BAKU (Sputnik) — Around 900 Azerbaijani citizens have joined Daesh (banned in Russia) over the past five years, head of the Azerbaijani State Security Service Madat Guliyev said on Sunday.
"Over the last five years, a certain number of Azerbaijani citizens have believed in the black propaganda and joined Daesh terrorist organization," Guliyev told reporters.
He specified that the total number of Azerbaijani nationals that joined the jihadist group was around 900.
"Of them, 85 were detained by law enforcement agencies and are in prison, 195 were stripped of Azerbaijani citizenship, and the majority of them died in battles," Guliyev added.
"In the area with dense population of Azerbaijanis in Iraq, around 300 Azerbaijanis were killed. Our employees are currently in Iraq and are looking into the credibility of this information," Guliyev told reporters.
The Daesh terrorist group, banned in Russia, has managed to seize large territories in Syria since the start of the civil war in the country in 2011. In 2014, Daesh launched a full scale offensive against Iraq, seizing a number of cities and towns including the second biggest Iraqi city of Mosul.
