Bosnian mujahideen
Bosnian mujahideen (Bosnian: Bosanski mudžahedini), also called El Mudžahid (Arabic: مجاهد, mujāhid), were foreign Muslim volunteers who fought on the Bosnian Muslim side during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. They first arrived in central Bosnia in the latter half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim co-religionists in fights against Serb and Croat forces. Initially they mainly came from Arab countries, later from other Muslim-majority countries.[4] Estimates of their numbers vary from 500 to 6,000.[1]
Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Mujahid (disambiguation) and Mujahideen (disambiguation).El Mudžahid
Size[edit]
Estimates of the mujahideen forces size vary from 500 to 6,000.[1] In 2003, Charles R. Shrader reported that HVO general Tihomir Blaškić had estimated 3,000 to 4,000, but the actual figure would probably be closer to 2,000, based on testimonies given in the ICTY trial against Dario Kordić and Mario Čerkez.[21] In 2004, Evan Kohlmann stated that "the deployment of Arab fighters in Bosnia who were generally loyal to the jihadi leadership in Afghanistan exploded in the mid-1990s into numbers sometimes estimated even to exceed 5,000".[22] Stephen Schwartz stated that "up to 6,000[1] “Arab Afghan” volunteers arrived in the country and enlisted in combat."[23] In 2011, Thomas Hegghammer estimated the number of foreign Muslim fighters in Bosnia to be 1,000–2,000.[24] In 2013, the International Crisis Group estimated that "between 2,000 and 5,000 fought in BiH."[25] In 2017, a Center for Strategic and International Studies report stated that "figures range from 500–5,000 with a preponderance of estimates in the 1,000–2,000 range", citing Hegghammer for the later estimate.[26]