Over the last 12 months a team of researchers at ICSR have created a database of the social media profiles of 190 Western and European foreign fighters. More than two thirds of these fighters are affiliated with Jabhat al-Nusrah or the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) – two groups that have, at one point or another, maintained formal relationships with al-Qaeda. The social media activity of these users provides a unique and unfiltered window into the minds of Western and European foreign fighters in Syria, which has provided the information for a new report released today. ‘Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks’ examines the question of how foreign fighters in Syria receive information about the conflict and who inspires them.