1 Armenian, 107 Azeri citizens joined IS in 2013-14: analysis

PanARMENIAN.Net - 1 Armenian citizen was among the estimated 15,000 new recruits who joined the Islamic State during 2013 and 2014, a report from the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) said.

According to the fighter records by residence response, however, none of the new recruits resided in Armenia.

Besides, 107 citizens of Azerbaijan, 212 citizens of Turkey, 10 from Iran and 2 Georgian citizens have joined the jihadist group in the reporting period.

Analysis of a windfall of data from inside Islamic State shows fighters of more than 70 nationalities joined the ruthless jihadist group, researchers said after examining thousands of records, AFP reports.

The treasure trove came from an IS defector who handed over some 11,000 personnel files to U.S. television network NBC, although more than half were found to be duplicates.

NBC then passed 4,600 of the documents to the CTC, which is based at West Point but independent from the U.S. military academy.

The CTC said that by comparing the documents it received from NBC against similar IS personnel records maintained by the U.S. Defense Department, it was able to corroborate "approximately 98 percent" of them.

The forms, completed by recruits in Arabic and often including notes from the assessors, refer to around 30 percent of the estimated 15,000 new recruits who entered Syria during 2013 and 2014.

The analysis provided not only a composite picture of the fighters but also an insight into how IS is "attempting to vet new members, manage talent effectively... and deal with a diverse pool of recruits," said the report, which is available on the CTC website.

The recruits ranged in age from 12 to nearly 70, although the average age was 26 or 27, AFP says.

Only 400 were under 18 upon entering the self-declared IS "caliphate."

The leading nationality with 579 new fighters, was Saudi, followed by Tunisian (559), Moroccan (240), Turkish (212), Egyptian (151) and Russian (141).

There were 49 from France, 38 from Germany, 30 from Lebanon, 26 from Britain, 11 from Australia and seven from Canada, but none from the United States.

Thirty percent said they were married, while 61 percent were single, with another eight percent unknown.

"The group seems overall to be generally well-educated, especially when compared to United Nations data on the average years of schooling in the countries in the dataset," the report said.