The extremist Sunni militants sweeping across Iraq may have a singular goal , but there 's a broad coalition of recruits from outside of the Middle East willing to help them achieve it . The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria , or ISIS , wants to establish an Islamic state stretching from northern Syria into Iraq . And as the brutal terror group racks up victory after victory on the battlefield , more foreign fighters are considering joining their ranks . Who are they ? Three young men we spoke to have traveled to Syria to answer the call to jihad . They agreed to speak to us from the northwestern city of Idlib over Skype , provided we masked their identities and did n't use their real names . Abu Anwar , as he asked to be called , is 25 years old and from Britain . `` I 'm from the south of England . I grew up in a middle class family , '' he told us . `` Life was easy back home . I had a life . I had a car . But the thing is : You can not practice Islam back home . We see all around us evil . We see pedophiles . We see homosexuality . We see crime . We see rape . '' SEE MAPS : Where ISIS has taken over in Iraq . We spoke with Abu and his friends as so many of these young men do : online . Their posts , many featuring photos of them posing with guns , attempt to make jihad sound cool . And this is a big draw to many youngsters who want to be part of this war , but have little or no combat experience . ISIS claims to be fighting for justice , but in reality their campaign is about brutality . The group has committed massacres and acts of terror so extreme -- including a recent boast about executing Iraqi soldiers in cold blood -- that even al Qaeda has disavowed them . I asked Abu if his family knows what he 's doing in Syria . `` They are not happy with me being here . But when I give them Dawa ( their interpretation of Islam ) , they see the reality , they hear the reality from me that they do n't hear from the BBC , '' he replied , after a pause . There are thousands like Abu from all across Europe in Syria and Iraq , according to some estimates . The Soufan group , a security consulting firm , believes there are around 700 from France , 800 from Russia and almost 300 from Britain . But these figures relate to people analysts have been able to track , and the true numbers may be even higher . And as ISIS 's onslaught in Iraq grows , there are fears even more foreigners will be drawn to fight . Last month , U.S. officials said Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha , a 22-year-old American known as Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki , drove a truck full of explosives into a Syrian army position and detonated it , killing himself in the process . Abu says he was a friend of Abu Hurayra 's , and that they `` clicked immediately '' after they met to discuss their shared ideology . `` He was the best person I have ever met in my life . He had the best character , '' Abu said . `` Abu Hurayra believed this would allow him to go in and kill many of the enemy , including himself . He wanted this more than a bullet . He told me , 'If I go on this martyrdom mission , do n't go back to England . Ask Allah to keep you on this path . ' '' We asked Abu Anwar what Abu Hurayra told him before he carried out the suicide attack . `` He told me to just pray that Allah accepts me as a martyr , '' Abu told us . `` He told me first that he wants this so much and we have many stories of this people who are in these kind of operations , where they 've survived the explosion . And on the radio before he detonated the bomb he said , ' I see paradise and I can smell paradise . ' This was seconds before he blew himself up . '' Abu , inspired by his friend , said he too wants to carry out a suicide attack -- what he calls a martyrdom mission . But when asked if he would return to Britain to carry out an attack , he said no . `` If I come back home , it will be when the black flag of Islam is flying over Downing Street , '' he said . `` I know some people have the intention of come back to do attacks . But me personally , I only have the intention of coming back as a conqueror . '' Abu said his family is not aware of his plan to carry out a `` martyr mission , '' but when his time comes to carry out the attack , he said he 'll inform them . For now , Abu insisted that the immediate goal is to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq . When I asked if he would now take up arms with ISIS , he said he was considering it . For Abu and others like him , the call to jihad is seemingly too strong to resist . READ MORE : Will Kurds break free from Iraq ? READ MORE : Why West must ignore Iraq 's pleas . READ MORE : 'We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq , ' Iraqi Kurdish leader says .
Sunni terror group ISIS is drawing support from would-be jihadists born outside the Middle East . Soufan group says there are hundreds from France , Russia and Britain waging jihad in region . One 25-year-old Briton says he was inspired by an American militant to carry out a suicide attack .