Report: Taliban sets up base in Syria to 'monitor jihad'
Operative tells BBC job of 'at least 12 experts in warfare' is to 'assess needs of jihad in Syria'
The Pakistani Taliban have visited Syria to set up a base and to assess "the needs of the jihad", the BBC reported over the weekend.
A Taliban operative told the BBC that the base was set up with the assistance of ex-Afghan fighters of Middle Eastern origin who have moved to Syria in recent years.
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At least 12 experts in warfare and information technology had gone to Syria in the last two months, he said.
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The BBC said Taliban factions feel that Sunni Muslims, who constitute a majority in Syria, are being oppressed by Syria's predominantly Shia rulers.
Mohammad Amin, a senior Taliban operative and "coordinator of the Syrian base," told the BBC that the cell to monitor "the jihad" in Syria was set up six months ago.
The cell sends "information and feedback" on the conflict in Syria back to Pakistan, he said.
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan (Photo: AFP)
"They were facilitated by our friends in Syria who have previously been fighting in Afghanistan," Amin added.
Their job is to "assess the needs of the jihad in Syria, and to work out joint operations with our Syrian friends," he told the BBC.
"There are dozens of Pakistani hopefuls in line to join the fighting against the Syrian army, but the advice we are getting at the moment is that there's already enough manpower in Syria."
In the past, the BBC report said, militant fighters from Pakistan have often gone to fight in Central Asia and the Balkans.
In the 1990s, terrorist group Harkatul Mujahideen, was known to have sent a large number of men to fight in the Bosnian civil war of 1992-95.
Many Afghan and Pakistani fighters also fought on the side of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 1988-94.
The BBC report said a number of Taliban groups in Pakistan have sectarian leanings, and resent the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad - having a Shia background - over Sunni Muslims who constitute about three-quarters of the Syrian population.
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