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Kyrgyz secret services nab IS recruiter

According to Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement agencies, about 500 Kyrgyz nationals have left the country for Syria and Iraq to join terrorist groups

BISHKEK, March 9. /TASS/. Officers of the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Defense have detained a Kyrgyz national who was recruiting and smuggling militants to Syria and Iraq, the committee’s press center said on Thursday.

According to the agency, the extremist was detained "in anti-terror operations aimed at neutralizing the activity of underground terrorist cells and networks of collaborators" in the country.

"An active functionary of the international terrorist organization, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, born in 1997 was detained in the Kara-Suu district of the Osh region in Kyrgyzstan’s south," the report said. The individual has not been identified for legal reasons.

"It has been established that in the Osh region this individual organized a steady flow of recruiting and smuggling Kyrgyz citizens to the Syrian-Iraqi armed conflict zone for a terrorist training and participation in warfare on the side of terrorist units," the document said.

A criminal case has been opened on two counts - "hiring manpower" and "organized activity aimed at inciting national, racial, religious or inter-faith enmity". The suspected recruiter has been taken into custody.

According to Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement agencies, about 500 Kyrgyz nationals have left the country for Syria and Iraq to join terrorist groups.