Syrian Attacker Was Recent Recruit, Suspected of ISIS Ties

File this one under "tell me you didn't see that coming." On Sunday, we learned that the attacker in Syria who killed three Americans was a recent recruit to Syria's security forces and had been reassigned due to suspected ties to the Islamic State.

A man who carried out an attack in Syria that killed three U.S. citizens had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months earlier and was recently reassigned amid suspicions that he might be affiliated with the Islamic State group, a Syrian official told The Associated Press Sunday.
The attack Saturday in the Syrian desert near the historic city of Palmyra killed two U.S. service members and one American civilian and wounded three others. It also wounded three members of the Syrian security forces who clashed with the gunman, interior ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said.

Granted, this is a part of the world that would have the most capable and competent security recruiters in the United States chewing on their nails in frustration, especially since we can presume that Syria probably isn't the best country in the world for keeping detailed information on its subjects. But this instance makes it look like they need to be much tighter on their screening practices, as well as moving out anyone who is suspected of even harboring mild sympathies for ISIS and like-minded goblins.

Al-Baba said that Syria’s new authorities had faced shortages in security personnel and had to recruit rapidly after the unexpected success of a rebel offensive last year that intended to capture the northern city of Aleppo but ended up overthrowing the government of former President Bashar Assad.
“We were shocked that in 11 days we took all of Syria and that put a huge responsibility in front of us from the security and administration sides,” he said.
The attacker was among 5,000 members who recently joined a new division in the internal security forces formed in the desert region known as the Badiya, one of the places where remnants of the Islamic State extremist group have remained active.

They recruited a division of security forces in a region where the Islamic State is known to still be active? Am I the only one who sees the flaws in that idea?

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It's a difficult part of the world. While this particular terrorist attacker is now examining dirt from the wrong side, who knows how many more there are in the ranks of those 5,000 recruited from a remaining ISIS stronghold? The Syrians did, it seems, take measures when they came to suspect this guy - the measures just weren't, shall we say, stringent enough.

Al-Baba said the internal security forces’ leadership had recently become suspicious that there was an infiltrator leaking information to IS and began evaluating all members in the Badiya area.
The probe raised suspicions last week about the man who later carried out the attack, but officials decided to continue monitoring him for a few days to try to determine if he was an active member of IS and to identify the network he was communicating with if so, al-Baba said. He did not name the attacker.
At the same time, as a “precautionary measure,” he said, the man was reassigned to guard equipment at the base at a location where he would be farther from the leadership and from any patrols by U.S.-led coalition forces.

Not far enough, it would seem.

Hindsight is always 20-20. But this happened. It's making us wonder if it will happen again, and it's a stark realization that we are dealing with a part of the world where trust simply does not exist, and never will.

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