Radicalization and Recruitment
During the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, Bosnian Serb extremists recruited primarily in person. Leaders of the Bosnian Serbs—including convicted war criminals—were documented directing their militants to carry out ethnically-motivated violence, and inciting them to violence using anti-Muslim rhetoric. In March 1995, months before the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadžić, directed his militants to “create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life.” On the first day of the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladić was recorded saying, “We give this town to the Serb nation…The time has come to take revenge on the Muslims.” (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)
The atrocities carried out against Bosnian Muslims during the war served to galvanize not only local Bosnian Muslims to action, but foreigners as well. Terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda used the ethnically-motivated violence in the 1990s as pretext to establish terrorist roots in the country, train its Afghan-based fighters, and lure new recruits. Though the vast majority of Bosnian Muslims were not radicalized by the influx of foreign fighters during the Bosnian War, some foreigners are believed to have successfully radicalized Bosnian Muslims to a violent and extremist interpretation of Islam both within the country, and among the Bosnian Muslim diaspora. (Sources: Swedish National Defence College, Reuters, Reuters)
The atrocities carried out against Bosnian Muslims during the war served to galvanize not only local Bosnian Muslims to action, but foreigners as well.
Today, Islamist extremists in Bosnia recruit in isolated communities—often in the country’s remote northern areas. There, residents are reportedly segregated from mainstream Bosnian society at an early age and indoctrinated in an exclusively Islamist curriculum. According to Igor Golijanin, the head of Bosnia’s Ministry of Security Cabinet, the problem is extensive: “We’re talking about villages where children no longer go to the public schools, opting instead for private schooling in accordance with a Jordanian curriculum… We’re talking about concealment: What used to perhaps be recognizable as a training camp disappears today under the cover of a non-governmental organization.” (Source: Spiegel Online)
One terrorist operative, 2011 gunman Mevlid Jasarevic, testified that he was radicalized in his home in the notorious Bosnian village of Gornja Maoča when Islamist mentors showed him propaganda videos showing persecuted Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before Jasaravec’s non-lethal 2011 gun attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Jasarevic said that he intended to target the U.S. Embassy in retaliation against Americans because he believed that they “have launched a fight against Islam and Muslims across the world.” (Sources: Reuters, Spiegel Online)
With more than a dozen extremists and former foreign fighters incarcerated in Bosnian prisons, there has been a growing concern in recent years of prison recruitment and radicalization. Out of nearly 50 people who have returned from Iraq and Syria, 12 have been convicted of terrorism-related charges. Due to lack of financial resources, there is no particular program in place in Bosnian prisons designed to reduce the threat of prison radicalization. Experts warn that convicted extremists may radicalize others, and if released, may return to violent extremism at home or abroad. (Sources: Balkan Insight, Fox News)
In addition to recruiting in person, Bosnian extremists are believed to have recruited members “more successfully” in recent years online and using video games, according to Golijanin. When Bosnia released its first comprehensive, five-year regional plan to counter terrorism in 2015, the country focused on a need to tackle the threat posed by Internet-based recruitment to terrorism. (Sources: Spiegel Online, Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Preventing Terrorism)
Foreign Fighters
Bosnia has a history of attracting foreign fighters, as well as exporting foreign fighters to conflicts abroad. During the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, the country attracted between 1,000 and 2,000 foreign fighters, hailing from most Arab countries as well as from Europe and the United States. (Source: International Security: Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters)
Bosnia is believed to have produced between 220 and 330 foreign fighters to the Syrian conflict abroad as of early 2017, the largest contingent of foreign fighters from the Western Balkans and the second-highest number of foreign fighters per capita out of any European country after Belgium. From 2012 to the end of 2014, Bosnia was estimated to have produced nearly 200 foreign fighters to the conflict in Syria and Iraq. (Sources: Soufan Group, Reuters, Spiegel Online, Fox News)
Throughout 2016, however, no potential foreign fighters successfully left Bosnia for Syria, a trend that was in large part due to the efforts of Bosnian law enforcement, according to a report by the Sarajevo-based Atlantic Initiative and the U.S. Department of State. At the same time, the total number of Bosnian foreign fighters has also decreased. By June 2016, an estimated 50 Bosnians were believed to have been killed while in conflict zones in Iraq and Syria, while another 50 were believed to have returned to Bosnia, leaving an estimated 90 Bosnian males, 50 women, and 80 children still active in terrorist-held territory in Iraq and Syria. Of the remaining foreign fighters in Syria, the study claimed that the 80 Bosnian children posed the greatest threat to Bosnian national security, essentially serving as a “time bomb.” Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic has revised earlier foreign fighter estimates, saying that as of late 2016, more than 220 Bosnians have left the country to join foreign fighter movements abroad, of whom 65 were killed and 46 returned. Of those that returned, nearly a dozen have been incarcerated or jailed on charges of fighting with ISIS. (Sources: U.S. Department of State, Reuters, Fox News)
Bosnian foreign fighters to Syria are believed to come from all over the country, with a sizeable contingency coming from a few isolated communities in the country’s north, including Bosanska Bojna in the country’s remote northwest, near the border with Croatia; Ošve in the country’s north, next to Bosnia’s Serb Republic; and Gornja Maoča in the northwest, in Bosnia’s autonomous Brčko District. (Sources: Mirror, Spiegel Online)
Theses fighters have reportedly been lured to terrorist-held territory in Syria by a few recruiters from Bosnia, including internationally-sanctioned Nusra recruiter Nusret Imamovic and convicted ISIS recruiter Husein “Bilal” Bosnic. Another suspected ISIS recruiter, 45-year-old Ibrahim Delic, stands accused of delivering lectures encouraging people to join ISIS in Syria. (Sources: Mirror, Spiegel Online, United Nations, Al Jazeera)
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is first believed to have established roots in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. According to the U.S. 911 Commission Report, 9/11 attacks orchestrator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed joined Bosnian jihadist fighters in 1992 and supported the fighters with financial donations. Two of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 assailants—Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi—also fought in Bosnia in 1995. As described by London-based al-Qaeda recruiter Abu Hamza al-Masri, seasoned foreign terrorist fighters from Afghanistan moved to Bosnia because they “want[ed] to [struggle against] something that is indisputable, which is non-Muslims raping, killing, and maiming Muslims.” (Sources: 911 Commission Report, Swedish National Defence College)
Osama bin Laden’s Benevolence International Foundation maintained an office in Sarajevo, as did a number of other al-Qaeda-linked charities.
