Mindestens 30 albanische Salafisten sind seit beginn der Kämpfe in Syrien, gestorben!
[h=1]Another Macedonian Albanian Reported Killed in Syria[/h] Bashkim Bela from Skopje has reportedly been killed while fighting in Syria, increasing the number of Macedonian citizens who have died in the violence there to at least eight.
Sinisa Jakov Marusic
BIRN
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[TD] Syrian rebels |
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Twenty-three-year-old Bela was killed this week while fighting with rebel forces against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Albanian-language media in Macedonia have reported.
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry says it cannot confirm Bela’s death, or the exact number of Macedonian citizens who have lost their lives in Syria.
“It is hard to confirm anything as it [Syria] is a war zone with many contradictory information arriving from there. We continue to urge our citizens to stay out of the conflict zone,” the ministry told Balkan Insight.
Unofficial estimates susggest that Bela was the eighth Macedonian Albanan killed in the Syrian conflict, and according to an Albanian-language news portal from Macedonia, Almakos, at least 30 Albanians from Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Serbia have been killed there so far.
Last week police in southern Kosovo arrested three suspects, all Kosovo Albanians, for allegedly recruiting Albanians to fight in the war in Syria.
In
the operation codenamed “Hit”, the Kosovo police said they confiscated several computers, mobile phone cards, a gas pistol, military uniforms, passports and propaganda material.
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[TD]Bashkim Bela, reportedly been killed in Syria |
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The Syrian conflict, pitting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's government against predominantly Sunni rebels seeking to oust it, began in March 2011.
Experts have suggested that the bulk of Balkan fighters in the Syrian conflict who are fighting on the side of the rebels are being recruited in western Europe and that they are entering the country through Turkey.
Addressing this issue in January, the head of the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia, Sulejman Rexhepi, warned Muslims not to get involved in the sectarian conflict in Syria.
“There is terror going on there between brothers and I do not see what is the point now of helping one side against the other,” the cleric said.
Albanians, who are predominantly Muslim, make up a quarter of Macedonia's population of 2.1 million.
