Bosnia arrests 16 terrorism suspects in face of ISIL threat

Bosnia arrests 16 terrorism suspects in face of ISIL threat
Thu Sep 4, 2014 11:27:07

Bosnian police said Wednesday they have detained 16 people suspected of having fought in Syria and Iraq or of recruiting and funding other Balkan men to join the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists there.

Police said about 200 officers from a number of Bosnian law enforcement agencies were involved in an operation targeting 17 locations around the country.

The arrested were suspected of ``recruiting (Bosnian) nationals for Syria and Iraq and funding and organizing their travel'' to the two countries, police said.

They were also suspected of ``participating in armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq where they fought alongside radical terrorist groups and organizations,'' including ISIL.

During the search of locations where suspects were arrested, police found and seized weapons, ammunition, computer equipment, telephone cards and propaganda materials.

Earlier this year, Bosnia introduced prison terms of up to 10 years for its citizens who fight in conflicts abroad or recruit others.

According to earlier reports, the US State Department says thousands of foreign militants, including some Americans, have traveled to Syria to fight the government there.

"We think that there are approximately 12,000 fighters from at least 50 countries in Syria - foreign fighters, including a small number of Americans - that may have travelled to Syria since the beginning of the conflict" more than three years ago, said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Western countries fear the returning of radicalized militants to their home countries.

This is while the United States has been actively funding and training the militants to fight the Syrian government.

Since November 2012, CIA operatives and US special operations forces have been secretly providing the militants with training on the use of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons in a secret base in Jordan, according to several reports.

A UK-based NGO, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said earlier that the number of ISIL Takfiri militants fighting against the Syrian government amounts to more than 50,000. Terrorists have managed to recruit 6,000 militants in the past month alone.

The observatory’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said there were at least 20,000 non-Syrians among the terrorists.

NJF/NJF

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