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‘Around 300 Chinese soldiers fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria’

China has expressed concern about the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, nervous about the effect it could have on its Xinjiang region. But it has also shown no sign of wanting to join US efforts to use military force against the group.

Chinese members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement are travelling to Syria via Turkey to join the ISIS, the Global Times, a tabloid run by China’s ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said.

“According to information from sources, including security officers from Iraq’s Kurdish region, Syria and Lebanon, around 300 Chinese extremists are fighting with IS in Iraq and Syria,” the Global Times reported.

Chinese officials blame the ETIM for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people. But the government has been vague about how many people from China are fighting in the Middle East.

In July, China’s envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, cited media reports when he said about 100 Chinese citizens, most of them from the ETIM, were in the Middle East fighting or being trained.

China says ETIM militants are also holed up along the ungoverned Afghan-Pakistani border and want to create a separate state in Xinjiang, though many foreign experts doubt the group’s cohesiveness.
Instead, human rights advocates argue that economic marginalization of Uighurs and curbs on their culture and religion are main causes of ethnic violence in Xinjiang that has killed hundreds of people in the past two years.

ISIS releases pictures of mass execution

The ISIS group on Monday released pictures of the execution of 13 men described as anti-jihadist Sunni tribal fighters near the northern city of Tikrit. Three pictures published on a jihadist forum and pro-IS social media accounts show the execution of the men wearing orange jumpsuits. Local residents confirmed to AFP that a mass execution had taken place on a large roundabout six kilometres (four miles) east of the city of Tikrit at around 3:30 pm (1230 GMT). The first picture shows 11 men kneeling, heads bowed, with one black-clad and masked gunman behind each one and black IS flags in the background. Residents said the roundabout is at an intersection for roads leading to Tikrit, Kirkuk and the town of Al-Alam. They said the men who were executed were members of an anti-IS group of Sunni tribal fighters known as the Knights of Al-Alam.
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