GROZNY (Sputnik) — More than 400 Chechen volunteers have joined the ranks of Islamic State militants in Syria since the start of a civil war in that country, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry said Monday.
"A total of 405 people, according to our data, have left Chechnya to join the fighting in Syria on the side of the Islamic State since the beginning of the war in that region," the spokesman told RIA Novosti.
"Among those, 104 have been killed and 44 came back, while the fate of the rest is unknown," the official said, adding that 88 criminal cases have been opened against Chechen residents who fought in Syria.
