Syria conflict: why Pakistani Taliban is pledging support for rebels Syrian rebels have not taken up the TTP's offer to provide them with more fighters, according to an official. Photograph: Medyan Dairieh/Zuma Press/Corbis The Pakistani Taliban's claim to have sent "hundreds of fighters to Syria" to take part in fighting against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad should be taken, as tea is in some parts of their country - with a generous pinch of salt. The first news that the rough coalition of militant factions united in the Tehrik-e-Pakistan-e-Taliban (TTP) had established an outpost in Syria came late last week when a Taliban spokesman told the BBC Urdu service that a "cell has been established with the help of the Arab fighters who had fought in Afghanistan." This cell, he said, was made up of about 12 information technology experts and its aim was to "keep a watch on the ongoing jihad" in Syria. The spokesman added that there were also "dozens of Pakistani hopefuls in line to join the fighting against the Syrian army, but the advice we are getting at the moment is that there's already enough manpower [there] ." On Sunday, another Taliban commander made a further - and contradictory - claim to Reuters: that the TTP has already set up camps and sent men to fight in Syria. "When our brothers needed our help, we sent hundreds of fighters along with our Arab friends," the senior commander told the news agency. This would not be the first time the TTP, formed six years ago to fight the Pakistani state and establish a hardline Islamic zone along the country's Afghan frontier, has signalled a desire to play some kind of international role. In 2010, the TTP sent Faizal Shahzad, a young Pakistani who had been living in the US, on a failed mission to bomb Times Square, New York. This summer, TTP militants killed 10 foreign mountaineers in Pakistan. They also said they would "avenge" violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Burma. In January, the TTP pledged to send fighters to Kashmir - though none have yet turned up. Commanders have made threats to strike European countries too. Equally, other Pakistani groups have become involved in international "jihadi" violence over recent decades. A handful of fighters turned up in Iraq in 2004. Hundreds travelled in the 1990s to the Balkans. Then of course there is the long history of attacks in India. With Syria attracting more and more foreign fighters, it is just about possible that some Pakistanis might make the trip. But the TTP official's disclosure that the response of the Syrians - possibly interlocutors within the al-Nusra Front, a group loosely aligned with al-Qaida - had politely said "thanks but no thanks" rings true. There are plenty of fighters from Arab countries much closer to hand. It's also hard to see how small groups of non-Arabic speaking Pakistanis used to fighting in high hills could be much help in the streets of Syrian cities. So why pledge the support? It sounds good to an international audience, which includes potential donors. It will help relations with international groups such as the remnant of al-Qaida in Pakistan, which has the profile that the TTP lacks. Finally, it will motivate their troops - the movement has been split and demoralised by power struggles since its deputy chief was killed by a drone in May. It seems unlikely the TTP is bothered by the idea that support for Syrian rebels would align them, however roughly, with the west. Instead they appear to see the fight in sectarian terms. Militants in Syria frame the conflict as pitting true Muslim Sunnis against Persian Shias. The TTP, itself involved in long-running sectarian strife against local Shia communities. One vision of a cosmic conflict can easily meld with another. The details hardly matter. Most TTP footsoldiers are ill-educated, under-employed, marginalised young men from second-rank tribes. Any agenda, whether global, tribal, ethnic or sectarian, can be recast to motivate them to more violence and financial gain.