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Some 700 Tunisian women in terrorist ranks in Syria: Minister

Friday, 04 December 2015 10:19 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 04 December 2015 11:17 PM ]

This file photo shows the female members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in an undisclosed location.

Some 700 Tunisian women have traveled to Syria to join the ranks of Daesh and other terrorist groups operating in the Arab country, a Tunisian minister says.

"Today there are 700 [Tunisian] women in Syria,” Tunisian Minister for Women Samira Merai told parliament on Friday, without elaborating on what they were doing in Syria, AFP reported.

In September 2013, Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou told members of the National Constituent Assembly that Tunisian women had been working as sex partners for militants in Syria.

The minister also stated that the women had had sexual relations with as many as 100 militants and had returned home pregnant. “After the sexual liaisons they have there... they come home pregnant.”

In July, a UN expert announced that almost 5,500 Tunisians had joined the ranks of terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

"The number of Tunisian foreign fighters is one of the highest among those traveling to join conflicts abroad such as in Syria and Iraq," said Elzbieta Karska, the head of a UN working group on the use of mercenaries.

"Sophisticated travel networks operate to take recruits across the porous borders, and sometimes through areas where trafficking in people and illicit goods may not be effectively controlled," she added, noting, "Testimony has documented that the routes taken entail travel through Libya, then Turkey and its border at Antakya, and then Syria."

On September 26, The New York Times quoted US intelligence and law enforcement officials as saying that some 30,000 militants from over 100 countries, including more than 250 Americans, had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of Takfiri terrorist groups operating in the two countries.

Daesh extremists currently control parts of Syria, Iraq, and Libya. They have carried out atrocious crimes in the countries, including mass executions and beheading of people.

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