Moscow reports deaths of 160 Russian Islamic State fighters in Syria

DPA International ^ | November 19th, 2015 | By dpa correspondents

[Mariner]

Moscow/Beirut (dpa) - One hundred and sixty Russian citizens fighting for the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria have been killed, a Russian deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, amid stepped-up international military action in the war-torn country.

"At the present time, there are more than 25,000 foreign terrorist militants fighting under the banner of Islamic State, including from Arab countries, Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States [a bloc of post-Soviet republics]," Oleg Syromolotov said, quoted by state news agency TASS.

He added that 2,719 Russian citizens had gone to fight for the Islamist militia in Syria. "One hundred and sixty of them have been killed, 73 of them have returned and faced justice, and another 36 have been arrested."

[xone]

.these soldiers are a loss to Russia

[caww]

‘ALL’ soldiers fighting these Isis beasts and sacrificing their life to take them out are a loss....be it to Russia, the US, or any of the nations fighting these evil sadistic creatures in Syria and Iraq.

If one Russian soldier kills one Isis fighter planning and hoping for opportunity to kill Americans, and they surely do, then I will indeed be grateful to that Russian soldier for taking him out.....AND if he’s killed trying to do so I will see it as a loss....not just to the Russian families and people. Obama certainly isn’t getting the job done!!

[xone]

My post didn’t come through, the 160 referenced in the story are Russian Jihadis

[gleeaikin]

I Googled “number of Europeans fighting with ISIL.” Here is a link which breaks it down by countries as of late 2014. Based on this and headlines of other stories that came up I would estimate the figure might be 6,000 to 15,000. I imagine that Gateway Pundit likes big numbers to scare us with, but don’t know how accurate they are in an uncertain counting environment.

[gleeaikin]

Ops, forgot the link. Time for bed.

http://www.euronews.com/2015/01/29/european-fighters-in-iraq-and-syria-double-in-a-year/

[dp0622]

where did that kooky number 50k come from? sounded like a lot,

[gleeaikin]

That “kooky number 50k” came from the link you sent me at Comment #40, Gateway Pundit. Where GP got it I haven’t a clue. If you thought it was a kooky number, I wonder why you sent it out?

[dp0622]

hmmm..that’s so deep and mysterious i cant tell you!!!

because I thought GP was a legitimate paper.

go away

[dp0622]

by the way, I didn’t REMEMBER where i saw it so i typed in 50000 and Europe.

are you freaking kidding me???

you sent to all???

[dp0622]

btw, in your mind tell me what i could POSSIBLY gain by saying 50 thousand compared to 5000?

i cant wait for this one.

[gleeaikin]

I see you are relatively new to FR. Typing ALL does NOT mean it gets sent to all ping lists. Only the ping lists of actual names get the messages.

[dp0622]

I can’t sleep.

We got off to a wrong start.

It’s good to meet you.

I HONESTLY just thought that website was legit because it was on FR. Never hear of it before that.

I said 50000 was a kooky number because I was embarrassed about being so far off :)

Please accept my apologies if I offended FRiend.

[dp0622]

Now I read your profile and want to crawl into a deep hole!

You must be very proud of the people in your life.

[gleeaikin]

Yes I am proud, and am glad you were open minded enough to check out my profile, etc. etc. Are you aware that if you put your pointer on the name of the person posting a comment that the date of their joining FR will magically appear.