, a convicted drug trafficker and the leader of one of Denmark’s most notorious organized crime gangs,” he writes. “But on the frontline in northern Syria, Abderozzak Benarabe is just another have-a-go jihadi, a man who joined the fight against Bashar al-Assad through a mix of restlessness, curiosity and a need for some kind of personal redemption.

“It’s not all plain sailing for the Dane. Benarabe’s entry into Syria is secured by crawling through a hole in the Turkey-Syria border fence and running through fields for 10 minutes until he and his fellow travellers reach a waiting car. They are driven to Sarjeh, a city in the Zawiyah mountain region of Idlib, northwest Syria.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team

CNN: Floodgates Open as ISIS Takes Over Swaths of both Syria and Iraq

Reuters: Islamic State Appeals to Only Four Percent of Syrians: Poll

AFP: Syria Troops Converge as Rebels Ready for Aleppo Showdown