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CBS NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT CLARISSA WARD GOES UNDERCOVER INSIDE SYRIA TO INTERVIEW TWO WESTERNERS NOW FIGHTING WITH ISLAMIC MILITANTS IN A TWO-PART SERIES THAT BEGINS TONIGHT ON THE “CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY” (6:30-7:00 PM, ET)
CBS News Foreign Correspondent Clarissa Ward goes undercover inside Syria to interview two Westerners who have joined the ranks of some of the most extreme Islamic groups in Syria. The two-part series begins tonight, Oct. 7 and continues tomorrow, Oct. 8 on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY (6:30-7:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
During the two-part series, Ward sits down for a rare interview with an American jihadi, who is a college dropout from the Midwest and has turned his back on the West. She also speaks with a former Dutch army fighter who now trains Syrian rebels. Both men left behind comfortable lifestyles in the West to battle the Assad regime.
In tonight’s report, Ward speaks with 26-year-old Yilmaz, a veteran of the Dutch Army, who left his birthplace of Holland two years ago and traveled to northern Syria. Two years of fighting and training various rebel groups have hardened his political and religious views. Yilmaz tells Ward he wants to see Islamic law established in Syria, and although he is not fighting with ISIS, he refuses to condemn their tactics, saying their abuses pale in comparison with the crimes of the Assad regime.
Yilmaz says his ultimate goal is to overthrow the Assad dictatorship, but his idea of what should replace it is radically different from the U.S.-backed moderate rebels.
“We want our own laws,” he says. “We want our own rules.”
Yilmaz tells Ward he believes the United States has made a huge mistake by bombing rebel forces in Iraq and Syria and gives a chilling warning that the move may provoke new terror attacks, saying “this fight never ends.”
In tomorrow’s report, Ward speaks with an American jihadi who fights for Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the most extreme terrorist groups in Syria. He still has family in the United States. He grew up playing sports in high school and going to Hollywood movies. When he decided to study overseas, everything changed, and he was irrevocably drawn into the Syrian civil war.
“Originally, when I left America, obviously jihad wasn’t really something I seen myself in, so I thought I was going study a couple of years and go back,” he says. “But it took a different course.”
He goes on to say that he would “shed no tears” if there was a terrorist attack against America in retaliation to coalition airstrikes taking place in Syria and Iraq.
“What I consider a terrorist attack is these Tomahawk bombs being shot from wherever they're being shot from and killing innocent people and kids and women and people that had nothing to do with America,” he tells Ward.
Steve Capus is the Executive Producer of the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY.
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Press Contact: Lance Frank 212-975-5959 FrankL@cbsnews.com