BISHKEK -- One hundred fifty Kyrgyz insurgents have been killed fighting in Syria since the war broke out there in 2011, a State National Security Committee (GKNB) official told a member of parliament Thursday (June 28), Kaktus Media reported.
Aisuluu Mamashova, a member of parliament from the Ata Meken Party, asked Kanajarbek Bokayev, deputy director of the GKNB Anti-Terrorism Centre, how many citizens of Issyk-Kul Province have joined the insurgency in Syria.
The government has statistics for all of Kyrgyzstan, replied Bokayev, saying that presently 850 Kyrgyz are thought to have gone and stayed in Syria. "Among them, 150 are considered dead," he said, adding, "We investigate every case and make a legal decision [on each one]."
In 2017, the Kyrgyz government estimated the number of Kyrgyz in Syria to be more than 600.
