NEW YORK (Sputnik) — More than 250,000 people have been killed in the civil war in Syria and 11 million have been displaced. Of those, four million Syrians are estimated to have fled to neighboring countries and to Europe.
"The population of individuals who we assess have traveled to the conflict zone is upwards of 28,000 right now," Rasmussen stated at a Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing.
Of those, Rasmussen added, approximately 5,000 came from Western countries and approximately 250 have traveled there from the United States.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since March 2011. The Syrian Army has been fighting the so-called "moderate" opposition factions as well as Islamist extremist groups, including the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.
