ammonnews.net

Ammon News - AMMAN — A Jordanian university student has been killed while fighting alongside jihadist forces in Syria, where a growing number of Jordanians are reportedly joining hardline Islamist militias, Islamist sources said.

According to the Jordanian jihadist movement, 21-year-old Mutah University student Mohammed Majed was killed during a firefight between the Islamist group Jabhat Al Nusra Li Ahl Al Sham and regime forces outside Damascus early on Friday.

Although not a member of the Jordanian jihadist movement, sources in the movement said the Karak resident was driven to join the Al Qaeda-linked coalition last month to “defend Syrian Muslims against injustice”.

“Mohammed, like many young Jordanians, was tired of watching the killing of innocent men, women and children and expressed his desire to defend his Syrian brothers and sisters,” said a source within the movement, who preferred to remain unnamed due to security concerns

“After bravely fighting the Godless forces of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, we can now announce that he has been martyred.”

Majid is the fifth Jordanian to be reportedly killed while fighting alongside jihadist forces in Syria in the past two weeks and the second in as many days, according to sources within the hardline Islamist movement.

Jordanian jihadist leader Abu Mohammed Tahawi said 23-year-old Mohammed Abu Bateekh was killed early Friday while fighting alongside Jabhat Al Nusra forces outside the southern Syrian city of Daraa.

The Zarqa resident, a member of the Jordanian jihadist movement, had spent the past two months fighting alongside jihadist forces in Daraa and the Damascene countryside, according to Tahawi.

The number of Jordanians joining jihadist forces in Syria is also reportedly on the rise, with a source in Jabhat Al Nusra saying 50 Jordanians had joined them in December.

“Jordan has become our largest source of foreign fighters,” said the Islamist source.

Jordanians currently account for the largest number of non-Syrian fighters in the Jabhat Al Nusra coalition, with some 350 serving in Islamic militia battalions in the Syrian cities of Daraa, Idlib, Homs and Damascus.

Earlier this month, Jabhat Al Nusra named Jordanian Mustafeh Abdoul Latif Al Saleh, also known as Abu Anas Al Sahabi, as commander (or “emir”) of jihadist forces in Syria.

Sahabi joined dozens of other Jordanians who have risen to senior leadership positions within the coalition due to their “field experience and knowledge of Syria”, Islamist sources said.

Denying any organisational links to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group, the Jordanian jihadist movement actively encourages and assists Jordanians looking to fight alongside the coalition.