Though Bosnia worked to disrupt terrorist networks in the country, many foreign terrorist fighters remained in the country for years after the Bosnian War, establishing roots and radicalizing some local Bosnians to extremism. Both during and after the Bosnian War, several al-Qaeda fronts operated in Bosnia under the guise of serving as humanitarian NGOs. Osama bin Laden’s Benevolence International Foundation maintained an office in Sarajevo, as did a number of other al-Qaeda-linked charities, including Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the Global Relief Fund, al-Furqan, Taibah International, and al-Masjed al-Aqsa Charity Foundation. (Sources: U.S. State Department 2002, U.S. State Department 2003, U.S. State Department 2004)
In the years since then, al-Qaeda has continued to retain support among radicalized Bosnian Muslims. In 2005, al-Qaeda was linked to at least one failed terrorist plot in Bosnia, when it sought to create cells of so-called “white al-Qaeda” members who could infiltrate Europe to carry out attacks. The cells—disrupted by Bosnian police—were discovered to have maintained links in Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. (Sources: Washington Post, Swedish National Defence College)
ISIS
ISIS has successfully lured Bosnian Muslims to its territory, as well as fomented support for the terror group within isolated pockets of the country. Approximately 300 Bosnians have left their homes to join the conflict in Iraq and Syria, the majority of whom are believed to have joined ISIS. Within terrorist-held territory in Iraq and Syria, an estimated 80 Bosnian Muslim children are believed to have been radicalized, some of whom are documented to have joined ISIS combat units. (Source: Reuters)
To lure Bosnian recruits to ISIS territory, the terror group often relies on in-person terrorist recruiting networks, though ISIS has also launched video campaigns specifically targeting Bosnian Muslims. In November 2015, Bosnia sentenced a major ISIS recruiter, Husein “Bilal” Bosnic, to seven years’ imprisonment after he was convicted of luring Bosnian groups to join ISIS abroad. At least six of Bosnic’s Bosnian recruits are believed to have died while in Syria. In November 2016, ISIS began translating online magazine Rumiyah into Bosnian. (Sources: Mirror, Spiegel Online, 24SATA, Balkan Insight)
In addition to the long-term threat posed by returning ISIS foreign fighters, the terror group has also posed an immediate threat to the homeland. Since 2013, ISIS-linked fighters and extremist preachers have been buying up land in Bosnia—including in the northern town of Ošve and the northeastern village of Gornja Maoča, in the country’s self-governing Brčko District—in what security services worry may be undercover ISIS training camps. In these two towns, crudely fashioned Islamic State flags have occasionally been found waving in the streets. (Sources: Mirror, Spiegel Online, International Business Times, Reuters)
By early 2016, Bosnia is believed to have largely stemmed the tide of foreign fighters both to and from terrorist-held territory in Syria. Nonetheless, the dangers posed by ISIS members operating in Bosnia remains. As noted by Igor Golijanin, the head of Bosnia’s Ministry of Security Cabinet, Islamist extremists successfully operate through a mode of “concealment” in Bosnia’s remote villages. Now, “[w]hat used to perhaps be recognizable as a training camp disappears today under the cover of a non-governmental organization,” according to Golijanin. The group’s reported presence in Bosnia also poses a threat to Western Europe, where weaponry from Bosnia has been smuggled. (Sources: Reuters, Spiegel Online)
Nusra Front
The Nusra Front—an internationally sanctioned terrorist group in Syria—is believed to have attracted a large contingency of Bosnians to its cause. The success of the terror group amongst Bosnians is largely credited to Nusret Imamovic, a Bosnian recruiter and senior member within the Nusra Front. One such Nusra recruit—23-year-old Bosnian foreign fighter Emrah Fojnica—was a suicide bomber in Iraq. In response to the loss of his son, father Hamdo Fojnica said, “It is a terrible thing to lose a child, but if Allah decides that even his two brothers must leave for Syria, I could not oppose.” (Sources: Spiegel Online, United Nations, Il Giornale)
Though terrorist recruiters like Nusret Imamovic are believed to have played a major role in the recruitment of Bosnian foreign fighters to Syria, another driver was reportedly logistics. According to a report by the Sarajevo-based Atlantic Initiative, upon Bosnians’ arrival in Turkey in 2014, foreign fighters mostly followed whatever group met them on the Syrian side of the border, leading Bosnian fighters to join both the Nusra Front and ISIS. (Sources: Atlantic Initiative 2015, Atlantic Initiative 2016)