By Alissa de Carbonnel NOVOSASITLI, Russia (Reuters) – A scrawny 15-year-old this summer became the first from his deeply religious Muslim village in Russia's southern Dagestan province to die fighting alongside rebels in Syria. Some regard him as a martyr for joining the rebels in the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is supported by Russia. Moscow now fears that hundreds of Russian-born militants it says are fighting in Syria will return experienced in warfare to join an insurgency in Dagestan and its other North Caucasus provinces by militants fighting for an Islamic state. Fifteen men from Novosasitli alone have died in shootouts with Russian forces in the last four years, locals say.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-russia-fears-return-fighters-waging-jihad-syria-064335667.html

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 14th, 2013 at 1:43 am and is filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.