Kazakhstan Detains 2 Nationals for Taking Part in Syrian War

The arrested Kazakh nationals had illegally left Kazakhstan and visited Syria via Turkey. Kazakhstan's National Security Committee announced that it is interrogating the detainees and it will soon publish new information about them, farsnews.com reports.

Earlier this week, Deputy Chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee Nurgali Bilisbekov announced that a large number of Kazakh citizens are fighting in Syria and special investigations are underway to identify them.

In a related development, Kyrgyzstan’s intelligence agency announced last month that a number of Kyrgyz citizens are also taking part in the Syrian war against President Bashar Al-Assad’s government.

Analysts believe that what is presently going on in Syria is directly linked to the future stability and security of the former Soviet Union republics, including Central Asian countries.

The security sources, knowing the fact that hundreds of militants from the former Soviet Union are fighting in Syria, are worried that if the Syrian crisis is resolved most of the armed rebels will return to their countries and they will use their experiences under the management of intelligence agencies of the western and Arabic countries.

Last week, Syria's Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun said more than 3,000 citizens from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are fighting along other foreign-backed militants in Syria.

“Around 2,000 Russian nationals most of them from the North Caucasus region and some 1,300 others from other former Soviet republics are fighting along armed opposition groups in this country,” the Syrian grand mufti said, addressing a ceremony at the Islamic University of Moscow said.

Sheikh Hassoun noted that the Russian militants poured into Syria after the outbreak of the unrest in 2011.

The Syrian government has long been charging that foreign fighters are joining the battle alongside the opposition rebels.

Many foreign nationals, including Russian and Chechen fighters, have been killed in the battle with the Syrian army.

In December 2012, a group of 39 Chechen terrorists left London’s Heathrow airport for Istanbul to sneak into Syria via the Turkish borders and join other terrorist and armed rebel groups in the war on Damascus.

The 39 terrorists were not the first group of Chechens sent to Syria. When armed rebellion against the Damascus government broke out, Chechen terrorists were among the first foreign troops sent to Syria through Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Britain.

All throughout the last century, Chechens who had always been treated like an enemy, or at least a second class citizen, both under Tsarist and Communist Russia mostly left their land for various world countries, specially in the Middle-East.

Chechnya which is a part of Russian territory has declared autonomy despite the opposition of the government in Moscow. The officials of the region who are aware of Moscow's advocacy of the Damascus government now want to attract the attention and support of the western states which provide aid to the terrorists in Syria to topple President Bashar al-Assad's government by sending terrorists to the Arab country.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against the Syrian police, border guards, statesmen, army and civilians being reported across the country.

Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.