Kyrgyzstan says man arrested who allegedly recruited mercenaries for Syria
BISHKEK. Jan 8 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan's State National Security Committee said on Wednesday that it had arrested a member of an "international terrorist organization" who had been recruiting mercenaries to fight in Syria.
"In a counterterrorist operation in Osh [a city in southern Kyrgyzstan], State National Security Agency forces detained a militant from the international terrorist organization Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), the Kyrgyz national P.K.N., born in 1974, who had undergone combat training as a member of a bandit unit on the territory of Afghanistan and who had been on an international wanted list for participating in organizing and carrying through terrorist acts on the territory of [Kyrgyzstan's] Jalal-Abad region," the Committee press service told Interfax.
"While being on the wanted list, P.K.N. organized a channel for the transportation of recruits to hostilities zones in Syria and was actively looking for firearms and explosives in order to commit terrorist acts on the territory of Kyrgyzstan," the press service said.
"Further investigations are underway," it said.