An image shows ISIL militants gathering at an undisclosed location in Iraq's Nineveh province.
More than 6,000 new militants joined the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria last month in the militant group's fastest expansion to date, a body monitoring the war said Tuesday.
ISIL, previously estimated to number some 15,000, has seized control of large areas of Syria and Iraq.
Just over a thousand of the new recruits are foreign and the rest Syrian, Rami Abdel-Rahman, founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters. The organization says it gathers data from all sides of the Syrian conflict.
However, earlier reports said that more than 1000 Turkish citizens are fighting under the umbrella of the Takfiri terrorists group fighting in Syria and Iraq.
The Turkish government admits that it is unable to learn the exact number of the Turks engaged in the fight, FNA reported according to Turkish officials.
Turkish media broadcast a few days ago pictures of hundreds of men with long beards in Taliban-style dress gathering for Eid al-Fitr somewhere in Istanbul.
The group was allegedly linked with ISIL, and they dedicated their Eid al-Fitr prayers to ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria.
Moreover, the Human Rights Watch said earlier that the ISIL Takfiri extremists in Iraq and Syria are using children as human shields to carry out their acts of violence. The organization also says that the extremists recruit children to help them in their fight against Iraqi government forces. So far, at least 120 children have been recruited by the ISIL, the Watchdog said.
The Iraqi ministry of human rights has also confirmed that the Takfiri extremists are using children to protect their own interests. The ministry has strongly condemned this.
In one case, the ISIL Takfiri extremists detained ten children in a district in the northern city of Mosul last month. The extremists then roamed the streets and the outskirts of the city, while putting the children in cars, in an effort to prevent any response from the Iraqi armed forces.
The atrocities committed by the ISIL terrorists amount to crimes against humanity, with many humanitarian organizations slamming those acts. Yet the Takfiri group is going ahead with its measures, as it continues to receive funds and arms from its foreign backers.
NJF/NJF
