Five more Georgians, including two students, join IS militants fighting Syria - media
TBILISI. Sept 17 (Interfax) - Five people have left the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia in the past three months to fight in Syria alongside the terrorist organization Islamic State, the Kakheti information center said on Thursday.
Among them are two 21-year-old students from Telavi State University, the center said.
According to confirmed reports, the young men left Georgia for Turkey, ostensibly to find work, but travelled on to Syria later, the center said.
At the moment, at least 12 Pankisi Gorge residents are known to have been killed in Syria, according to the Georgian media.
Several dozen residents of the Pankisi Gorge could have joined the ranks of IS, the media said.
In June this year Georgian police arrested a former imam from the village of Jokolo, Ayuf Borchashvili, on charges of abetting terrorists and recruiting young men, including high-school students, into IS and sending them to Syria, the media said.
