Over 400 Tajik nationals join ISIL: Official
A senior Tajik official says hundreds of citizens from the Central Asian country have joined the ranks of ISIL Takfiri group, which is wreaking havoc and committing atrocious crimes across Iraq and Syria.
Tajikistan’s Attorney General Yusuf Ahmedov said on Monday that more than 400 Tajiks, mostly aged between 18 and 35, are fighting alongside ISIL extremists in either of the two Arab countries, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.
He further noted that some 40 Tajik nationals have travelled to the two crisis-stricken Middle Eastern countries with their families, and nearly 60 have been killed in ISIL's acts of terror in Syria and Iraq.
On May 30, American officials confirmed that Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, the head of the Tajikistan special forces unit known as Omon, has defected to ISIL.
The officials stated that the ISIL militant, who calls for terrorist attacks against the United States in a new video posted online, participated in five counter-terrorism training courses in the United States and in Tajikistan, through the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program between 2003 and 2014.
In his online video, Khalimov appears in black ISIL clothing with a sniper rifle and a bandolier of ammunition, claiming that he attended training programs on American soil three times.
He adds that the controversial programs and the circumstances surrounding them turned him against Washington.
According to an October 2014 report by the UN Security Council, 15,000 foreigners have flocked to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the ISIL or other terrorist groups.
European countries have repeatedly expressed concern over the ISIL’s influence across the continent. Authorities fear that the European militants will use their combat skills against their countries upon returning home.
The Western powers and their regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are arming and funding militants to fight against the Damascus government.
The ISIL militants, who were initially trained by the US in Jordan in 2012 to overthrow the Syrian government, control swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. The terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against all Iraqi and Syrian communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
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