Over 3,000 persons from Central Asia and 2,400 from Russia fighting alongside Islamic State – FSB
Tashkent, Uzbekistan: More than 5 thousand citizens from Russia and Central Asia are fighting alongside the Islamic State, said the First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service, Sergey Smirnov, after the meeting of Regional Antiterrorist Structure of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO RATS) in Tashkent.
“According to our estimates, nearly 2,400 citizens of Russia are already taking part in the activities of this organization and this is quite a big number. The head of the Interior Ministry, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, said that 1.8 thousand Russian citizens are fighting alongside the Islamic State. In total, 477 criminal probes were launched,” reports TASS citing Smirnov.
The recruitment of the citizens of various countries, including the SCO member states is one of the threats of the Islamic States. The most dangerous is entering the territory of the war, participating in them, training, preparation and returning to the homeland. The experience gained from the fighting, they will use in our territory and the threat is their experience will be very strong, said Smirnov.
The full information of the people fighting alongside the IS and other terrorist organizations was established by the Russian International Bank only this year.
