Several groups of extremists trained in Middle East detained in Kyrgyzstan in 2015
OSH. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Kyrgyz special services have suppressed the activities of several extremist groups, which included people who received training at terrorist camps in the Middle East, Asylbek Kozhoshev, director of the Kyrgyz National Security Committee's branch for Osh and the Osh region, told Interfax on Tuesday.
People trained at extremist organizations' camps in the Middle East "quietly settled in the region's republics, set up terrorist groups and recruited new followers," he said.
"All groups were well armed. Automatic weapons and explosives were confiscated from all of them. The information available to us also confirms that members of such groups awaited orders from areas of hostilities," Kozhoshev said.
Members of one of these gangs robbed well-off citizens and sent some of the stolen assets to Syria and used them to buy weapons and ammunition, he said.
Since the beginning of this year, Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies have detained more than 30 citizens of the country as they prepared to board flights bound for Syria- at the airports of the capital Bishkek, and the city of Osh, which is located in southern Kyrgyzstan, Kozhoshev said. Several citizens of neighboring countries were detained as well.
There are four main ways of recruiting Kyrgyz citizens to fight in Syria on the side of opposition forces, Kyrgyzstan's National Security Committee said.
"Our citizens working in neighboring countries can easily get caught in recruiters' nets. Some of them were recruited via the Internet and social networking websites. A smaller number of them are people visiting mosques or those who receive religious education abroad," Kozhoshev said.
These people are mainly young men aged between 18 and 21 years old, he said. The number of young women sent to Syria has also grown this year, he added.
Law enforcement agencies do not know exactly how many Kyrgyz citizens are currently fighting in Syria, the official said, adding that this number ranges from 100 to 300 people.